(Don't worry, the audio is of higher quality than the photo!)
Posted on 05/20/2007 4:23:04 PM PDT by CheyennePress
http://www.regent.edu/events/commencement/2007/video_high.cfm
The clip of Mitt begins at 29:00. It's an excellent, well-delivered speech, even moving. Much better than a lecture on the Palestinian rights I received at mine. Some excerpts:
"You know, I don't remember when it was exactly when I went beyond the sandbar. My family had a cottage on the shores of one of the Great Lakes. For the first 40 feet or so, the lake is shallow, warm, and protected from the big waves by a sandbar. That's where I spent most of the hot summer days as a boy. I liked it there. One day, my brother got me up on water skis. Perhaps fearing that a turn would cause me to fall, he drove the boat – and me – straight out into the deep. By the way, the lake is over 100 miles wide. I screamed the whole terrifying ride. But ever after, the deep water is where I wanted to be – body surfing in the breakers, water skiing, diving. Oh yes, the water wasn't as warm and calm, but it was clean and powerful and invigorating. I got out of the shallow water for good.
"Over the years, I have watched a number of people live out their lives in shallow water.
"In the shallows, life is all about yourself – your job, your money, your rights, your needs, your ideas, your comforts.
"In the deeper waters, life is about others – spouse, family, friends, faith, community, country. In the deep waters, there are challenging ideas, opposing opinions, protracted battles of consequence."
"You are, of course, giving a great deal of thought to your career. The economic environment may be more turbulent and competitive than my generation has known. Some of you will be tempted to stay near shore, where there are no big breakers and where you will never make any waves. Others will push beyond the sandbar, pursuing new frontiers, exploring new ideas, driving to achieve, to learn, to influence, to contribute.
"That, of course, is the heritage of this land. The people who came to Jamestown 400 years ago may not have all been saints. But they were all pioneers. They crossed the broadest waters and dreamed the grandest dreams. Their spirit is the American spirit. It is why America surpassed our native England to become the world's most powerful nation. And it is the heart and spirit of the American people that make this country the hope of the world. Great people have made a great nation."
"If there ever was a time for great Americans, great and good Americans, Americans who are willing to cross into the deep waters of life, it is now.
"You cross into the deep waters by marrying and raising good children. There is no work more important to America's future that the work that is done within the four walls of the American home.
"You cross into the deep waters by driving yourself in your education and in your avocation beyond the safe and comfortable, to reach new insights, to make contributions, to serve.
"You cross into the deep waters by serving in your church, in your community, in the military, in government or in volunteer service.
"I am optimistic about the future of America because I have seen the spirit and heart of the American people."
I liked it, it was encouraging and a positive message.
Um is this the one where he got French marriage laws and science fiction mixed up?
LOL
I guess I’m hearing a Mormon version of compassionate conservatism. He could mean well, but with his past of supporting gay rights, abortion rights, and gun control, he’s going to have to swim out into the deep water a little further and show us he can really swim. Ron Paul is looking better and better to me.
I've listened to the entire speech two times and agree with David Brody when he remarked, "Romney has consistently talked about hope and optimism. He did it during the GOP debate and he did it again Saturday at Regent. It may be a speech that is remembered for a long time."
bttt
I disagree.
You might not be irritated and offended if Michael Moore was selected to speak at your graduation ceremony, but I would be livid. A graduation ceremony is not a platform for someone to give a political viewpoint.
It is an occasion for someone with a specific life experience (the speaker) to celebrate the day for all of the participants, regardless of their political leanings.
I think that can be done without a poltical soapbox.
He spoke quite concretely and specifically about the importance of the traditional family. Hardly meaningless drivel.
You are making my point. Leftists politicize everything and even under our beloved GWB, the country is drifting left. It’s time for Conservatives to get Reagan-specific whenever the cameras are on; you are living in a dream world if you don’t think college graduations are about politics.
Mormon "compassionate conservatism" is about rolling up one's sleeves and working hard. It sympathizes personal responsibility, sacrifice, and self-reliance.
Ronald Reagan marveled at the LDS Church's welfare system and promoted it as THE model for how to keep people from becoming dependent on others and helping them to improve their lives so they, in turn, can assist others in the same way.
It's about as far as one can get from "compassionate" nanny statism.
