{"id":38235,"date":"2018-05-07T13:31:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T17:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=38235"},"modified":"2018-05-08T08:35:42","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T12:35:42","slug":"leymah-gbowees-2018-commencement-address-eastern-mennonite-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/leymah-gbowees-2018-commencement-address-eastern-mennonite-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Leymah Gbowee&#8217;s 2018 Commencement Address, Eastern Mennonite University"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Urgently Needed! Defenders of Peace and Justice<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you, President Huxman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is really a lot of pressure. In one hundred years of EMU&#8217;s existence, w<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ho would have told anyone<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that a girl from West Africa, a tiny village, a tiny country, who came here to<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">validate and to justify her inclusion in peace building work at the community level, would come back several years<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">later as the first honorary degree awardee?<\/span><\/p>\n<aside class=\"highlight highlight-right\">View Commencement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FY9zOWqsXBc&amp;feature=youtu.be\">video<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/photos\/commencement-2018\/\">photos<\/a>. <\/aside>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is really special and I want to thank you all. Thank you, President Huntsman. And I pray that I can continue to live up to the expectations of this great university in this wonderful community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to say congratulations to the graduates. It&#8217;s a special day for me because I have one student graduating with her undergrad degree, Delight Tigoe.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_38233\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38233\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38233 size-medium\" src=\"\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Ceremony-AS-040-1000px-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Ceremony-AS-040-1000px-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Ceremony-AS-040-1000px-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Ceremony-AS-040-1000px.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38233\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo by Andrew Strack)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several years ago, my daughter Amber was probably 12 when she walked into the room and say, &#8220;Mama, you want to invest?&#8221; Of course I want to invest with all these many children in need of firm financial backing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would know later on that when Amber asks you to invest, don\u2019t take her seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then she said, &#8220;I have a friend at school whose father is having a rough time and she&#8217;s about to be put out of<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">school. I want you to invest in her.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From about seventh grade until today, I have been on this journey with Delight, so it&#8217;s a real honor to be here and watch her graduate with her bachelor&#8217;s degree but also graduating as magna cum laude. That&#8217;s awesome. Congratulations, Delight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Y<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ou know when you&#8217;re the commencement<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">speaker, and you have a child that graduated from EMU, they will ask you to do something. So Kennedy Okereke, Josh says, &#8220;Congrats and well up!&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, to<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">serious business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President Huxman, members of the board<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of trustees, faculty, staff, parents, well wishers, graduating class of 2018, ladies<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and gentlemen, it is indeed a great honor to<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is, indeed, another day, week,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">month, year, decade and century that the<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord has made and we should all rejoice<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and be glad in it.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_38248\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38248\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38248 size-medium\" src=\"\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-148-1000px-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-148-1000px-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-148-1000px-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-148-1000px.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38248\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman and Provost Fred Kniss with Leymah Gbowee, the university&#8217;s first honorary doctorate awardee. (Photo by Jon Styer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few days ago I was<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on a flight from New York to Minnesota<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saint Peter&#8217;s, where I was supposed to<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">speak at the Gustavus Adolphus<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University. We sat on a<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">flight, and it was a normal flight, very<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pleasant, some very pleasant individuals<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the flight, and all of a sudden our<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">flight attendant, a man said, &#8220;Look at the<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">skyline! Oh, beautiful city, Minneapolis.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This old man excitedly jumped into<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the conversation, said, &#8220;Yeah, it&#8217;s really<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">beautiful from this side and that side<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the other side.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a really<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pleasant conversation, and then this old man<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">made the mistake of asking the flight attendant, &#8220;Are you from Minneapolis?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Oh no. Oh my god, I hate big cities.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At that moment it was like the floodgate of pessimism opened. &#8220;The world is horrible. I&#8217;ve lost faith in humanity.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One minute, we&#8217;re talking about the beauty of the skyline, and the next minute this guy&#8217;s conversation, just like a downpour of rain, like damping everyone&#8217;s spirit. He said, &#8220;I stopped believing in humanity. Oh my god, it&#8217;s so horrible, and you should see the way they leave the flight when they&#8217;re getting off. I&#8217;ve given up on this world. I&#8217;ve given up on humans.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I sat there I was tempted to say, &#8220;Lord you need help.&#8221; But then I was also tempted to offer some hope, but being the only black person, almost, on that flight, trust me I know I&#8217;m enough, but I told myself, &#8220;Stay out of this one, Leymah.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_38229\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38229\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38229 size-medium\" src=\"\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-255-1000px-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-255-1000px-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-255-1000px-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/05\/20180506-Commencement-Jon-255-1000px.