Sometimes I just feel the need to share a little bit more of who my
kids are. The following is a copy of a speech Caleb presented today. I
find it fascinating how his mind works and how he was able to come up
with this. You may recognize that his inspiration was taken from several
great men and their most famous speeches. (not sure what they would say
to this speech, but it brought a smile to my face).
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| Always thinking!!! |
Four weeks and seven months ago my father and mother brought forth on
this campus a new student, deemed a freshman but dedicated to the
proposition that one day he might survive his first year at college.
But
now we are engaged in a great war of finals week. Testing whether that
student or any student so enrolled, and so dedicated can long endure. We
are met in a great classroom of that war. We have gathered here today
to remember and dedicate a portion of that classroom and of that campus
to those who sacrificed their time and their sleep so that they might
receive a degree.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we
cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow these campus grounds. The brave
students before us, sleep deprived or well rested, barely passing or
honors, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor ever hear of what we say here, but it
cannot neglect what those brave students did here. It is for us, the
still enrolled, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which we
have before us. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task of
finals remaining before us. That from these honored graduates we take
inspiration that it can be done. That we here highly resolve that those
graduates did not endure college in vain. That this nation, under God,
needs a new birth of workers and that the job pool of the workers, by
the workers, and for the workers will not perish from this earth.
I
have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is
neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being
made, we shall prove ourselves worthy to ride out the storm of finals,
and to outlive the menace of prerequisites, if necessary for years, and
if necessary alone. At any rate that is what we are going to try to do.
That is the resolve of this student body. That is the will of the
administration of this great establishment and university. The students
of this great university will endure, even though many students have
failed before and many more will. We shall not waver. We shall go on to
the end, we shall fight in Glaske, we shall fight in Hardwick and
Longview, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing knowledge,
we shall defend our grades, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on
the beaches of the pond, we shall fight on the landing grounds of Abbott
Aviation, we shall fight in the dorm rooms and in the labs, we shall
fight in the classrooms; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I
do not for a moment believe, this student body or a large part of it
were failing and struggling, then those students beyond the Longview
campus and beyond the University of LeTourneau would carry on the
struggle, until, in God’s good time, the new workforce, with all its
power and skill, steps forth to rescue and liberate the old.
And so
my fellow LeTourneau students, ask not what your university can do for
you - ask what you can do for your university. To study or not study,
that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind of a student to
suffer the pains and sorrows of unemployment, or to take arms against
the economy of trouble. To study, lose sleep. Lose sleep perchance lose
dreams. But I will not lose my dream. Because I have a dream.
I have a
dream that one day the students of LeTourneau University will no longer
be judged based on their academic standing or upon the contents of
their GPA, but on their dedication and hard work. I have a dream that
those enrolled in this University will succeed and achieve what was once
thought unachievable. I have a dream that one day freshman and juniors,
sophomores and seniors, will all join the work force of this great
nation. That one day they will walk across the glorious stage in Belcher
auditorium to receive their diploma from the president of this fine
University. And if those students so dedicated to the cause of
graduation, succeed and win the battle of finals and midterms, essays
and speeches, presentations and lab reports. And if for such a time as
this they go out into every workplace, every nation. Let their freedom
ring. Let it ring from the construction site of the Anna Lee and Sidney
Allen Family Student Center. Let freedom ring from the fine dining of
the Corner Cafeteria. Let freedom ring from the bunker of the Robert
Gilmore Letourneau Memorial Student Center. But not only that; let
freedom ring from the halls of Glaske Engineering. Let freedom ring from
the residence hall named after a cardinal direction. Let freedom ring
from every classroom and dorm room. From every academic building, let
freedom ring.
And when this happens, when their freedom rings, when
they let it ring from every inch of this campus, they will be able to
join hands around the ivy cutting ceremony and sing in the words of the
old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we
are free at last!”
