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Post by StPetersburgHoya (Inactive) on May 4, 2009 9:39:09 GMT -5
Oh also, for my picketing purposes what is each speaker's stance on abortion? Were they asked directly about it. I don't want Georgetown's Catholic identity besmirched by the Plague-Book-Guy's feelings on the topic.
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thebin
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Post by thebin on May 4, 2009 9:48:20 GMT -5
Have we ever had interesting grad speakers? Not that I can remember.
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theexorcist
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Post by theexorcist on May 4, 2009 9:54:01 GMT -5
Oh also, for my picketing purposes what is each speaker's stance on abortion? Were they asked directly about it. I don't want Georgetown's Catholic identity besmirched by the Plague-Book-Guy's feelings on the topic. Oh, come on. Obama is the president of the United States. He has been very blunt in his pro-choice stance, and, as POTUS, he has the ability to affect public policy in this regard. It's impossible for him to hide this. Plague-Book Guy is famous, for all intents and purposes, because he wrote a book about plague. He could torture little kittens while they sleep, but nobody knows or cares.
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Post by StPetersburgHoya (Inactive) on May 4, 2009 9:54:17 GMT -5
Have we ever had interesting grad speakers? Not that I can remember. Paul Tagliabue is still giving his 2006 convocation address. He's now discussing NFL free agency and how it has changed labor law - having thoroughly explained how NFL Europe ended communism.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on May 4, 2009 12:15:23 GMT -5
Why today's students put up with the BS of separate speakers puzzles me. The adminsitration wants people to forget the tradition of a unified commencement and so far they have succeeded. One class, one ceremony. You don't know what you're missing. The only problem is calling the names. How could that work w/ so many students now? I'd prefer one ceremony so as to get the best speaker possible, but listening to 4 hours of names would be excruciating. The colleges my siblings went to (BC and Cuse) all had graduation ceremonies for their individual colleges on Saturday (with the calling of names and such) and a school-wide commencement on Sunday morning (without names). This would work very easily at Georgetown, methinks.
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Post by strummer8526 on May 4, 2009 12:22:02 GMT -5
The most disappointing for me is Law: David Vladeck. Is he any relation to the very popular Prof. Stephen Valdeck at American? I believe David is Stephen's uncle. Also, there's a bootleg video around somewhere of Stephen Vladeck on "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego." A GU alum / American Law friend of mine had Stephen as a professor and the class found it.
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thebin
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Post by thebin on May 4, 2009 12:57:10 GMT -5
Have we ever had interesting grad speakers? Not that I can remember. Paul Tagliabue is still giving his 2006 convocation address. He's now discussing NFL free agency and how it has changed labor law - having thoroughly explained how NFL Europe ended communism. If that is what you got I don't even remotely want to hear you complain. That sounds like you got to see the Dead in 1977 compared to what we got in 1999 for the College.....the cardinal of Havana, wait for it, speaking IN SPANISH in 138 degree weather nursing a brutal hangover. (remember the non-breathable material black tarps we all had draped around us as well...) My prayers for rain went unanswered. The begining of my atheism I think.....
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Jack
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Post by Jack on May 4, 2009 13:29:22 GMT -5
My graduation had the Reverned Bryan Hehir out of Harvard (when everyone thought we were going to get Bill), who droned on about the International Criminal Court. Way to get everyone ready to go out into the world. Fr. Hehir is now in-residence at my parents' church and gives some of the most thoughtful and intellectual homilies you will ever hear at a Sunday Mass. He was Dean of Harvard Divinity School and President of Catholic Charities USA at various times, and he is (or was) on GU's Board of Directors. He is not an exciting name for a commencement speaker, but I would take him any day over the aforementioned chemist/poet.
