Speaker choice is very uninspired, disappointing

TO THE EDITOR:

As a senior, I find the choice of John Grisham as our 2010 graduation speaker insulting and embarrassing.

This University stands for local and global leadership, community service and the recognition that individuals can change the world; this man embodies none of these characteristics.

Also, UNC claims that he has deep family ties to the University. Are you kidding me? Everyone with a child who graduates from UNC now has “deep family ties” to the school?

My parents both went here, so perhaps I should just invest in a condo at Greenbridge, write a few mind-numbing novels and then I could speak at graduation. A senior quoted in today’s article claims, “He’ll probably be really inspiring.” Are our standards so low that we are content with a speaker who will probably inspire us?

Speakers should have inspired us already, long before they are invited. Desmond Tutu, last year’s speaker, is without a doubt a worldwide inspiration, whose message and purpose will transcend generations.

The Class of 2010 deserves someone like Tutu; we don’t deserve a novelist whose immense fame generates nothing other than his own immense paycheck.

We are intelligent and diverse, involved and will make change. The Daily Tar Heel is right, unfortunately. We will face a lot of rejection in our futures, and it’s too bad that UNC has gotten us started by choosing this speaker and rejecting the character our class embodies.

So shame on you, Carolina; you’re making me wish I’d graduated in 2009.



Courtney Webster
Senior
International Studies