Commencement

So let's start with congrats to the class of 2005. Well done.

And then on to the reason I went to commencement...Kofi Annan.

For those of you who don't know, Annan was awarded an honorary degree today at Penn. He started out the speech by saying he was nervous, becuase he knew what everyone was thinking...that his speech wouldn't be as good as Bono's...and that we were right.

After that was a pretty decent speech, full of ambiguous references to a changing world and what Penn graduates would face. He talked about internationalism, and how our grandparents saw the need to involve themselves in affairs abroad, and how recent events have caused us to deal with the world around us. He did talk about reforms and the changing goals of the UN, but it wasn't anything scandalous, radical, or memorable. I paraphrase greatly because it was one part graduation speech and 2 parts political speech, and thus not so very interesting.

I offered to keep an eye on it for TigerHawk, so here's the deal. When the degree was conferred, people applauded. Some stood, maybe 5%. After the speech more people applauded and about 85% stood. It's kinda rare to have a partial standing ovation, (people tending to be like sheep) but there you have it. I did look to see whether there were more sitters amongst the Wharton faction, but if so it wasn't obvious. One family held up a flag with a peace symbol in where the stars go and one group of people held up neon sheets of paper that said DU?? KOFI (I assume "dump" but they were in front of me and I couldn't see.) All in all most people took it for what it was: a graduation ceremony.

As a silly irony, there was someone outside pamphleting. She was from a local union and more opposed to the honorary degree for a Comcast executive than for Kofi Annan's.