dmp
Senior Member
From a local Talk-Radio host, and former WA Gov. Candidate.
Convocation address to
University of Washington
Political Science Graduates
June 9, 2006
Well, heres a challenge. Is it possible to deliver a commencement address that anyone will remember? Odds are NO, (how many of you remember your HS graduation speeches), but Ill give it a try anyway. I know the faculty would love to hear me speak at length about the political, moral, economic and cultural challenges facing American conservatism in the 21st century, but what Id rather do is just tell you a couple things two things in particular that are counterintuitive, but also very important.
Your degree today is a sign of accomplishment and achievement. So with your diploma in hand, and an eye on success, walk out those doors and Dont be afraid to fail. Now, dont get used to it either. Dont shrug your shoulders at defeat. But dont let the fear of losing paralyze you, either. One thing about defeat ..its always temporary. Trust me on this. Ive been there.
Pick a hero, any hero, and I do hope you still believe in heroes. Here is what I can tell you about them. He or she was a loser. Until they started to win.
Start with Abraham Lincoln. He wanted to be a businessman. Didnt work. He ran for the Illinois legislature. No luck. He tried again. Made it. Ran for Speaker. Lost. Tried to get a full-time government appointment. Didnt happen. Ran for the U.S. Senate. Fell short. Then .when Abraham Lincoln did win the presidency in a four-way race, the country broke in two. He takes the helm as Commander in Chief, fights First Battle of Bull Run. Loses. Tries again at Kesslers Cross Lanes. Loses that one, too. Then another loss at Balls Bluff and another one at Port Republic. He fights again at Bull Run. Loses again.
He takes the fight to Harpers Ferry where he loses again. Eventually he replaces generals, fires the replacement, rehires the first general he fired and fires him again. He keeps losing. But he also keeps fighting.
So take heart. No one in this room will ever lose as often at as many different things as Abraham Lincoln. Who nevertheless ended up as probably Americas greatest President.
This lesson goes well beyond the military or political battlefield.
Michael Jordan, probably the greatest basketball player ever, was cut from his high school team.
Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor of all time (the light bulb, the phonograph and 1,093 patents, had waaaay more failures than successes. When he tried and failed more than 10,000 experiments on the storage battery he said, I havent failed, Ive just found 10,000 ways not to succeed. He eventually got it right.
When I was a senior working at the UWs Arts and Entertainment office, we booked a young comedian in LA was working the college comedy circuit. He wasnt well known and he was kind of goofy looking, and only about six people bought tickets. So one of the guys had to call him and say Were really sorry, Mr. Leno, people just werent interested. Were going to have to cancel the show. And the young comedian said OK. And kept trying to make people laugh.
As for me, well, its nice to hear your major accomplishments and honors being recited when youre being introduced this is largely because they are working off a bio that you supply them. But heres the rest of my bio ..
- Had my own television show on the NBC affiliate when I was a student here at 19. The show is cancelled before I was 21. Decided to be the youngest state legislator in Washington, ran when I was 24. As a Republican. In Seattle. Not the best of choices. 49.5% Close, but still 100% unemployed at the end of the race.
- Eventually I became a television news commentator at 26 on the CBS affiliate, in a point/counterpoint format. People loved it. It was popular. Seven years later, the station changed news formats, phased out commentaries, and I got fired.
- From there I filed an initiative to get tough on violent three time felons. The term that I came up for it was Three Strikes Youre Out. It failed to qualify. Decided it was worth another go, and it became the nations first Three Strikes law. Then two more initiatives and a satisfying career in the news media, interrupted by an unsuccessful run for Governor
So Ive had some success, but along the way, Ive been fired from three jobs and failed to get two others. Still, if it hadnt been for the failures, I probably wouldnt have gotten the successes. I simply chose not to quit.
This habit started when I was still in school. I was a finalist for four internships with two US senators, one Congressman and the county executive. Didnt get any one of them. Just kept knocking on doors. When youre the first one in your family to make it to a four-year university, and youre working 25 hours a week to pay for school, you learn that the word no is just a temporary detour thats all. It doesnt matter whether you work in politics media, the government, or something else altogether different. You dont win by never losing. You win by never quitting.
