The radio and television host pundit posted what he would have said next Sunday at Dickinson’s graduation ceremony. As you may recall, Dickinson canceled his speech. Get up to speed here.
Here is a taste of Smerconish’s speech:
First, congratulations. COVID robbed you of pomp and circumstance when you were in high school… and now the tumult of college campus protests has denied some of an orderly graduation ceremony.
Your experience is itself a confirmation of the complex world you’re entering. We’re post-pandemic… All you’ve ever known is a climate of political dysfunction. Our economy is beset by inflation, and the cost of your education is staggering. Climate change poses an existential threat. War rages in the Middle East.
And whether the benefits of artificial intelligence outweigh the potential harm is subject to robust debate. That’s a lot. And still, none are the most important challenge we face as Americans. Instead, it’s fraying our national fabric. We’ve been told so often that our differences define us that we are starting to act like it.
And we can’t count on politicians to provide us with the necessary leadership. They’re a large part of the problem. Like media influencers, the status quo is well suited to their self-preservation, not ours. This polarization has been building for a while but made worse by that which is oddly often labeled “connectivity.”
Instead, technology has disconnected us. Don’t get me wrong, like you, I’m dependent upon Google, Uber, Waze, and Open Table. But we’re spending too much time staging our lives for digital sharing without experiencing them shoulder-to-shoulder in real time.
Read the rest here.
UPDATE: Smerconish just read some of his speech on his CNN Saturday morning show.