Miscellaneous

Graduation Day: Clarence, Sandra, and Bianca

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Inviting Justice Thomas to give a commencement address seems about as good of an idea as inviting Marcel Marceau to a Toastmasters meeting.

The Sunday NYT, which we've only just now had a chance to glance at, devotes an entire page to Commencement Addresses by Famous People.

The wisdom of this practice we leave to the schools and students themselves. Chicago, for one, never invites commencement speakers or gives honorary degrees to get the school's name in the paper. Rather, they look around campus, decide they have some bright, engaging, speakers in their own neighborhood, and march right into Rockefeller Chapel.

But one can learn so much about these celebrity speakers themselves from the speeches they give. They surprise and inspire in various ways.

Just what does Bianca Jagger, humanitarian and star of CHUD 2: Bud the CHUD, have to tell the wet-behind-the-ears? "Life was not easy for a working and divorced woman who had to support three children in the Nicaragua of the '60s."

As for Justice Thomas, he claimed he had "no intention of cluttering up your graduation ceremony with ruminations about law, grievances or ephemeral commands on you to solve the world's problems."

Avid SCOTUS-watchers might have guessed that he would have stopped there and let everyone go drink champagne. But no, he continued: "As those of us who take responsibility for our lives, and don't blame others, know only so well, life has a way of humbling, if not humiliating us."

Former Justice O'Connor spoke to Gettysburg College grads about her experience setting up her own firm. Unlike many who dream about hanging out a shingle, she had no choice; the only jobs offered to her were secretarial. Who knew she'd earn so much street cred from the experience?

"Other people who had offices in the small shopping mall [where her practice was located] repaired TVs, cleaned clothes or sold groceries. It was not a high rent district. I got walk-in business. People came to see me about grocery bills they couldn't collect, landlord-tenant problems and other every day matters not usually considered by the United States Supreme Court. But I always did the very best I could with what I had. I learned about how the law affects the average citizen, and how a lawyer can help solve day-to-day problems."

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on June 16, 2008 (boomark / email).