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38229\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo by Jon Styer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I just sat there, thinking, &#8220;What in the world could have brought this man to this place of pessimism, to the place of misery, and to the place of lack of belief in humanity?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, as part of my life, I&#8217;m officially crazy, except that I haven&#8217;t gotten any certification from a mental institution. I know that because I&#8217;m the only person who goes to this website called Gun Archive, to look at the number of shootings in the US, and go to this other website called List of Terror Incidents in the World, and to this other website of wars in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But after getting off that flight, I said to myself, &#8220;It&#8217;s been a while. Maybe this guy visits these sites. Let me go and see what&#8217;s going on.&#8221; And it would amaze you, or some of you already know: Twenty-nine conflicts in Africa, 241 insurgent groups. Sixteen countries in Asia in conflicts, 173 insurgent groups. Ten European countries, between eighty one insurgent groups. Seven countries in the Middle East, 257 insurgent groups. In the Americas, six countries, between 28 drug cartels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s also take a look at the numbers of terrorist attacks in May. In our last check on Saturday since the beginning of May, there have been 23 terror attacks in different parts of the world including Central Africa Republic, and there have been a total of 206 deaths and thousands of injuries. This is from the first of May to the fourth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the month of April, there have been about 106 terror attacks, with a total of 1,585 deaths and thousands of injuries. In the U.S. alone, gun violence, there have been a total number of 19,578 gun related incidents in the U.S. since the beginning of the year, with a total of 4,854 deaths. Children between zero to 11 years account for 202, teens account for 857, and there have been a total of 83 mass shootings. If you go back there today, the number has surged because last night it went up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond these numbers, when we look around our world, especially in places that people never really think about, you have issues of the housing crisis, you have rape and exploitation of women in different parts of the world, the threat to the environment, and many other vices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few years back in New Orleans, a little boy said to me, &#8220;Miss Leymah, I don&#8217;t watch TV anymore because when you watch TV, all you hear is murders, murders, murders and more murders.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The question we are burdened, with even you as graduates and those coming out of CJP with fancy degrees in conflict transformation or restorative justice: Who&#8217;s going to fix our world? Who&#8217;s going to give hope to the hopeless? Who will solve the problems of our world?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I get this question all of the time: &#8220;Do you think there&#8217;s hope? Can we ever get to the place where humanity will respect the way of life of people?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problems of the world \u2013 many problems are calling us to turn to them urgently. Between Tuesday and Saturday, it is not normal for a country like the U.S. to have at least 500 incidents of gun violence. This is a major crisis that needs extra and urgent attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outside the US we have the Rohingya crisis, ethnic cleansing happening on the watch of many individuals, unfortunately my own fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. You go to the DRA Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, women and men suffer at different rates of rape and abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several years of ago I found myself in the middle of a room with 100 women rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo and these women, one after the other, told their stories of pain and suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the last day of my trip in Congo, this doctor from Doctors Without Borders came to have dinner with me, and he sat down, took out his iPhone and handed it to me, and said, &#8220;Tell me the age of this child.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I look and say, &#8220;Well, she&#8217;s probably eight or ten.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said, &#8220;No, she&#8217;s almost 18. This is a young girl that was kept in the mines and repeatedly raped for six months. When they had no use for her sexually, they took a knife and stabbed her in many different places, threw on the roadside for her to die.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She lived. A group of doctors were driving along saw this creature and decided to investigate because it was moving. Took her and took her to the hospital and they had been treating her, when I saw that picture, it was almost six months of intensive medical care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You have issues of &#8220;Me, too&#8221; and &#8220;Time&#8217;s up&#8221; and people in huge places and big places using their powers and the authority they have, to exploit and abuse women.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every day in the world that we live in, we have a crisis. South Sudan is crying out to us. Central African Republic is crying out to us. Mali needs our urgent attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately for us, the United Nations, even the leader sitting up there said in one meeting, &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of pessimism about the UN&#8217;s ability to provide world peace.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who will continue to do this work? Who will keep up the pressure? Who will stand up and rebuke our leaders when their languages are so divisive and reinforces age-old stereotypes of Africans being one way and Americans being another way and Hispanic being another way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who will stand up to the status quo of winners take it all?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who will stand up and reinforce unity and diversity to our young children and say to them, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Regardless of the tone of your skin, your ethnic group, your social class, and your political and sexual identity, we need to co-exist for the good of our world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, there&#8217;s an urgent need for individuals to rise up for the cause of peace and justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may contend, &#8220;I live in Harrisonburg, my community is free of armed conflict and war.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, I will contend with you, that as long as there are people sleeping on cardboard boxes in your streets, you need to rise up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as there is a long line where you have people standing up and can&#8217;t find a meal a day in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, you need to rise up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as the pay gap between men and women in different parts in different career areas, there is a huge gap and a huge difference, you need to rise up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as a particular skin color cannot really say,&#8221;I am a part of this, you need to rise up.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as we still have problems with people&#8217;s private lives and their sexual orientation, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, you need to stand up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as I come through Homeland Security and because I&#8217;m dressed like this and have a head wrap, I&#8217;m taken into a room for extra screening, you need to stand up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as the way I pray and the way I look will make some people uncomfortable, you need to stand up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As long as the reproductive rights of women is still being discussed by men in black suits in rooms, we need people to stand up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The defendants of justice and peace that we urgently seek are individuals who understand that this is a 24\/7 job. You don&#8217;t take vacations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I get questions, &#8220;How you taking care of yourself? How are you resting?