A valedictory is, by definition, “a farewell address.” It’s an opportunity for the class’s highest-achieving student (academically) to wish his or her classmates well and put a cherry on top of four years of learningh, toil, fun, challenge and growth.
There isn’t a lot of growth happening in today’s public schools.
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This graduation season, beginning with a budding young abortionista in Texas, we’ve witnessed a spate of politically-charged commencement ceremony speeches that have very little to do with graduation and everything to do with promoting the Left’s warped agenda. Yes, our kids are being brainwashed. Yes, these campaign-style addresses are the latest evidence that the Left controls academia. But there’s something deeper than politics going on here, Save Jerseyans. Our culture is changing for the worse, and adults who should know better are egging these kids on.
The latest depressing example is close to home. Earlier this month, graduating senior Bryce Dershem of Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees (Camden County), New Jersey had his mic cut off after turning his valedictory address into a LGBTQ public therapy session. The Media and the Left did what they always do – reflexively laud the kid in question as the second coming of Joan of Arc – and Governor Phil Murphy wanted in on the action, too…
To Bryce Dershem – I'm so proud of you for speaking truth to power, and for your resilience and courage.
To all of our LGBTQIA+ youth – you belong, you are loved, and we will continue to fight alongside you for equality, inclusion, and respect.https://t.co/0QzGjbIJqj
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) June 26, 2021
“To Bryce Dershem – I’m so proud of you for speaking truth to power, and for your resilience and courage,” tweeted Murphy. “To all of our LGBTQIA+ youth – you belong, you are loved, and we will continue to fight alongside you for equality, inclusion, and respect.”
Like most of you, I could care less whether a high school valedictorian is gay, straight, or identifies as a T-Rex. I don’t want to think about ANY teenager’s sexual preferences! I also don’t want any child to be bullied simply because they’re different. But Eastern’s 2021 graduation wasn’t a celebration Bryce Dershem’s “truth,” gay youth generally, or contemporary gender politics… or at least it wasn’t supposed to be. In 2021, it’s not hard to market your opinions or personal story if you want. You certainly don’t need to appropriate your classmates’ graduation ceremony to do it.
Dershem’s audience contained students – probably about 500, based upon the school’s enrollment – who I suspect have struggled with a variety of challenges over the past four years. There were likely capped and robbed students listening to him who’ve lived with divorcing parents, dying or sick parents, personal medical challenges, family money problems, and a host of other things that are no more or less serious than whatever Bryce Dershem happens to be shouldering. I suspect many (if not most) nevertheless agreed with his worldview. Others did not.
Why did this kid think he had the right to make graduation about his personal experience?
For your answer, look no further than “adults” like Phil Murphy who (1) promote and then (2) exploit these narcissistic performances for their own political ends.
It’s a two-way transaction. The “reward” for giving a speech like this is media adulation, social media fame, and a tweet from a sitting governor lauding your “courage.” I don’t know this young man from adam. Maybe he is a brave kid? Who knows. That’s not the point. It’s worth questioning the premise. Eastern sits in deep-blue Voorhees, a Camden County/Philly suburb which went 2-to-1 for Hillary over Trump in 2016. This is a wealthy, woke zip code. If bravery is measured by one’s willingness to risk marginalization for expressing one’s views, folks, then Bryce Dershem was preaching to the choir in a very, very safe space.
Allow me to anticipate your retort: I’d feel much the same about this situation if, at a hypothetical graduation ceremony for my own child, one of his classmates got up and proceeded to rail against Joe Biden, Roe v. Wade or gun control.
Free speech is inalienable, and like all rights it comes with great responsibility. There’s a time and a place for everything. Growing up is learning that we live in a community of other human beings, and we’re not just living for ourselves. If we want to maintain a healthy, strong, pluralistic civilization that functions? It can’t just be about you all of the damn time. “Knowing your rights” and exercising them is critically important for a free people. Sometimes you need to speak up or even throw down for your freedoms as countless Americans have in decades past.
Kindness, respect, and tolerance of those who share different viewpoints constitute equally important lessons for a young citizen. These lessons are not being taught and promoted in today’s academic environments. If the Greatest Generation was selfless and the Boomers were over-worked, Generation Z’s defining trait in the early going appears to be narcissism.
I sincerely feel awful for Bryce Dershem and all of the Class of 2021 graduates who are being taught the wrong lessons, Save Jerseyans. They could’ve been (and still might be) leaders but, instead, they were taught to glorify victimhood. America’s adults are failing them – badly. If our country’s future is uglier for the poor example they’re emulating? We know who’s to blame, and it sure as hell isn’t these kids.
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