As a graduate of this high school over 50 years ago, I was asked to give this year's commencement address. It is a special honor to have been asked and to have graduated form this same high school. The teachers who I knew and looked up to are all gone now and many things have changed, but one thing has not. This high school and you graduating students are the final product of the life long work of your parents and many other unnamed people who make up this community. You are what we all have worked so hard for. Now, I don't want to make you feel guilty or anything like, but you are all children of this community and you need to recognize that.
I am not going to stand up here and cheer lead you or anything like that, but what I am going to do is tell you one of my favorite jokes. That's right a joke.
Seems there were these two young people from this high school who were out fishing and when they came around a bend in the river they saw a mad mother Black Bear facing them. The first kid turned to the other and asked, "what should we do?", when he noticed his friend down tieing his shoe laces tighter. He then asked, "Why are you doing that? That Black Bear can run faster than we can." His friend then said, "I don't have to out run the Bear, I only have to out run you." That is my simple lesson to you at this most important time in your lives.
I know that you studied all kinds of subjects in the past 12 or 13 years and can now look back at those dark ages when most of the world thought that the world was flat and the Earth was the center of the universe at a very different time. You all know now that the Earth is round and not flat, right? I am here to tell you that many things that you have learned in the past and will learn in the future may "not" be true. The world is "flat" and it is getting "flatter". When I gradated from this high school and when many of your parents did too, the world was still round. Like the joke about the Bear, when I graduated, I only had to run faster than my friend from down the block. That has all changed now because the Earth has become "flatter". You will have to run faster than kids of your same age from all around the world, not just down the block. I can tell you that you will have to run a lot faster than I did just to stay even.
Like any race, if you give an average person a small head start in a race then you will have to run a lot faster than them to ever catch up. If you did not take full advantage of the opportunity that this community offered you for the past 12 or 13 years, then you have giving some kid half way around the world a head start. As I said, you are going to have to run much faster from now on to ever catch up. If you did not know it, someone should have told you that the race started your first day in school and it will never end.
When I sat where you are today, I was excited as you must be. I was excited about the many important things that I had learned right here. I remember building a Wilson Cloud Chamber and it was not to study rain. We also built a Tesla Coil. If we had followed Thomas Edison you would not have electricity in your homes today. It was fortunate that we followed Tesla. Some of you may still think that Tesla is an electric car. I can assure you that your learning has not ended. It has just started and if you keep your eyes open, you will still be as excited about learning over 50 years from now as you should be today. Life is exciting and continued learning is an important part of that excitement. The race will be exciting. I am sorry that I will not be able to join you. The future is now in your hands.
In summary, enjoy this special occasion with family and friends because some day, many of your kids will be graduating from this same high school, our high school and this community's high school. As parents, which many of you will be, we want what is best for our children and know that one of the most important things that we can do for them is for this high school and our community to help us prepare you and your kids for their rapidly changing future.
Good luck and God bless.
