Valerie Jarrett encourages NEIU graduates to "be a force for good,"

Valerie Jarrett

For every college commencement, the standing tradition is that there must be a keynote speaker, receiving an honorary doctorate, and encouraging graduates to greatness and the promise of a future, solely their own.  There have been some memorable ones, and some that might be well forgotten. Rising to the occasion, on Monday, was former senior advisor to President Obama, Valerie Jarrett, who went beyond platitudes for the 900 graduates of Chicago’s Northeastern Illinois University.

Using the vision of the Obama presidency, as a fulcrum, she joined it to the progressive legacy that both he, and First Lady Michelle Obama, emphasized, not merely one that was political, although there was that, but the diversity of all people, including herself, “to connect with people of different life experiences other than my own.”

Jarrett, a Chicago native, who was born abroad when her father, an African-American physician, had to go overseas, to Iran, to practice, noted ruefully, where he earned half as much as his white counterparts. Returning to Chicago she later had a professional life that took her on an equally diverse path, before she reached the White House, (including law school), serving as the Chief Executive Office of The Habitat Company in Chicago, Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board, and Deputy Chief of Staff former Mayor Richard M. Daley, among other equally notable achievements.

While her own path took her to the corridors of power, she was able to give back to the the community, with many efforts, but especially through her position as chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, an initiative that helps support the efforts of gender based equality.

Most pointedly, with the controversies of the new administration, which she never mentioned, by name, she reminded the graduates that “the world looks to the United States for leadership,” and they should not be afraid to be part of the resistance needed, a theme that both the former president, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have espoused in the aftermath of the election.

Often overlooked, but not by Jarrett, is the power of the voting booth, and that they as citizens should vote, and “not just in the presidential elections,” in perhaps a nod to the 2018 midterm elections when defeated Democrats are expected to affect the most change, and resistance, to the presidency of Donald Trump.

For such an occasion, and by such a person closely aligned, not only to the Obama administration, but to Barack and Michelle themselves, Jarrett has been credited with helping to shape both their image and response to challenges.  Extending this experience, she encouraged the graduates to “be willing to engage,” in the process of change, that their education can now help them to achieve.

Coming on the heels of the remarks by student speaker Joshua Koo, who emphasized embracing the benefits of being a pragmatic romantic, who could help change the world, Jarrett’s remarks were targeted to a group of students, many of whom are first time college graduates, from low-income backgrounds, or who have made the commitment to advanced degrees at a less traditional age.

Koo also referred to the challenges of the “greater change,” a theme that echoed that of the Obama campaign of “change we can believe in,” and Jarrett did not hesitate to give the litany of change effected by the Obama administration: health care through the Affordable Care Act, the rehabilitation of the auto industry, restoring the economy with confidence and creativity, and managing two wars, to name but a few.

She also did not shy away from the challenges they faced: unemployment at 10 percent, 40 million people without health insurance, a broken immigration system, and, “the worst fiscal crisis” in decades.  But, throughout the tough times, she and others in the administration, were able to harness the courage to soldier on.

Throughout all she said that Obama ‘was able to bend the arc of the universe towards justice.” The results included a “reduction of unemployment from 10 to 5 percent, the lowest poverty level since 1961, three-quarters of all Americans with health insurance, higher graduation rates, and diplomatic relations with Cuba”

Doing what was right, and not bending to self-serving interests, brought the former president last week to receive the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award where for the first time publicly acknowledging the Republican efforts to dismantle his signature legacy of health care, he said, "I hope that current members of Congress recall that it actually doesn't take a lot of courage to aid those who are already powerful, already comfortable, already influential. But it does require some courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm.”

Jarrett quoted Kennedy when she said, that the graduates need to embrace his challenge, by having “the courage to move the country forward in the face of great challenges,” and, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Perhaps at no other time, since they were first penned, have they held so much significance for millions of Americans in a new millennium, with even greater challenges, than those in 1961.

While acknowledging that in his presidential years that Obama found his leadership core, “his true north,” (referencing Bill George’s inspirational book of that title), Jarret felt that, she too, in working on the behalf of the future of the country, “our true north was you.” In summation, to resounding applause, she challenged the new graduates to “be a force for good, and yes we can.”