No knock on Oprah Winfrey, Desmond Tutu or Joe Biden. But I recently heard a graduation speech that put all these luminaries to shame.
It was at a fifth-grade "bridging" ceremony at Poe Elementary. The speaker was Aziel Faison, 18, a coulda-been thug who brought an unusual message to his young audience.
Forget that most fifth-graders still get a good chuckle out of fart and booger jokes. Forget that the typical graduation script calls for sunshine and standard advice.
Over the chatter in a crowded gym, Faison began with a grim account of the troubles he'd seen in the past two weeks. One cousin dead as a result of gang violence. Another in a coma. A close friend's home strafed with gunfire. Again, gangs suspected.
You could have heard a pin drop.
Faison made no bones about how he could easily have come to a similar end. One of his older brothers was in a gang; another sold drugs.
As he said jokingly in his speech, he became close to Poe Principal Sally Reynolds because he was in her office every other day from first to fifth grade.
"It wasn't because I was so involved in the school," he said.
In a subsequent interview, Faison said there was no kind of trouble he didn't get into. "You name it, I did it," he said.
But through the guidance of his parents, his teachers and his advisers at the Loaves and Fishes after-school program, Faison chose a different path from the one that seemed to be stretching out before him. It didn't happen early, and it didn't happen overnight. Faison said he was in the seventh grade, trying out for football, when he realized he needed to get his act together.
On Saturday morning, Faison attended his own graduation from Enloe High School.
This fall, he will be attending Methodist University in Fayetteville. He hopes to study criminal justice and play a lot of football.
"It is never too late for any student," Faison said. "Parents, teachers and staff, do not give up on us! Because we are the future, and you are our guidance."
Future what? he asked.
"Future high school dropouts, menaces to society, inmates and lowlifes? Or are we the future doctors, lawyers, scholars, professional athletes and business owners?"
Faison said he purposely didn't bring the kids a message of staying in class, staying out of trouble, blah blah blah. "They just tune that out," he said.
Instead, he offered up these pearls:
Learn to count your blessings.
Acknowledge who you are, who you want to become and what it will take to become that. "Do what you need to do in order to get where you need to be."
Observe the world. Think about who is helping you for the better, and who isn't.
Always stay humble. Never forget where you come from or those who helped you get where you are. Always remember and know why you are striving; know your purpose and reasons.
And finally, when others doubt you, make sure you continue on. Not to prove them wrong, but to give them reason to believe.
That's what Aziel Faison did. He beat the odds. He continued on. He gave one class of fifth-graders reason to believe, and he gave their loved ones a lot to think about.
Listen to Ruth at 5 p.m. today on WPTF 680 AM's Bill LuMaye Show.
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