If you're sneering at it, bear in mind that you are sneering at and belittling Reagan's high regard for it.
I’ll give him some credit for taking a brief brush at the nature of family life. (He got as close as he could for a guy who once pandered shamelessly to the homo lobby.)
No, I think you misunderstand my point.
I stated what graduation ceremonies SHOULD be, not what they often ARE.
If the perspective helps, Ann Coulter is my favorite political commentator...:)
I have a brother who is about to leave the church because the church is NOT what it was; his ward is full of unwed mothers. Don’t talk to me about what Reagan once observed, because he’s gone and the Mormon church is hosting UN confabs. Your intelligence is old.
>>Romney left everyone free to make up their own definition of what he means by the “deep water.”<<
That’s an idea I find completely offbase. Romney did reveal exactly what he meant by deep water. And it was a devotion of one’s self to one’s spouse, children, God, and serving one’s fellow man. To bigger things than money, success, or career. To seeing a child as the greatest responsibility and duty one will ever take upon one’s shoulders.
Politics pale in comparison, and politics will not solve problems within the family for the most part. They can only exacerbate them.
There’s nothing meaningless in devoting yourself to that pursuit. In fact, I think far too many are too focused on meaningless drivel and lose sight of the big picture along the way. Silent dinnertables are the direct result of this—a failure of devotion, askance priorities.
I guess that depends on where you are. Most of the Mormons that I know:
1) do a remarkable job of abstaining from alcohol and coffee
2) marry early, stay married, and have kids after marriage. Multiple kids.
3) are overachievers in everyway. As an example, there were more kids in UVA Law from BYU than Columbia, Darmouth, or Penn.
Mormons rarely fail to impress me. Perhaps my limited experience, but I can’t name a higher-achieving segment of our population.
This is a POLICY year. Conservatives expect to hear Reaganesque formulations defining the nature—in detail—as to how we tread the deep water. Obviously, devotion to family is a basic, but there are voters out there who want to know if Romney really means to tread the deep water by FIGHTING for the life of the unborn, by restoring our republic, by reducing taxes. John Adams swam the deep water and left Abigail to tend six children during the summer of the 2nd Continental Congress. Was he less a family man because he cared about the life of the republic? This rather obvious homily of Romney’s doesn’t tell us very much about what kind of life guard he would be, what kind of father he would be to the American family. It’s touching—but it’s the expected “what a fine man” speech. Bill Clinton could have given it.
I don’t disagree, generally, but if you are as close to the Mormon church as I am (through relatives) you know the church has not been “holding the line,” and Hinkley has done more to disengage mormon political leaders from their core beliefs than any of his predecessors. Romney claims he came late to the “abortion is wrong,” conclusion, but—listem to me carefully—he would have had to wilfully ignore the teachings of his own church the entire time he was pandering to the gay and abort lobby. This guy is an opportunist.
True, the ugly trend of more Divorce is affecting mormons also. It was specificallly addressed this April (and over the last few years) by Apostle Dallin Oaks.
Church leaders address Divorce
Elder Dallin H. Oaks Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
A good marriage does not require a perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection.
I have felt impressed to speak about divorce. This is a sensitive subject because it evokes such strong emotions from persons it has touched in different ways. Some see themselves or their loved ones as the victims of divorce. Others see themselves as its beneficiaries. Some see divorce as evidence of failure. Others consider it an essential escape hatch from marriage. In one way or another, divorce touches most families in the Church. Whatever your perspective, please listen as I try to speak plainly about the effects of divorce on the eternal family relationships we seek under the gospel plan. I speak out of concern, but with hope.
I. We live in a world in which the whole concept of marriage is in peril and where divorce is commonplace.
The concept that society has a strong interest in preserving marriages for the common good as well as the good of the couple and their children has been replaced for many by the idea that marriage is only a private relationship between consenting adults, terminable at the will of either.........
Preaching like that apparently didn’t effect Mitt when he pandered to the gay lobby, and that’s the problem—Mormons don’t think their own, largely Protestant work ethic is good enough to govern America. They’ll go to the Celelestial kingdom and everyone else will be servants in the terrestial or telestial heavens. I don’t want to America patronized by a President who thinks the rest of the world is a gentile. The speech was pure fluff in a world demanding answers.
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