Graduation speeches.
June 7, 2013 at 2:42 pm
(This post was last modified: June 7, 2013 at 2:54 pm by Mister Agenda.)
Wednesday I attended the graduation of Richland Northeast High School's class of 2013 (go, Cavaliers!) at the Carolina Coliseum in Columbia SC.
I was struck by the first speaker's speech...I think his name was Corey Benjamin, I'm not sure if he was the class president, valedictorian, or what. But I noticed how inclusive he was in his speech, attributing the school's success to Christians, Jews, Muslims, and atheists working together. This is from memory so if he mentioned any other religions that I've forgotten, that's on me, not him. If he neglected any religions represented in the student body, that's on him, but I'd presume it was unintentional. I thought it was nice that he included all (as far as I know) viewpoints on religion represented at his school. The graduation was secular, and as inclusive of atheists as I could want it to be (I wouldn't want them to promote atheism as part of a public HS graduation ceremony, just acknowedging our existence and contributions along with everyone else's is plenty).
Of course, Columbia is the capital of SC, and a college town. Northeast has an obviously diverse student body. Not so far away:
http://www.wyff4.com/news/local-news/oco...index.html
In case not everyone can follow the link; a student at Pickens tore up his prepared speech approved by the school, and let the attendees in the Lord's Prayer. His motivation seems to have been FFRF advising the school not to have a prayer at the graduation. The crowd cheered.
I was struck by the first speaker's speech...I think his name was Corey Benjamin, I'm not sure if he was the class president, valedictorian, or what. But I noticed how inclusive he was in his speech, attributing the school's success to Christians, Jews, Muslims, and atheists working together. This is from memory so if he mentioned any other religions that I've forgotten, that's on me, not him. If he neglected any religions represented in the student body, that's on him, but I'd presume it was unintentional. I thought it was nice that he included all (as far as I know) viewpoints on religion represented at his school. The graduation was secular, and as inclusive of atheists as I could want it to be (I wouldn't want them to promote atheism as part of a public HS graduation ceremony, just acknowedging our existence and contributions along with everyone else's is plenty).
Of course, Columbia is the capital of SC, and a college town. Northeast has an obviously diverse student body. Not so far away:
http://www.wyff4.com/news/local-news/oco...index.html
In case not everyone can follow the link; a student at Pickens tore up his prepared speech approved by the school, and let the attendees in the Lord's Prayer. His motivation seems to have been FFRF advising the school not to have a prayer at the graduation. The crowd cheered.