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Post by afirth on May 4, 2009 13:41:57 GMT -5
Is he any relation to the very popular Prof. Stephen Valdeck at American? I believe David is Stephen's uncle. Also, there's a bootleg video around somewhere of Stephen Vladeck on "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego." A GU alum / American Law friend of mine had Stephen as a professor and the class found it. strummer, if your friend still has that video or knows where it is I would love to see it. huge stephen vladeck fan ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
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H2Oya 05
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Post by H2Oya 05 on May 4, 2009 13:44:22 GMT -5
In light of this year's continuation of the trend of weak graduation speakers, I want to see if we can all agree on who the worst graduation speaker Georgetown's ever gotten was. I'll start the ball rolling by nominating the Curator of the Museum of the American Indian (Col '05). God it was awful, long, and depressing.
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thebin
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Post by thebin on May 4, 2009 14:01:36 GMT -5
I nominate my above-mentioned Cardinal of Havana. An unbeatable combination of wretched heat and the fact that we was not speaking English should serve it well in this ranking. We didn't have the opportunity to find the text boring....95% of us couldn't understand even remotely what he was talking about. He might have been reading from Penthouse Forum for all I know.
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theexorcist
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Post by theexorcist on May 4, 2009 14:05:17 GMT -5
My graduation had the Reverned Bryan Hehir out of Harvard (when everyone thought we were going to get Bill), who droned on about the International Criminal Court. Way to get everyone ready to go out into the world. Fr. Hehir is now in-residence at my parents' church and gives some of the most thoughtful and intellectual homilies you will ever hear at a Sunday Mass. He was Dean of Harvard Divinity School and President of Catholic Charities USA at various times, and he is (or was) on GU's Board of Directors. He is not an exciting name for a commencement speaker, but I would take him any day over the aforementioned chemist/poet. He began by saying that 1998 was the year of something, which led him immediately to think of the International Criminal Court and then proceeded to defend it for thirty minutes. No broader exhortations for people to go out and do anything - just a wonky policy speech. It was awful.
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SSHoya
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Post by SSHoya on May 4, 2009 15:36:30 GMT -5
Pearl Bailey gave the commencement speech in 1977. I remember trying to explain to my parents why that was (I believe she was taking theology courses at Georgetown at the time).
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Post by strummer8526 on May 4, 2009 15:43:20 GMT -5
Whoever was SFS '07 just railed on the Iraq war. I think people of both political persuasions were totally put off by it. And then it ended with "...so go do better." Blah.
On the plus side, mine (College '07) wasn't too bad. Rev. Wallis was interesting enough. He had a good voice, told a joke or two. Nothing earth-shattering, but nice . At the time, I was pretty excited anyway. For all the bitching I do on here and w/ out friends about GU, I think that morning, I was more appreciation for the chance to get a diploma from such a place than I was angry about the speaker.
I also got lucky and had a seat under the one tree towards the front right of the stage, so the shade probably helped.
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kchoya
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Post by kchoya on May 4, 2009 16:16:40 GMT -5
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thebin
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Post by thebin on May 4, 2009 16:35:04 GMT -5
It's telling that Ken Burns was the rock star on that roster of speakers.
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hoya9797
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Post by hoya9797 on May 4, 2009 17:03:17 GMT -5
The only thing I remember about Vera Rubin's speech in 1997 was wondering who the hell she was and why she was taking so long.
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Post by StPetersburgHoya (Inactive) on May 4, 2009 23:03:42 GMT -5
I believe David is Stephen's uncle. Also, there's a bootleg video around somewhere of Stephen Vladeck on "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego." A GU alum / American Law friend of mine had Stephen as a professor and the class found it. strummer, if your friend still has that video or knows where it is I would love to see it. huge stephen vladeck fan ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) I have seen a copy of said video and it is hilarious. I'm sure someone on AULR knows how to get a copy.
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Post by strummer8526 on May 4, 2009 23:31:25 GMT -5
strummer, if your friend still has that video or knows where it is I would love to see it. huge stephen vladeck fan ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) I have seen a copy of said video and it is hilarious. I'm sure someone on AULR knows how to get a copy.
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jester
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Post by jester on May 6, 2009 16:16:21 GMT -5
I agree - the curator of the American Indian museum, rathe predictably, was less than inspiring.
Norah O'Donnell also spoke that year at Convocation - that was something to behold. I think she spelled out D-R-E-A-M or something like that and used each letter to riff on a word of inspiration...
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