ASUnited (Arizona State University Weblog)

President Barack Obama came to Arizona this week under some very interesting circumstances. If you read the previous post on our blog or if you’ve been following the situation at all, you know about the contriversy surrounding ASU’s not giving Pres. Obama the coveted “honorary degree” and instead opting to name a scholarship after him due to his “lack of achievement” thus far in his presidency. Once wouldn’t blame Obama for being somewhat taken back by the whole thing, but fortunately he rose above it like I would expect someone in his position to do.

The President started off his commencement speech by joking about the incident and actually used it as the basis surrounding his entire speech. He stated that he and Michelle (his wife) both agree that he hasn’t achieved enough thus far and that she had a “long” list of things he needs to get done waiting for him when he gets back to Washington. Like most good speakers, he started with the humor and used it to set up the delivery of his message which was that we all need to go forth with the attitude that each of us has not accomplished enough in our lives to this point. We need to use that as motivation to achieve higher and higher hieghts.

It’s great to get a degree, but that is not the end. Just because you can hang a diploma on your wall doesn’t mean you stop working. This is part of the reason that we as a nation and our economy are in the mess that we’re in right now. As we attain a status, we oftentimes think that the world suddenly owes us something and we stop working. This is how companies fail and it’s how progress is halted and downfall and destruction comes in its place.

President Obama encouraged the students to keep moving forward and not focus so much on gaining power, prestige, or titles. It was his point to search after the career that you would enjoy and that you could excel the most at. By excelling in our various careers we can all start to play a small role and a large role collectively in rebuilding some of the great foundations that have been established in our great nation.

I enjoyed the President’s speech and for the most part agreed with what he had to say. You may have your own opinions in regards to him or even his speech given here at our great university’s commencement night. I too have my own opinions about him as a president as well as his moral and political views. However, putting those opinions aside and looking specifically at his message at this event I was definitely impressed. I was not able to attend the event held at the stadium as I was watching our beloved AZ Diamondbacks team get swept by the visiting Cincinatti Reds (It looks like it’s going to be a loooong season), but after watching the speech I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with it.