My second piece of equally counterintuitive advice is this: Please defy the fashions of the day and dont let someones political differences become personal differences. Demonizing people you disagree with may be easy, and it might be fun, but its like taking a Tequila shot. The first shot .ok, maybe the first two or three . Feels great. But after a while it dulls your thinking and eventually leaves you in a lousy mood.
25 years ago this week I graduated and went to Washington, D.C. to become one of the youngest members of the Reagan Administration. Sounds impressive, except that I held one of the least important jobs in the Administration Special Assistant to the Census Director the year AFTER they took the census. Actually the Bureau, which has more PhDs than most universities, was a fascinating place because the data, the numbers, the facts often contradict the popular perceptions that opinion makers had about many, issues.
Anyway, when I was staying in a college dorm during that hot summer of 81, there was show every Thursday night after the late news on local TV called After Hours. And it would have a well known conservative columnist, a popular liberal columnist and a down-the-middle anchor named Gordon Peterson sitting together in the newsroom talking about issues and interviewing Senators, journalists and cabinet officials.
It was assumed that there would be conflict, disagreement and debate. There was no shortage of that during the Reagan era because Reagan believed in Big Ideas that changed the way we confronted Big Problems.
Anyway, this show was respectful and civil and substantive and popular -- So popular that Ted Turner brought it and the hosts to CNN, got rid of the moderator and renamed the show Crossfire.
At first it was fine, but over the years it devolved into a shouting match, then a scream fest, then a rhetorical professional wrestling match and ratings lower than well water. Jon Stewart went on the show, live, and told the hosts how lousy their show was. CNN mercifully put it to sleep.
In many ways, what happened to that show symbolizes political discourse today. There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying I think Im right, I think youre wrong. Heres why. But all too often, its more like: Im right, and youre evil. Or, Im right and youre a racist. Or, Im right, and youre a baby killer (which Ive heard on both the abortion debate and the Iraq war). Or Im right and youre a homophobe, Or, the most popular of all on Americas college campuses: Im right, so youre dumb.
Of course, if someone is racist, or evil, or immoral or mentally dim, theres certainly no need to learn more about their position. In fact, since theyre not worth talking to, you dont even need to defend your own.
And thats whats wrong. Its wrong, its shallow and its intellectually lazy. Yet a surprising number of smart people, powerful people and talented people talk and think this way. Why do they think this way? Because they mostly talk to and socialize with people who already who think and talk like they do.
Its EASY to fall into this pattern. In fact, to AVOID falling into it, you have to actually stop and think think hard -- about why someone sees something so different from you. But its worth it, because it gives you more depth and makes you more interesting.
I started trying to do this my first day of my freshman year simply because I knew I had to. I had never before been on a university campus, so I was way behind the pack. So I would sometimes show up when my professors had office hours just to talk, or over at the HUB to hear what all the activists were saying.
I even pushed the envelope. Once I asked a young woman handing out flyers for the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade to lunch. I was genuinely curious: what makes someone a commie? So I bought her a bowl of soup, which is all she wanted, sat back and listened to her talk. After three minutes I learned something important about Maoists: They are crazy.
But the value of intellectual curiosity, of attempting to develop empathy, is real, and its forever. To this day, the first rule on my radio show is that the callers who disagree get on the air first. And in the mornings on KOMO radio, Ken Schram, veteran reporter turned commentator and I have a show where we disagree about 80% of the time, but get along anyway. And most people find that attitude refreshing.
So the two counterintuitive suggestions I offer today are: Dont be afraid to fail, and dont make someones political differences personal differences.
The only other thing I want to do is give you the best advice ever given on living a good life. It was given by Thomas Jefferson to a young man, who was the son of a good friend of his. It is exactly 22 words long, and it applied to all aspects of every persons life in the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century, and now in the 21st Century. Your century. Here it is:
Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true.
And tonight, when youre celebrating your great achievements here, be careful.
Congratulations everyone! Enjoy the ride!
John Carlson, Class of 81
j/k
