And Rod, I agree, thanks for your kind defense of Tricia. If only we could keep things civil and positive, especially in celebration of this tremendous occasion.

Because you had a need to say: “I question your claim…” – just supports it all the more. I’m happy for you that you have “multiple degrees”, but your need to cite your “degrees” as a way to covertly/intentionally discredit any one else’s opinion on the ceremony is disingenuous and comes across as plainly dismissive.

If the goal is to lesson the viability of anyone’s opinion – keep at it, as there may be another degree for you to snag in the future.

Parker, I agree with you that people shouldn’t have started leaving at the end of the speech. That is disrespectful, and shows that those particular people were only there for Obama. But I bet there were a number of people there just to hear Larry Page (Google) when he spoke, and similarly for any other speaker. And in a ceremony where graduates are recognized by name (not just by college/unit, as at UM), people occasionally leave when their graduate has crossed the stage. It happens. Rude people exist.

However, I question your claim that graduation speeches are supposed to be all about giving praise for the graduates’ commitments and achievements. I have multiple degrees from 3 universities, and attended 2 ceremonies at UM (Rackham’s and my unit). Every single speaker started out with a “you all rock” statement and then moved into a “you can do great things in the world by doing X”, where X was directly related to their own agenda (e.g. their mode of educational reform, their view of the business world, whatever). Very few speakers are in the mode of the fake Kurt Vonnegut speech (“wear sunscreen, get enough calcium”). People are invited to speak because they have a point of view.

When near 33% of the stadium participants (en-masse) started leaving the stadium after the POTUS’s speech ended, to me – this was not only disrespectful to the students and their families – but further underscored that the POTUS’s presence here at UM was not to honor the achievements of our sons and daughters, but to have the opportunity to put out political points and garner 33,000 extra and non-related-event cheers at the very least.

This day was not about the POTUS – this was supposed to be about honoring our hard-working sons and daughters. I am honored that the POTUS spoke at my daughter’s UM graduation – but I am no longer a supporter. Some things should remain sacred/neutral and un-related to political agendas. This has been a wake-up call to me about what is more important to the POTUS vs. inspiring and giving praise for our son’s and daughter’s commitments and achievements. This speech gave them nothing of that – and only served to put all of these achievements below his political talking points. How sad is that.

Even if your son shares your perspective, there is a way that you (and he) can see how the unfolding of events yesterday were done for you rather than to you. If you don’t know how, this website can help: [link].