Fair Minded Words

This weekend, our president's wife had a little easier gig than her husband. Both were givng commencement addresses. Hers was at the University of California at Merced. His was at Notre Dame. She was addressing the very first graduating class. He was speaking to the one hundred and sixty-third. She walked into a small-town love-fest. His crowd was a little tougher.
"Remember that you are blessed," Michelle told the crowd on the west coast. "You must bend down and let someone stand on your shoulders so they can see a better future." She reminded them that, like half of the student body at this four-year-old campus, she was the first in her family to attend college. "We are going to need all of you graduates," Missus Obama said. "Make your legacy a lasting one. Dream big." And the audience went wild.
Out in South Bend, things were a little more tempestuous. The President of the United States was only a few moments into his prepared remarks before he was interrupted by anti-abortion protesters. The stretch of logic that connects a commencement address to one's view on abortion is a wide one, on a par with Arizona State University choosing not to bestow an honorary degree on the President Obama because "body of work is yet to come, it’s inappropriate to recognize him at this time." To that end, Mister Obama seemed to be coping with his disappointment: "And I also want to thank you for the honorary degree that I received. I know it has not been without controversy. I dont know if youre aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by. So far I'm only one for two as President."
He gave words of encouragment and praise, and then addressed the controversy that almost kept him from coming to Notre Dame to speak. "Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions." He continued, "Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words." Congratulations to Notre Dame's Class of 2009 for having the hearts and minds that would invite those words to their commencement. And congratulations to the graduates of UC Merced as well, for giving "first-timer" Michelle a chance to inspire them. Real life awaits.