Clinton visits Michigan Stadium. --Bill, not Hill or Chel

by: David Boyle

Sat Apr 28, 2007 at 16:12:14 PM EDT

Plane with "Choose Life Not Hillary & Abortion" message!

  Today's visit by President 42 to Mich Stadium for the UM commencement was late, or at least the ceremony started about 1/2 hour late. Clinton is not famous for being on time...
  Amazingly, someone hired a small plane to buzz overhead, with messages like "Defend the Unborn" and "Choose Life Not Hillary & Abortion", with "Abortion" in red! How thoughtful.

Bill C on two screens, featuring his shiny white hair

  However, to my relief, Bill did not mention Hillary or her campaign once, to my recollection. Despite his problems with Dubai and such, he gave a speech that was not bad at all.
  Mentioning some of his Clinton Foundation humanitarian work in Rwanda and elsewhere--some of which was helped by talented UM students, we learned--, he riffed off of UM's finishing '06-'07 "citizenship theme year", and said the graduating youngsters would need to define citizenship for themselves in our increasingly interdependent world. (Clinton said he liked "interdependent" better than "globalizing".)
  In between mentioning problems like global warming and the dirty drinking water which kills many children under the age of 5 worldwide, Clinton mentioned his signature themes of opportunity, responsibility, and community (though he called the last one "belonging" today), and said that our currently unequal, insecure, and unsustainable world would have to be improved with all these values, presumably wielded by the newly minted UM grads.

  42 also dropped some funny jokes, such as his philosophical realization that Bo Schembechler (RIP), a hardcore Republican, could maybe change his party registration in the afterlife--but was it moral for him, Bill Clinton, to pray for it?
  Also, BC said some nice words about Gerald Ford (RIP), with whom he had had a 2-day golf trip and other nice experiences.

  One of the key words in his speech was "integration", which is what our world interdependency should ideally lead to, if we try hard. (Clinton adeptly praised the (very funny) graduating class speaker Abdul El-Sayed, as an example that disproves the doomsayers who preach "various cultures can't get along".)
  And he subtly jabbed at the current war in Iraq by saying that the problems such as tainted drinking water are crucial, since they may actually kill more people than wars do in the upcoming century. (Clinton noted that we may not have Hitler, etc., to kill people in wars now, but there are plenty of other big challenges.)

  Maybe Bill earned his honorary Doctor of Laws degree today after all!

The name is Bond. J. Max Bond

  There were other dignitaries or honorees on stage, such as J. Max Bond Jr. in the photo above (on screen, not the guy in the way of the camera), the award-winning African-American architect who overcame prejudice and abuse to become one of America's great building designers, and to get a UM honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree today. (Sort of fits with Clinton's theme of "integration".)

  I'm not sure I'll vote for Hillary (it's not because of the plane and sign), but with moments like these, I'd still vote for Bill Clinton over either George Bush any day of the week, I suspect...