Notre Dame Fighting
Obama to Notre Dame: We can all work for fewer abortions... and by the way, your generation needs to fix the planet
As predicted, every inch of news coverage about Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame focused on his remarks about abortion.
Since the cable news channels promoted this speech as something akin to a heavyweight prize fight -- The President versus The Protesters... LIVE! -- anything short of a campus-wide riot was bound to look anticlimactic. A handful of presidential hecklers, quickly shouted down by a broadly supportive audience of students and family members, hardly made for dramatic television.
But what struck me about the speech was not the delicate tiptoeing around the abortion issue; it was the list of rather ambitious homework that were cheerfully handed to the graduating seniors.
Some Notre Dame classes have graduated into dull, peaceful, prosperous times, Obama told the assembled undergraduates. "You, however, are not getting off that easy."
And Obama's discussion of the national divide over abortion rights was, characteristically, low-key and conciliatory. He tried to find a tiny island of common ground in what is surely the country's longest-running culture war battle, and that was to be expected. Kudos for addressing the elephant in the room without ruining an otherwise happy day for graduates.
Among the things now placed on the class of 2009 to-do list:
- "Find a path back to prosperity"
- "Decide how we respond to a global economy"
- "Decide how to save God's creation"
- "Seek peace" at a time when crazy people want to kill us all
We'll be getting right on that, Mr. President, as soon as we find jobs that provide decent dental insurance. Check back in a few months, and hopefully we'll have sketched out some ideas for saving God's creation.
Settling the abortion debate might end up being the easy part.
Article originally published at http://www.collegepulse.net/2009/05/obama-at-notre-dame-we-can-all-work-for.html
Copyright 2009 - The College Pulse Network - CollegePulse.net
About the Author
Eric Johnson is the Public Editor of The Daily Tarheel, the independent student newspaper of The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a CollegePulse.net contributing writer.
The College Pulse Network is composed of young media professionals from across the United States who give commentary on current events and how they affect the world's newest generations.
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