It's an honor to be here today.
    Now I generally don't like it when people start out a speech by talking about their speech, and how they didn't know what to say or how bad they are at public speaking, etc.-- I usually wish they would just get on with it-- but I'm going to do that today anyway. However, I'm going to couch at least part of it in the form of Advice to the Graduates as a lame attempt to make it OK.
    It wasn't until after I agreed to do this that Sandra told me that the previous two speakers had been State Senator David Adkins and Board of Regents Executive Director Reggie Robinson. I don't know if any of you have heard David or Reggie speak, but if you have you'll know that I am way out of my league here. I'm not as funny as David Adkins and I'm not as smart as Reggie Robinson, but you're stuck with me today so we'll have to make do.
    So here's the advice part: I expect that a lot of you will be going into public service at some point in your life, and I expect that a lot of you aren't any more fond of public speaking than I am. So here's what I advise: if you can't get out of it, try to do a good enough job that you don't completely embarrass yourself, but not so good that they'll invite you back. And that's the window we're shooting for here today...
    I would like to congratulate you for completing the honors program. It's a good thing you're smart, because you are going to need to be. Every generation faces challenges, but the way things are shaping up it looks like your generation is going to have a very full plate:

    There is growing evidence that world oil production has peaked or is about to peak, at the same time that global demand is rising. You will be faced with the consequences of global warming- but, on a reassuring note, I expect that many you noticed that this week the House of Representatives took a bold step to protect the public by voting that global warming isn't happening. You will be faced with even further manifestations of what I have taken to calling "Boog's law" (but please don't quote that, because I may well have inadvertently stolen this from somebody). Anyway, what I call Boog's law is the observation that any increase in speed or convenience of any form of communication or transportation increases the time we spend engaging in that activity and decreases the quality of the experience. Now, this could be the subject of a whole long lecture, but in case you are having trouble with the concept, just think back to how great e-mail was-- for the first week or two. Or think back to your most recent cell phone conversation...
    All that aside, I think that one of the most serious challenges facing you is the widening gap in incomes and possibilities between the various segments of our society, and the increasing social polarization that has come with it. I don't know if Thomas Frank was an honors program graduate, but I think his book What's the Matter with Kansas? did a good job of analyzing this problem. The polarization we're seeing isn't so much between Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, right and left, as it is between people who value learning and education and those who mistrust or resent or feel disrespected by educated people.

    I'm not sure that it's fair that Kansas has become a poster child for this, because it's happening all over the country. And it isn't necessarily a new phenomenon, as Richard Hofstadter has documented so well in his classic study Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. And although this conflict has probably always been with us on some level, the current climate is a dramatic change from the Kansas I grew up in. The great majority of the people in this state used to be willing to make sacrifices to ensure that their children got a good education. My father was a mechanic, and I think on some level he didn't really trust anybody who didn't work with their hands, but at the same time it was taken for granted that my sister and I would go to college. So I still have that tension between idealism and practicality in my head (which probably explains why I ended up in engineering and law), and I suspect that a number of you graduating today have had comparable experiences.

    And that's good, because your job-- one of your jobs, anyway - will be to bridge that gap, and to help build a society where we're all in it together, where everyone benefits from the education you have received, rather than one where your education just secures you a privileged position in an increasingly polarized world.
    Will it be easy? No. Can you do it? Absolutely. It will take more than knowledge- it will take patience and wisdom and compassion and courage and dedication. And a sense of humor, too. But if those of you I have met are a representative sample, then I am sure that you will have the skills to confront the tasks ahead of you, and I am confident that our future is in good hands.
    Thank you for having me here today. Good luck with your future endeavors, and I look forward to working with you.