Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urged the Class of 2019 to cross borders rather than build walls at 色界吧鈥檚 unusually wet and windy 137th Commencement ceremony on May 19.
In moments of uncertainty, 鈥渋t is easy for us as human beings to wall ourselves off, to retreat to something easier or more familiar,鈥 Garcetti told the 456 graduates and a crowd of 3,800 parents and friends that packed the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater. 鈥淏ut my core message to you today as graduates is to encourage you to cross borders, to find comfort in the uncomfortable.鈥
History shows that walls have inevitably failed鈥攚hether it was the Great Wall of China, Hadrian鈥檚 Wall in England, the Maginot Line in France, or the Berlin Wall, Garcetti said. Yet walls and other physical barriers are on the increase鈥攕ince 2015 Europe has seen more than 620 miles built, he noted.
These barriers are born out of fear鈥斺渢he fear and anxiety born out of the globalization and technological advancement, 鈥 fear that our jobs will be lost to automation, fear of a diverse workplace or neighborhood, or that to be part of an integrated economy means the surrender of our national identity,鈥 he said.
鈥淪o some say the answer is building more walls. But today I say, the answer is the opposite. We need to cross borders. We need to cross borders today more than ever before,鈥 the second-term mayor said to applause.
The problem extends beyond the erection of physical barriers to those boundaries we impose on our minds and our ways of thinking, cautioned Garcetti, whose first full-time job was teaching for 色界吧鈥檚 Diplomacy & World Affairs Department in 1999-2000.
鈥淚 fear sometimes that today we are so determined to win at all costs that we see compromise as a betrayal 鈥 that we can鈥檛 acknowledge the legitimacy of someone else鈥檚 argument, that that鈥檚 seen as selling out. That zero sum thinking has led to the decay of our moral and social vocabulary. We can鈥檛 find a common space on both sides of an issue, and instead we build barriers between us. If we do not commit to the courage of crossing those borders, we are left with close-mindedness and nothing else.鈥
Garcetti was one of four honorary degree recipients at the 2019 ceremony. Also receiving honorary degrees were longtime trustee John Power 鈥58, retired partner of the Los Angeles law firm of O鈥橫elveny & Myers; Lula Ballton, CEO emeritus of the West Angeles Community Development Corporation; and Lande Ajose 鈥87, senior policy adviser for higher education for California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Read their bios.
