Former President Obama’s Commencement Speech In A Call For Unity and Community

As I watched former President Obama deliver a national commencement speech to our nation’s graduating high school seniors in lieu of the one they won’t get this year under normal circumstances due to COVID 19 three things struck me I wasn’t prepared for.  One, how much I missed his national leadership and speaking skills where he always seemed to be talking WITH you as opposed to one speaking at you.  Second, he reminded me how whenever he could he always called for us, as Americans, to contribute to community either nationally or locally as opposed to someone who always tried to angle themselves to take away from our communities at the expense of it’s denizens.  And finally, thirdly I was taken by his call to the youth of America to make be the leaders we expect of them and make the changes we need. 

It was so much more than a congratulatory bromide that one usually hears form guest speakers that I kind of half heartedly expected but one that was a call to not just be true to themselves and be who they are but a call to make a difference. It reminded me so much of President Kennedy’s call to, “…..ask not what your country can do for you, but to ask what you can do for your country.”  In a new dark age of Trumpism where we only hear, “…get what’s yours and to hell with everyone else” it was a hope that this too will pass.  One can only hope our seniors striking out on the path Mr. Obama called for takes up that challenge and heed his call.  We are counting on them in ways they certainly can’t imagine. 

Truman's Conscience Rebooted Mission Statement

As of this inaugural post, it has been sixty-seven years, three months, three weeks, six days and three hours since Harry S. Truman’s official term of office expired. As each decade passes since that moment it only serves to underline the flourishing legacy he left behind that is still with us today. With the exception of Abraham Lincoln, it is doubtful a better representative of the common man with an evolving progressive mind could be found. At first, our 33rd President came out of Missouri with a parochial outlook couched in the southern prejudices of the time. With a progressive mind and a conscience that always strived for fairness one can only marvel at the evolving ideals and a sense of justice he would harness as the arc of his ascension in public life spiraled upward growing beyond his humble origins.

His biographer, David McCullough, called him, “….a man of uncommon vitality and strength of character.” As the embodiment of one being faced with a world that had evolved beyond his capacity to view it with the sensibilities of a time long past he became much more than that. Our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln once profoundly observed, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present….we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” Only a progressive mind such as that of Harry Truman could understand the meaning of Lincoln’s profound sense of what is needed to face a world that seemed at the time to be so fraught with unmeetable challenges and peril. His strength of character and profound sense of self-awareness eventually enabled him to reach beyond himself and those around him in order to harness the ideas and energy that would allow him to, “….think anew, and act anew,” as Lincoln prescribed.

Now we find ourselves being led by a conservative mindset that has produced an individual so lost in a world devoid of ideas, lost humanity and score settling grievances he has turned global American leadership upside down in a post cold war world conflicted with ambiguity and contradictions about our place and where we fit into it. As he lurches and reaches backward for tired old prescriptions of division and prejudices of the past that only serve to undermine the American ideal our burden is added to as he strives to serve and soothe the closed mind of raw emotions driven by those that are easily angered and quick to judge. Progressive ideas are marginalized and ridiculed by a conservative mindset that prefers the simple solutions of yesterday and quick fix answers serving a consumer driven public massaged by the commercial blandness of mass consumption and the low expectations of a status quo society.

Now more than ever we need new voices that call for us to, “…..think anew, and act anew.” We need new voices that ring with the clarion call for change to wash away the “dogmas of the quiet past that are inadequate to the stormy present.” This blog is a humble attempt, in a very small way, to join that chorus and harmonize with those that feel that sense of urgency before it is too late to save the progressive ideals we fought so hard for and achieved. We need new voices that are driven by the conscience of Harry Truman and the sense of justice and fairness it embodied. As his legacy has driven me toward this small effort to continue that fight this blog will focus on two main objectives: first, to make all of our elected officials accountable to their constituencies, their country and to the American people they serve, and second, to promote the causes and principles of the liberal/progressive view.  From 1941 to 1944, then Senator Harry S. Truman, before he was chosen to be F.D.R.'s running mate, was legendary for his chairmanship of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. It even came to be called "The Truman Committee" for short as it became legendary for its tenacity and crusade against war profiteering. That legacy included going after those that violated the rules and spirit of defense and government contract spending. If Democratic party members were found to be included in those violations he made sure even they were equally held accountable and suffered the same consequences.

Alas, it is in that same spirit that my first objective will be to hold all elected officials accountable on both sides of the aisle no matter the party or ideological standing. It is especially critical that our Democratic party elected officials are held to an even higher standard making them even more accountable to ensure the principles and causes of liberal and progressive values are upheld.

So welcome to Truman’s conscience. My name is Michael and I’m the custodian of this small effort to harmonize with the voices of change and the call for justice in a political climate driven by fear and moral certainty. Come and join in on occasion and let us sing together.

Truman's conscience will be here.