Some Truth for Today's Graduates
-- Work to impact positively the lives of others.
-- Speak your truth with conviction and without fear.
Here's some truth for today's graduates: Many people insist that this country's best days are behind it. Those people are wrong.
I hear television commentators talk about how many of the voters who flock to Trump, or Bernie Sanders, are the victims of globalization. America has betrayed these voters, the pundits say. Their own country has broken a "promise" that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they'd be happy and successful -- and their children even more so.
What total rubbish. There was never any such promise. This is where immigrants could teach the native-born a thing or two. Like this: America offers opportunity, not guarantees. You lose your job, you get another one or start your own business. You suffer a setback, you pick yourself up and press ahead. You don't wallow in self-pity, and you never give up.
That's not always the easy way. But it's something better, more lasting and more satisfying. It's called the American way.
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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.
Copyright 2016 Washington Post Writers Group
