Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave a commencement speech to the Graduates of UC San Diego, offering a warning to be careful of the logic “pride in ‘us’ hurdles into hatred of ‘them’” in modern multi-cultural America.
“When pride in ‘us’ hurdles into hatred of ‘them,’ the American tapestry unravels, and the social fabric is torn,” Albright told the 9,325 graduates in the Class of 2019 at the commencement ceremony on RIMAC Field.
Secretary Albright served under the Clinton administration and was a major proponent for military intervention. In 1999, she pushed to fight the cleansing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
“I feel particularly privileged to participate in a commencement at this university, one of the most dynamic and fast growing on the West Coast. Driving around, as I did yesterday, you cannot miss the major transformation taking place. Clearly, UC San Diego is focused on the future,” she told the graduates.
Albright went on to explain that “only a dozen miles from our southern border, where there is a humanitarian crisis made far worse by the indifference of this administration to the desperate plight of migrants from Central America.”
At a time when the focus should be on the students who graduated and have accomplished a huge life milestone, the event was overshadowed by a former politician putting politics first. The crisis at the border is just that—a crisis. One that should be taken seriously with increased border security funding to help address the crisis, rather than politicizing the situation to new graduates.
