PROVIDENCE, RI (AP) – US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked Brown University graduates on Sunday to “keep their hopes up” even as they face the world’s current darkness.
“In the dark, it would be easy to fall into apathy or despair. But we can’t. We can’t, “Pelosi said at the Ivy League school in Providence.
The California Democrat cites the “pointless” shootings at a primary school in Uwalde, Texas, and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York – as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the impending US Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights, the uprising. January 2021 and voter repression.
“You are graduating from a very different world,” she said, praising the students for their courage and resilience.
“Hope remains the most powerful weapon of democracy against oppression, against cynicism, against hatred,” she said.
Citing President Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to unite the country during “one of America’s darkest hours,” Pelosi called on graduates to help summon better angels from our nature to help heal America’s shattered soul. “.
Pelosi was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Class and one of nine people to receive the honorary degree over the three-day weekend. Recording artist Shaggy was also honored on Saturday for his work as a musician and philanthropist.
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