Posted on 05/20/2002 5:44:33 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Edited on 05/07/2004 8:00:49 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
James Earl Jones speaks to Ithaca College graduates at Saturday's commencement ceremonies.
'The degree you achieve today is not a handout,' he reminded the Class of 2002. 'It is a contract.'
Jones told graduates that with their rights to speak freely, bear arms, do business and be educated come responsibilities to speak the truth, value human life, and ensure that all have a place in the world of business and have access to a quality education.
(Excerpt) Read more at theithacajournal.com ...
I've heard that Jones is a conservative. This article seems to be another clue that he is.
As an aside, the liberal Ithaca (City of Evil) College professors must have felt their brains start to melt down when a commencement speaker, and a black man at that, spoke approvingly of the right to bear arms.
I have always held James Earl Jones in high esteem!
We can hope his messages did sink into a few young minds that may not be all mush, ie. filled with liberal crap!
Sorry, that's my best visualization of Vader's breathing.
"I offer you one bit of advice on this most auspicious and joyous of occasions," Jones told the 1,327 graduates and their guests. "Let the force be with you."
The "force" of Jones's speech had nothing to do with the "Stars Wars" films-for which he provides the voice of Darth Vader-but with the power of the graduates' dreams.
"The question is, do you have a dream, and did you have the dream before you came to Ithaca?" Jones asked. "Did that dream compel you to come to Ithaca College, or has Ithaca College compelled you to your dream, or to the shocking awareness that you don't have one? Well, don't worry. You can negotiate, because we are a people of big dreamers and high achievers, and here in this place and with these dreams is where it all begins. So let us dream, let us hope and pray, let us reinvent ourselves every morning."
We are nothing as a people, Jones added, if we don't fashion our dreams into realities. And he reminded the graduates that the day's ceremony was a celebration of potential.
"We celebrate today the commencement of these students ... who have overcome economic hardship or the hardship of prosperity, overcome cultural differences or cultural bankruptcy, overcome the disadvantages of homes and neighborhoods unsuitable for human habitation or homes and neighborhoods stifling in their socialization, students who have traveled hundreds of different paths to come to this place to take a first step in making their contribution to what America is becoming."
After that first step, however, must come many more.
"Every successive step will have to be as sure and as able, and each successive step may not be accompanied by a big party full of people telling you how wonderful you are," said Jones.
"You'll have to focus your worthiness into yourself, into your consciousness, very quickly, because you'll have to be reminding yourself of it by yourself, often, as you continue down this path. The degree you achieve today is not a handout, it is a contract. None of us, no matter our age, history, or condition, had anything handed to us. We have to do it ourselves, and God only knows what we can, each of us, do for ourselves."
Ithaca is the City of Evil.
Wow, someone telling college kids to take responsibility. Did anyone in the audience have a heart attack?
James Earl Jones
Actor
"The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will loose." -James Earl Jones
can mush melt down? LOL! Seriously, I was surprised that Ithaca would invite a potentially card-carrying NRA member.....maybe even a conservative person!.....to speak.
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