On May 25, I will be graduating. Unfortunately, I have not been invited as a student speaker. The following is the honorary speech I would have given:

My fellow graduates,

Last fall, our predecessors and their guests booed our last speaker, Sacramento Bee Publisher Janis Heaphy, off the stage for a speech critical of the Bush Adminstration?s war on terrorism. I wonder what their reaction would have been had they heard Kurt Vonnegut?s address to the class of 1970 at Bennington College, where he said, “Everything is going to become unimaginably worse and never get better again.” Thirty-two years later, that prediction is coming true.

As the government dumps billions of dollars into military programs that may literally be rocketed into outer space, one in five American children live in poverty. Corporate interests continue to dominate politics in this democracy, as exemplified by the billions of dollars each year in government contracts awarded to companies that openly violate federal safety and contract regulations. Thus far, George W. Bush has been able to form questionable military alliances around the globe with leaders that were once human rights pariahs in the fight against global terrorism?with little challenge from Congress or the media.

The global front looks even worse. The AIDS epidemic has reached biblical proportions, which cases numbering in the tens of millions. Globalization continues to blur ethical boundaries as well as economic ones, as innocent people toil in sweatshops for multinational corporations whose deals often simultaneously fatten the pockets of oppressive governments. The list goes on and on.

To complicate this, the broadcast media, ostensibly an injustice watchdog, is now concentrated in the hands of a few corporations as a result of persistent deregulation by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission in the past 20 years. Laws that once tried to establish multiple viewpoints on the publicly owned airwaves have given way to an insurmountably powerful corporate lobby. And, most likely, they?re not coming back.

This should be the time where I encourage you to fight the good fight against the above mentioned government and corporate interests. However, it is in somber defeat that I read the tag of my shirt, which is stitched with the abysmal words, “Made in Pakistan.” That country?s human rights mockery includes 10 to 12 million child laborers?more than half of them under 10 years old?working in horrifying conditions, according to Amnesty International. Unfortunately, my $30 or so most likely paid for this Macy?s polo?s trip from the beaten, bloody hands of a tortured laborer to my overstuffed dresser.

Thank you so much for your donation to the “Fleece Humanity” fund, Mr. Leon?signed, The Man.

In sum, no matter how much I try to retaliate against the global forces at work, I?m just not cognizant enough to cover my moral derriere. Yet, I remain inspired by the words of Gandhi, who said, “What you do is insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.” A recent conversation with a friend of mine, who politely objected to the political views that reached this column over the past year, has me compelled me to leave readers with this parting shot: Believe what you want. Or perhaps my thoughts are better articulated by activist author Christopher Hitchens, who said, “It?s not what you think, it?s how you think.”

Since Sept. 11, there has been dangerous amounts of consensus among Americans over life and death decisions at home and abroad. I urge you not to automatically consent to what appears to be popular or consistent with skewed terms such as “patriotism” and “freedom,” which have often been used by politicians to describe policies that run contrary to their literal meanings. Be wary of actions advertised by those in power to be for the good of the whole (i.e. the racial profiling and detention of thousands of Middle Easterners, which Attorney General John Aschroft insists is for the good of national security).

In short, draw your own conclusions independently of the majority, and constantly question them. I recommend journals and periodicals outside the realm of corporate domination, perhaps Mother Jones or The Nation, which highlight under-covered issues such as those mentioned above, and give no quarter to the political elite from the right or left.

Even if all of us change our consciousness, the cogs of globalization, militarism, nationalism and poverty will continue to churn. But consistent dissent can have its positive effects. Nelson Mandela was jailed for years for refusing to keep quiet about the crimes of the South African government. The country at large is far more enlightened to civil results as a result of Dr. Martin Luther King?s powerful message in the 60s, which American government agency?s labeled “subversive.” Prove Vonnegut wrong.

Thank you.

Boo Josh Leon off the stage at [email protected].