Koppel Speaks on Campus
For those interested, you can read a copy of the Commencement Address by ABC's Ted Koppel. Here are some of the more interesting parts:

The truth of it is that some of you were harboring uncharitable thoughts from the first moment you saw me. Some of you were thinking: "He's a lot shorter than I thought he was." While others among you are still trying to figure out if this is my real hair. Think about it. You're smart people. If it weren't real, don't you think I could afford to buy a better-looking rug than this?
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Graduating classes, on occasions like these, are accustomed to hearing that you are remarkable … extraordinary; that the world, indeed, has never seen you like before. Horse manure! I am much more impressed by those among your parents and grandparents who risked their lives fleeing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as boat-people; who, while speaking barely any English at all, worked at whatever jobs they could get to sustain and support you. They are the ones who maintained the discipline that kept you out of trouble and forced you to study.

My quotations aside, it really is a rather good speech, with its primary focus the war on Iraq and the challenges faced by our generation. I would encourage each of you to read it.

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