PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

It has been and will be a different kind of graduation from college for the Class of 2020.

Most of the ceremonies, if there are ceremonies at all, will occur by way of some kind of technology – and thus will be very different from what occurred for me and many others in my age group.

Still, graduation is a time for thinking about the future, even amidst the pandemic and the protests.

In so doing, one of the best approaches is to note graduation addresses given on-line by former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

What they delivered is full of good information and perspective for graduates.

Before providing a few excerpts, it should be said that I was one who had questions about President Obama’s actions in office.  For me, he was often too quick to advocate for a government solution to everything, though, today, that concern could ring a bit hollow as we rely on government to get us through the pandemic.

Still, with Obama, whatever I thought about his policies, I never had one question about his honesty and ethics.  In a phrase, what I saw was what I got.  In that way, he stands in direct contrast to the person now in the Oval Office.

In a clip from Barack Obama’s speech, courtesy of YouTube Originals, the former president highlighted the challenges that the Class of 2020 and the rest of their generation are currently up against, which go well beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

“In a lot of ways,” he said, “the pandemic just brought into focus problems that have been growing for a very long time, whether it’s widening economic inequality, the lack of basic healthcare for millions of people, the continuing scourge of bigotry and sexism, or the divisions and dysfunctions that plague our political system.”

Obama also noted that the ongoing protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop and other black Americans are not just a response to these particular tragedies, but to a systemic problem that has pervaded the U.S. for centuries.

“They speak to decades of anguish and frustration over unequal treatment and a failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system.

“These shocks to the system that we’re seeing right now, just as you prepare to go out into the world — they remind us that we can’t take things for granted.  We have to work together to make things better.”

In her speech, Michelle Obama expressed empathy with all the young people who right now feel as if “everything in your life is turned upside down.”

“Life will always be uncertain,” she affirmed. “It is a lesson that most of us get the chance to learn over the course of years and years, even decades, but one that you’re learning right now.  Look, I’ve been there many times in my life. I felt it most profoundly when my father and my best friend died within a year of each other.  I was in my late twenties — oh, it felt like my whole world was collapsing in on itself.  I would’ve given anything — anything — to bring them back.”

She went on to say that the experience gave her “a kind of clarity,” and a motivation to forge a new path on her own — one devoted to public service.  “Graduates, I hope that what you’re going through right now can be your wake-up call. That it pushes you, not just to think about what kind of career you want to build, but what kind of person you want to be.”

Both Obamas told the Class of 2020, that what these past few weeks have shown us is that the challenges we face go well beyond a virus, and that the old normal wasn’t good enough — it wasn’t working.

So, as scary and uncertain as these times may be, the Obamas said they should be a wake-up call, and “they are an incredible opportunity for your generation.

“Because you don’t have to accept what was considered normal before.  You don’t have to accept the world as it is.  You can make it into the world as it should be and could be.  You can create a new normal, one that is fairer, and gives everyone opportunity, and treats everyone equally, and builds bridges between people instead of dividing them.

“Just as America overcame slavery and civil war, recessions and depression, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and all kinds of social upheaval, we can emerge from our current circumstances stronger than before. Better than before.

They suggested this prescription for being better:

• First, do what you think is right, not just what’s convenient or what’s expected or what’s easy.
• Second, listen to each other, respect each other, and use all that critical thinking you’ve developed from your education to help promote the truth.
• Third, recognize that, for all the good it can do, social media also can be a tool to spread conflict, division and falsehoods — to bully people and promote hate.
• Finally, even if it all seems broken, have faith in our democracy. Participate — and vote. Don’t fall for the easy cynicism that says nothing can change — or that there’s only one way to bring about change.

Good words from both of the Obamas.