"The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded... This invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all... Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our civic and moral obligation in times of crisis, and I agree... I consider this a time of crisis, and I feel obligated to speak... Senator McCain will also tell us about his strong-headed self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others, and in so doing he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions... I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong... Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
-- Jean Sara Rohe, 21, at graduation cerimonies for The New School, yesterday, as quoted by The New York Times.