The DePaulia

Issue date: 5/22/09 Section: Two Cents

Media Credit: MCT Wire Service

To the Notre Dame class of 2009: are you out of your minds? Where are your manners?

We're taught from a young age to speak our minds, defend what we believe and agree to disagree. Respect is the first vocabulary word we learned for a reason, and the Pledge of Allegiance isn't something we recited every morning only to honor routine.

It's safe to say that the president of the United States is the hardest guest to book as a commencement speaker. To my knowledge, no Notre Dame senior has accomplished so much that they would be invited to give a commencement speech covered first by every national news outlet on every news segment of that and the following days. Not everyone has to agree with president Obama's policies, but for God's sake he deserves a huge amount of respect and appreciation-he is the president, like him or not.

I am angry for Obama. Had he known he would be booed-the president of the United States-booed by a bunch of graduates that think the world is their oyster and they are going to change it with their enriched minds, he could have stayed at home on a Sunday afternoon and played with his puppy and beautiful family.

Go ahead and build a grandstand to protest Obama's abortion views but when on the clock, respect his position as president. Respect our country and everyone else's time.

There is a bad rap that is often attached to recent college graduates. In this economy it has to be even worse. Yes, we've worked hard, and graduating from college is a major accomplishment. But really, men and women in the work world have been there and done that. They want to remain secure in their jobs and not have to worry about this influx of inexperienced know-it-alls trying to take their jobs with the justification that they're "fresh" and ready to work-everyone is ready to work, we're in a recession.

We have a slight responsibility amid the excitement of graduation and our job search to respect those who already have them. This means that when commencement planning committees work to get the most overbooked man in the country, respect the work they put into that, the faculty devoted an entire Sunday to over a thousand unfamiliar families while they could be with their own.

To my graduating class, not to make anyone more stressed about jobs than they are, but no one is excited for us. We need to be on our toes and best behavior to find anything, and showing ungratefulness and poor etiquette-on national television no less-will not help our case as a whole.

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