Unsurprisingly, the zoo descended on Towson University, which was where the graduation ceremony was to be. Nobody normally cares who speaks at a high school graduation. Some local county politician gets to say something that nobody listens to, especially the kids. They are so excited to be escaping they are half out of control to begin with! Not a one of them, my own daughters included, would give two shits about what I said. Again, normally the only cameras are the ones the parents carry. For this one, C-SPAN would cover it live. It would be a fucking zoo!
Matt Scully and Mike Gerson took one look at my old valedictory speech and both dropped it into the toilet. It wasn't Presidential enough. Instead they came up with something incredibly boring and standard, something like what the assistant county commissioner would normally tell the graduates. I dropped that into the toilet. Then I sat up one night drinking Canadian Mist and wrote out something completely different.
"Congratulations, graduates! You have all managed to make it through 12 years of schooling and become high school graduates. Some of you did it in more than twelve years, and some did it in less, but in any case, you made it. Congratulations! Let's get a round of applause!"
I knew there would be a dutiful round of applause, and then I would have a chance to speak some more. They would not be expecting what I was about to tell them.
"Well, that's out of the way, anyways. Now, it is time for me to tell you how wonderful the future will be, and how you are all prepared to march bravely into that future. That has to be true, right? All your lives people have been telling you how exceptional you are, so you must all be ready to go and conquer the world, right?
Guess what? You're not all that special! Here's another thing to think about. Nobody cares about you, either. I'll bet that sounds incredibly harsh and brutal. I'll also bet that nobody has once told you anything like this. Let me explain what I mean.
The world is a harsh and brutal place. Up until this point, you have been treated as children. You have been coddled and fed and hopefully taught something that will be useful to you. That time is over! You are now eighteen, or will be soon. You are now adults, and you had better start acting like it. I am not trying to be mean or nasty or rude, but that is simply the truth.
What do I mean by this? Let me give you a few examples. A bunch of you are going to be going on to college this fall. If you think it will be Grade 13, you are vastly mistaken! If you don't go to class, nobody is going to call home to Mommy and Daddy to let them know. If you don't turn in your homework assignments, or you flunk your tests, nobody is going to send you to the Principal's office or to the Guidance Counselor. Guess what, they don't care! They have already been paid! They are going to flunk you out and send you packing!
Some of you will be going into the service. Let me tell you, sergeants and petty officers will have even less patience than the teachers in college! You want to goof off and act up and screw around; they will bounce you out so fast your head will spin. The same is true if you plan to go to work for a company out in the civilian world. It's easy to get fired if you don't act sharp.
If you think the world owes you something, guess again. The world does not owe you anything. The world does not give a tinker's damn about you!
Just because somebody has told you that you are exceptional doesn't make it so. However, that doesn't mean you can't be exceptional. You simply have to always remember that if you want to be exceptional, you have to become exceptional! Guess what?! You have an incredible opportunity to become exceptional. You simply have to rise to it. It won't be handed to you. You have to go out and get it on your own.
I went to high school right here in this town."
At this I knew I would get some groans or catcalls. Towson High and Hereford High were longtime rivals.
"Yes, that's right. If you didn't know, I went to Towson High. If you think I was exceptional or special, think again. I was a mouthy and troublesome kid who was too smart for his own good and who had a tendency to get into fights. My parents threw me out when I was 16 and told me I was on my own. It would have been very easy to blow my money and then spend the rest of my life washing cars or mopping floors or asking people 'You want fries with that?' Instead, I demanded that I become exceptional. I finished high school and put myself through college. I went into the Army, and then business, and then politics. I wasn't exceptional, but I became exceptional!
Nothing was handed to me, and nothing will be handed to you! You have incredible opportunities right now. It is all up to you now! If you think you can coast, forget it! The world has no patience for people who coast along. The world can pass you by, or you can pass the world by, and drag it with you! It is all in your hands now! We can't do it for you! Do not accept anything less than becoming exceptional! Thank you"
Did it have any effect on the kids? No idea. I was the President of the United States, which was pretty damn unusual, so maybe some of them listened. Their parents didn't look amused, but I really didn't care. If I had once thought that the baby boomers like me had been coddled, we looked like hardy explorers of the frontier next to this bunch! I also knew the commentators would have a field day with this, but I didn't care about that, either. My remarks would end up on the national news, and probably the Sunday news shows as well. Maybe somebody might wake up who wouldn't otherwise.
As a graduation present, we sent the twins and a bunch of their friends (all female) on the G-IV to Hougomont for a week. Charlie made a wry complaint that he hadn't been able to do that when he graduated, and I replied that the press hadn't been staking out the house he and the football team had been stacking beer cans in. At least at Hougomont the girls could have some privacy. He laughed at that.
Saturday, June 1, was the date when West Point would be graduating the newest bunch of Second Lieutenants, including one Roscoe Buckminster. George was originally scheduled to speak, but now I had the job, and John McCain got to speak in my place at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Somehow that seemed right. John had graduated from Annapolis, and I was a soldier, so I knew about West Point, even if I didn't attend. We would be switching off next year. Usually the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Adviser would rotate through Annapolis, West Point, Colorado Springs, Kings Point, and New London. Last year I was supposed to speak at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and then was sent to Uruguay at the last minute. The Secretary of the Air Force spoke instead.
Service academy speeches fall into the category of 'policy' speeches. Serious people were attending, and serious things had to be said. This was different than a campaign speech, for instance, where you made a million grandiose promises and said nothing of actual import. Since you are dealing with the nation's military, it is generally considered the time to say something about foreign policy and military policy. As this was the first graduating class since 9-11, there was no doubt about what people were expecting. I had to say something about fighting terrorism.
On the other hand, it is generally a good idea to be careful with foreign policy speeches. A major temptation is to overreach. One thing which almost always backfired on you was to explicitly name an enemy. 'Evil empire' and 'axis of evil' gets you nothing but grief in the long run. Sooner or later you are going to have to deal with these assholes. They generally have long memories and will remember your comments. Almost always they will use your words to ramp up public sentiment and popularity back home by labeling you as even more evil ('The Great Satan' comes to mind.) Just as bad, when you do have to make nice and start dealing with them, your own supporters, on whichever side they might be, will take issue with you, using your own words to damn you.