Today, we offer a graduation speech that contrasts the President’s remarks at West Point that we published last week. It is the speech to Wake Forest University graduates by Scott Pelley, the former anchor of the CBS Evening News and lead correspondent for Sixty Minutes.  Without mentioning the speaker at West Point, Pelley did address the challenges he has created to American ideals and principles. Pelley did not intentionally pause, expecting applause. His speech was a little short of 22 minutes.

He was introduced by Susan Rae Wente, the President of Wake Forest.

“Mr. Pelley is a gifted storyteller who can humanize any event, and some of his most riveting narratives are about everyday people. According to Mr. Pelley, the people are the story. In his 2019 book, Truth Worth Telling, he profiles famous and not-so-famous individuals who discover meaning in their lives when they experience a historical event. Mr. Pelley shares his own pivotal moment when he reported from the World Trade Center on 9/11 as the North Tower collapsed. Truth Worth Telling is an insightful memoir that explores the impact of values and courage, reminding us of the importance of free speech and free press in a democratic society, for modeling pro-humanitate values in his intentional efforts to humanize historic events, for inspiring future generations of journalists to adopt an uncompromising approach to broadcast journalism, and for tirelessly defending democracy’s need for free press and free speech in challenging times, Mr. Scott Cameron Pelley is recommended for the degree of doctor of humane letters.”

SCOTT PELLEY: You know, if we were in London, walking past Portland Place on a beautiful spring day. We would encounter the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation, nearly 100-year-old building from which Edward R. Murrow, the original CBS News correspondent stood on the roof and broadcast back to America, the falling bombs of fascism that fell on that free city month after month. And if we walk a little bit further past the BBC, we will encounter another hero in the fight against fascism, George Orwell. He’ll be standing right there, frozen in bronze with his words carved in the side of the building. “If liberty means anything at all, it means telling someone something that they don’t want to hear.” I fear there may be some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today. But I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty. I’m a reporter, so I won’t bury the lead.

Your country needs you. The country that has given you so much is calling you, the class of 2025, your country needs you and it needs you today. As a reporter, I’ve learned to respect opinions. Reasonable people differ about the life of our country and America works well. When we listen to those that we disagree with where we listen to those and we disagree with and have common ground and compromise and one thing we can all agree on — one thing at least — America is at her best when everyone is included to move forward. We debate, not demonize.

I like this crowd. To move forward, we debate, not demonize. We discuss, not destroy. But in this moment, This moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack, universities are under attack, freedom of speech is under attack. An insidious fear is reaching through our school, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak in America. If our government, in Lincoln’s phrase, of the people. By the people, for the people, then why are we afraid to speak? The Wake Forest class of 1861 — they did not choose their time of calling. The class of 1941 did not choose. The class of 1968 did not choose. History chose them. And now, history is calling you, the class of 2025. You may not feel prepared, but you are. You are not descended of fearful people. You brought your values to school with you and now wait for us has trained you to seek the truth to find the meaning of life.

Let me tell you about three people, briefly, who I’ve met recently who discovered the meaning of their lives in a moment of crisis, not unlike what we have today. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, spent his entire career as an entertainer on television. His first elected office was president of Ukraine, and three years ago, the Russian army came at him from three directions. He had a decision to make. So, he reached for the most lethal weapon in the Ukrainian arsenal: his cell phone. And he walked out in front of the presidential offices in Kyiv and made a video selfie. And told his people, I’m still here. Your army is still here and we are going to fight, galvanized 44 million people instantly. And today, three years later. He is all that stands between a murderous dictator in Russia and the rest of free Europe. I asked — [APPLAUSE] I asked Zelenskyy: Where did that come from? And he said, Well, You look in the mirror. And you ask who are you? Nadia Murad, a young woman that we at 60 Minutes found in a refugee camp in Iraq. Her family had been murdered by ISIS. And she had been sold for money into slavery. We convinced her to tell her story on 60 Minutes, which she did, and she found her voice and after that interview, she began to write, and then she began to speak about the crimes that women suffer in war and, a few years later, this young woman that we found in a refugee camp, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Who are you?

