What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you remember the speaker at your high school graduation? How about your college graduation? If so, do you remember a line or two from their speech?

Me neither. That’s probably the way it is for most graduates.

Ironically, during my high school graduation, a man running for the U.S. House in Missouri was the speaker. At my college graduation here in Montana, another U.S. House candidate spoke at my graduation. I also took part in a junior college graduation back in the day, but I don’t remember if they even had a speaker. Those days were kind of hazy…

During the days leading up to my college graduation, several people voiced their concerns about political candidates speaking at the graduation ceremony. We were assured that politics would not be discussed, and they weren’t.

So what does my graduation history have to do with anything? Read on…

It’s been fun to read about some people being outraged at Greg and Susan Gianforte being invited to speak at the Montana Tech in Butte spring commencement ceremony on May 17. On May 3, Greg Gianforte is scheduled to speak at the Rocky Mountain College graduation in Billings.

The Montana Standard reported March 27:

Some faculty and students at Montana Tech plan an unprecedented boycott of the university’s spring commencement in protest of the ceremony’s featured speakers, a wealthy couple from Bozeman whose critics say have radical social and religious views.

Doesn’t something like this happen every spring?

According to the Standard, the Gianfortes “are Bozeman millionaires who founded RightNow Technologies and are leading efforts to get more Montana kids involved in the sciences.” They also “support organizations that believe dinosaurs co-existed with people and that the Earth is only 6,000 years old” and they “have supported organizations that believe gays can be turned heterosexual.”

Full disclosure: I attended a “D is for Dinosaur” seminar hosted by Ken Ham back in the early 1990s. I enjoyed the seminar, but I really never had a desire to get involved in the whole creation/evolution debate. In the “big scheme” of things, it just does not matter that much to me. As for the “gays can be turned heterosexual,” I don’t believe that. Most people don’t either.

Some people might also be worried that Greg Gianforte will run for statewide elective office – maybe for Governor in 2016 or U.S. Senate in 2018. That could be the real reason for the outrage. Apparently he has the funds to compete. He seems to be following the path of Congressman (and current U.S. Senate candidate) Steve Daines, who worked at RightNow Technologies. Daines is pretty wealthy himself, coming in as the 41st wealthiest member of Congress in 2013.

While I don’t remember if I have ever personally met the Gianfortes, I have heard Greg Gianforte do interviews.  I was not impressed.

By the way, those two candidates who spoke at my graduations lost their races – and hardly anyone remembers them. I actually had to do some research to find out who they were.

So if Montana Tech faculty and students want to boycott the speech from the Gianfortes, go for it. You probably won’t remember it any way. Meanwhile, the Gianfortes have acquired some free publicity that may help their future plans.

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