by WILLIAM J. FORD, Maryland Matters
Kermit the Frog got most of the attention — and delivered most of the bad puns — for a University of Maryland, College Park, commencement address Thursday, but there were plenty of others who suited up in a cap and gown for the chance to inspire, comfort and, most of all, congratulate Maryland graduates in the Class of 2025.
Their speeches ranged from under 13 to 24 minutes, tolerable for anxious graduates and fidgety relatives, and while many touched on the current troubles in the world, most urged graduates to embrace the challenge.
For most of her short six months on Capitol Hill, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) has done battle with the agenda of President Donald Trump (R) and administration, which have been working diligently to dismantle the federal government. But in her commencement address Friday at Bowie State University, the former Prince George’s County executive’s 15-minute speech leaned heavily into one word: hope.
“It seems like all the good things are happening for the absolute worst people. It looks as if the cruelest and most selfish characters are getting the service ahead,” she said at the campus’ Bulldog Stadium. “My response to that is just live a little longer.”
“The callous and self-centered personalities may seem popular, but trust me, the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Alsobrooks said.
Part of her speech mentioned the late Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for opposing the South Africa’s apartheid system. After Mandela’s release from prison in February 1990, he was inaugurated as the country’s first Black president in May 1994.
Before Alsobrooks left campus, she spoke to a few reporters and was asked whether one of the “characters” in her speech happened to be Trump, especially for any graduates who may want to become public servants in the federal government. She answered by looking beyond Trump.
“The great thing for these young people is they have … their whole life ahead of them,” she said. “There will come a moment when this current administration will leave office and the rest of us are still going to be here to carry on, to rebuild whatever’s been broken and to continue to ensure that they have the economic opportunities and that their families have the true opportunity to experience the American dream.”
At University of Maryland, Eastern Shore — another of the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities, along with Bowie State — Gov. Wes Moore (D) urged graduates to imagine themselves looking back on the journeys they are just now starting.
Moore told the UMES graduates they would be asked repeatedly, on commencement day and after, what they plan to do with their new college degrees. But he asked them to think farther ahead and start planning for the question they will be asked at the other end of the road they are starting down: What did you do?
“The ones who obsess over answering ‘what will you do?’ are often the ones who lose sight of answering ‘what did you do?’” Moore said. “The ones who stay focused on answering ‘what did you do’ are the ones who will never waver in their convictions, and will always continue the work.”
In between citing the achievements of his administration and giving shout-outs to high-achieving graduates, Moore assured the graduates that it was OK if they didn’t have a ready answer to the many “what are you going to do” questions they are sure to get in the coming days. The important thing is to stay focused on making the difference once they find their goals.
“Because when you look back many years from now, you aren’t going to say to yourself: ‘I wish I were more certain about what I wanted to do right out of school,’” Moore said. “You’re going to say: ‘I’m proud of what I accomplished.’”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) delivered the commencement address May 10 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, who spoke for about 24 minutes, told the graduates they will face challenges in today’s political atmosphere.
“Your class is graduating in a moment of profound crisis for humanity, and searing existential choice for each and every citizen,” he said. “The river could be taken all of us to a place of danger, or to a place of renewal. I wish this was commencement speech hyperbole, but it’s not.”
Raskin said hope can be obtained, but everyone must participate to improve society.
“If we’re engaged in a sustained titanic and perhaps final struggle on this small planet between the forces of democratic freedom and the forces of fascist authoritarianism, this is a battle unlike we have ever seen before, and it requires all hands on deck,” he said.
“Remember always the beauty and promise of America, which is made exceptional not because it is magically immune to the forces of racism or antisemitism or fascism, but because the people have always insisted that we will move forward to form a more perfect union,” Raskin said.
The day before her husband spoke at UMES, Maryland first lady Dawn Flythe Moore on Wednesday gave a less than 13-minute address at the University of Baltimore commencement ceremony.
Moore, who worked as a substitute teacher in Baltimore after she graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, summarized three lessons to solve “big” problems.
“Division is the greatest barrier to progress. Two, collaboration is our path to success,” she said. “And three, the only way to elevate the work is to strengthen community. That work is more important now than ever before. Community is our lifeblood. It is the only hope we have as a state to secure our future.”
Other commencement speakers who attempted to inspire at Maryland colleges and universities this month included: Vice President J.D. Vance addressing the 2025 Class of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy; entrepreneur Sal Khan at Johns Hopkins University; TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett at Morgan State University; Global Refuge CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah at Goucher College; urban Afrofuturist Lawrence T. Brown at Coppin State University; paralympian McKenzie Coan at Loyola University; Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn at Salisbury State University; and, at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Genentech executive Anwesha Dey and Baltimore City Schools CEO Sonja Brookins Santelises.
This article is republished courtesy of Maryland Matters, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.