Finally, Dr. Sam Attar, he’s an orthopedic surgeon in Chicago. professor of surgery at Northwestern, who volunteers to do surgery in war zones in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Syria to try to save the lives of innocent people wounded by war, using whatever meager supplies that he has at hand. I asked him: Where does this come from? And Sam Matar told me, it’s not much. But it beats barry — but it beats burying your head in fear and ignorance. Who are you? What is the meaning of life?

Today — today, great universities are threatened with ruin. So what did President Wente and Provost Gillespie do? They spoke out. They joined other institutions signing The Call for Constructive Engagement: A Declaration of the Relationship Between Government and Higher Education. It reads in part: “Institutions of higher education share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear — without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation.” Who are you? What does this make Wake Forest in this moment? Well, I think we know. Did you hear that phrase in the declaration? Pursuit of the truth. Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power. First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists and their companies for nothing. Then send masked agents to abduct a college student who wrote an editorial in her college paper defending Palestinian rights and send her to a prison in Louisiana, charged with nothing. Then move to destroy the law firms that stand up for the rights of others. With that done, power can rewrite history with grotesque, false narratives. They can make criminals heroes and heroes, criminals. Power can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. Diversity is now described as illegal. Equity is to be shunned. Inclusion — it is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends. There’s nothing new in this. George Orwell, who we met on the street in London 1949, he warned us about what he called news speak. He understood that ignorance works for power, but then it is ignorance, isn’t it? That you have repudiated every single day here at Wake Forest University. Who are you?

I think we know. Can just speaking the truth actually work? Well, consider this day. May 19, this day, May 19, 1963. And Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from a Birmingham jail was published for the first time. In that letter, Dr. King says that the first thing that has to be done in the pursuit of justice is collecting the facts. Power was telling him in a jail cell. Do not speak the truth because power will crush you, but consider just months before that letter was published, Wake Forest University became the first major private institution of higher education in the South to integrate. 1962. The year after King’s letter, 1964, the Civil Rights Act is passed. The year after that, 1965, the Voting Rights Act is passed. Now, today, both of those are under attack. But can the truth win? My friends, nothing else does. It may be a long road, but the truth is coming. Did you hear the other phrase in the declaration that was signed. By President Wente and Provost Gillespie? Without fear. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s an affirmation that you know who you are. You know what you stand for and you know that, in the end — in the long end, the Constitution. will defend you even in the face of fearsome times. In the words of one of your former Wake Forest professors: “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust. I’ll rise. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear. I rise, bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave I rise, I rise, I rise.” The poet Maya Angelou taught at Wake Forest. She saw the fear that power sought to impose and yet, in her famous phrase, she still knew why the caged bird sings.

Oh, this university, old and wise, has seen worse. It is overcome existential threats before to our country. You are not alone. A legion has gone before you, but now, it is the class of 2025 that is called in another extraordinary time. Will you permit me a word of advice? I think this is how I created at least one astronomer.

Do not settle. You only get one pass at this. This world is going to tell you no, 1000 times, but listen to the song in your heart. If they can’t hear it, that’s on them, not on you. In the 1980s I was rejected by CBS News over and over and over again, over years. They told me at one point, please stop applying. They did and at the time, I thought, what’s wrong with these people? They couldn’t hear the song in my heart. Eh, maybe they were smarter. Every time I was rejected, I got better. Maybe that was the plan. But I finally made them hear the music in my heart. You only lose if you quit. Do not settle. What is the meaning of life? Who are you? You are the educated. You are the compassionate. You are the fierce defenders of democracy, the seekers of truth, the vanguard against ignorance. You are millions strong across our land. I might be sorry that you were picked by history for this role, but maybe that was the plan. Hard times are going to make you better and going to make you stronger. In a few minutes, when that diploma hits your hand, it’s not a piece of paper we’re giving you, we’re handing you the baton. Run with it.

Why am I here? I’m here today because I’m 50 years farther down the trail than you are and I have doubled back this morning to tell you the one thing that I have learned from Volodymyr Zelinsky, Nadia Murad, Sam Attar, and 1,000 others: In a moment like this, when our country is in peril, don’t ask the meaning of life. Life is asking, “What’s the meaning of you?” With great admiration for your achievement, with confidence that you will rise to this occasion. I thank you very humbly for the honor of being with you. Thank you very much.

—-The MAGA folks attacked Pelley’s remarks, of course.

We have published these two speeches to record examples of the divisions of our times.  We don’t believe they could be more clear.