The Issue: Secretary Rice to give commencement speech What we think: Embrace uniqueness, ignore politics
Jim Lehrer. Anderson Cooper. Jodie Foster. Tom Brokaw.
All four of these prominent figures will be giving commencement addresses at some of the top universities in the county over the next few weeks - Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford to be exact.
But as prominent as each of those speakers are, each pales in comparison to Boston College's speaker, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
It is a rare year when BC can land a speaker that trumps its Cambridge neighbor, not to mention practically every other university in the country. If landing Kanye West for the spring concert was impropable, bringing in the most powerful woman in America - and possibly the world - is nothing short of miraculous.
Bringing in speakers like this is just one part of what can potentially make BC the premier national university it hopes to someday become.
Some will admittedly be upset at the selection based simply on politics or Secretary Rice's involvement in the war in Iraq. These are legitimate concerns in evaluating her policy or her job performance, but not as a commencement speaker.
We encourage students to see beyond politics in this case. Embrace her role in and love for the academic world. Embrace her as just the second woman to become U.S. secretary of state. Embrace her as the leader of American foreign policy, a policy that is taking up the front pages of newspapers more and more.
Besides, we can always listen to Jim Lehrer on PBS.
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