A Wonderful Address

I've always loved author and narrator David McCullough, but I love him even more after hearing about this commencement speech: "In a heartfelt ode to the power and joys of education, acclaimed historian David McCullough exhorted Boston College graduates yesterday to 'make the love of learning central to your life.'

'We are what we read, to a very considerable degree,' the writer said. With dismay, McCullough cited a survey finding that one-third of college-educated Americans had not read a single novel in the past year, and he called on graduates to 'read, read, read!' 'Read the classics of American literature that you've never opened. Read your country's history. . . . Read about the great turning points in the history of science and medicine and ideas.' He also pleaded with graduates to rid the vernacular of a 'verbal virus': the rampant use of 'like,' 'you know,' 'awesome,' and 'actually.' 'Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, 'Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country, actually.'"