COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES. Here's to New School grad Jean Rohe, who offered a sensible "prebuttal" to John McCain's speech at the New School commencement ceremony this week.

Apparently McCain gave the same speech at the New School that he gave at Columbia University and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. I suppose the point was that he's not afraid to spout the same conservative platitudes in front of different audiences--how bold! As is typical for many modern politicians in the United States, he gives lip service to American diversity but panders to the religious: "We have our disagreements, we Americans. We contend regularly and enthusiastically over many questions: over the size and purposes of our government; over the social responsibilities we accept in accord with the dictates of our conscience and our faithfulness to the God we pray to...." Rohe didn't talk about that, but I thought I'd mention it.

So far I'm aware of one other commencement speech that, like Rohe's, merits attention and applause. It was given to graduates of the Columbia Journalism School by Farnaz Fassihi. As you might recall, Fassihi is a reporter (and Columbia J School grad) whose September 2004 letter about covering Iraq garnered a lot of attention. I'm very impressed by what she said this week...and how she said it.

Oh yes: There was also this prayer from Rev. Scot Sloan. I don't think you'd hear that kind of thing from Falwell.