Graduation Speech: The Quest for Wisdom :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

There is a distinct difference between friendship and wisdom. I can place you that as honor society president I have seen umpteen smart people do stupid things. Lets just say that intermixture a very large lunch with a bobbing ship and an admissions policeman from the University of California equals a vomitous situation. Today, we are sitting here celebrating the fact that we washed-out four long years in high school matriculating, which meaning actually knowledge to use words like matriculation. But I am going to go out on a outgrowth and say that while we have acquired all of this knowledge, we are still incredibly dumb, and I am non referring to WASL scores, I mean that we have not had the probability to apply our knowledge. Just as I was completely asleep of my propensity for sea sickness, some(prenominal) of us have not had the opportunity to grow wiser. The class of 2006 has advanced technology at its fingertips. However, we must mobilize that the Internet, televi sion, and cell phones really are artificial intelligence, all they do is control information. It is our job to apply it. Within the past year we have had many unfortunate reminders of the difference between knowledge and wisdom, now we are learning that certain bureaus within the federal government were aware of the possibility of a terrorist attacks, but clearly the appropriate proactive measures were not taken. You see knowledge merely being aware of information is absolutely useless. Wisdom subtile what to do with information is invaluable- in this case it meant the difference between talk over and recourse, and the loss of thousands of lives. So while we are accustomed to our artificial intelligence, it is age we become wise. More than ever it is important that we are wise about our rights. After Sept. 11 there was an immediate scramble to tighten security. random searches of our persons, our vehicles and our homes suddenly become acceptable because of fear. The most common response to these encroachments is as one passive Washington state ferry rider charge it why should i contend? I have nothing to hide. We should care because unwarranted searches are a regression of everything we have built this ground to be. We know what our rights are, but what are we doing to value them? In an effort to protect the U.S. our first step is to unravel many of the things we stand for.