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can you rest when in some places you&#8217;re being asked, &#8220;Can you advise this leader on this thing?&#8221; and you take ten steps forward, and in two days, you listen to the news, and you have 20 steps backwards?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The defenders that we&#8217;re looking for are individuals who understand that peace and justice is borderless, so I can interfere in anything that impacts women in the U.S. just as I will interfere in things that impact women in Liberia. Because you know, there is a saying that injustice one place is injustice everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The defenders of peace and justice are individuals that will preach and walk their talk. Gone are days where you will go to the airports and protest a law that says we can&#8217;t allow Muslims, certain types of Muslim in our country when you live on campus and you&#8217;ve never spoken to one of those types of Muslims on your campus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, I never really expected to get an applause because I never get applause for that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The defenders of peace and justice that we&#8217;re seeking are individuals who will post their rants on Facebook and Twitter, but will accompany it by in-person protest and by meeting with their leaders to speak their minds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But most importantly, the defenders of peace and justice are those who understand what it means to be a part of the collective humanity, that regardless of your skin color, the way you pray, we all breathe the same air. God made all of us, whoever you know him to be. And that collective humanity is the one that will insist that I respect someone regardless of their political-social view or their economic status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The defenders of peace and justice that we seek are those who live out the South African versions of Ubuntu. Easily translated, &#8220;I am because of what we all are.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haile Selassie once said, &#8220;Through our history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered the most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our world, as we look left, right, center and forward, and even not very far down the street, we see evil taking over our world. We see justice being denied to those who are urgently in need of justice. We still see spaces and places where women cannot be what they are supposed to be. Their god-given gifts cannot be used. When we look around we still see young men, because of the color of their skin, being arrested just because they are sitting and lounging in a restaurant too long.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We still look around and see people who really should come to SPI and come to programs that would benefit their communities, being denied visas on the basis of how they pray. There are so many things that we all need to rise up, stand up and do something for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear graduates, it doesn&#8217;t take a huge grant from USAID to make a change. It doesn&#8217;t take a lot of money for you to step out there and provide hope for someone who has lost hope in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It doesn&#8217;t take a lot to change the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I started my work in social justice, I started with four young girls in my community, reinforcing to them the value of education, the value of bodily integrity. Several years later I was able to meet one, who looked me in the eye and said, &#8220;I&#8217;m finished with high school. I don&#8217;t have a baby, and I&#8217;m off to college,&#8221; from my neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was like I had just been told I won the Nobel Peace Prize again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It doesn&#8217;t take a lot to walk up to someone and give them hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last night as I sat with Jan Jenner and her husband, I remembered my time at EMU. I don&#8217;t know if anyone knows her, Mary Barb Holmes, she used to live at the VMRC.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the days that I was here \u2013 I&#8217;ve always referred there were students in CJP who were Fulbright, and there were some of us who were empty Brights, meaning we didn&#8217;t have any scholarships, so of course as one of the empty bright students, I had to fit all of my resources was gone. My friend &#8230; would usually share with me, but it was an embarrassing time to keep going back &#8230; and saying, &#8220;I need money.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So this was one of the mornings where I couldn&#8217;t even find a sandwich for breakfast. I sat in my room and wrote all my papers and cried. But then I decided, let me just take a walk, so I walked up and sat in that building there in the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I just sat there, and this old lady walked in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Hi. Are you an international student?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I said, &#8220;Yes.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Do you need someone to help you edit your paper?&#8221; and I was like, &#8220;Lord Jesus. This is the last thing I need this morning.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I said politely, &#8220;Yes.&#8221; Well, she was old, she seemed like she needed a friend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Well, I can help you.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I said, &#8220;Well, but I don&#8217;t have my paper here. It&#8217;s back in my apartment.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She sat next to me and said, &#8220;Young lady I don&#8217;t know what is going on with me, but pardon me. I was in my apartment, and the Lord told me to make a sandwich, and here.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;m sitting there and saying, &#8220;Do I pretend as if I&#8217;m not hungry, or just take it?&#8221; And I took the sandwich, and we had a conversation, but it began a friendship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason why I&#8217;m telling this story is because that moment was one of those moments that taught me that there will always be people out there who will show concern when everyone else in the world is too busy to look down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distinguished graduates, you&#8217;re stepping into the world where the stats are discouraging, people&#8217;s actions are unpredictable, leaders&#8217; decisions are nerve-wracking. Step out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever your calling may be, defend peace and justice with your actions, your interactions and your attitude.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most especially, when issues are no longer trending, and the hashtags are no longer hashing, and the lights and cameras are off, defend peace, defend justice. You could never go wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>More Commencement coverage:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/05\/we-made-it-emu-confers-540-degrees-and-one-honorary-doctorate-at-100th-commencement\/\">\u2018We Made It!\u2019 EMU confers 540 degrees, and one honorary doctorate, at 100th Commencement<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/05\/cjp-graduates-from-eight-states-and-12-countries-charged-to-maximize-healing\/\">CJP graduates from eight states and 12 countries charged to \u2018maximize healing\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/05\/eastern-mennonite-seminary-graduates-22-better-christ-followers-to-many-callings\/\">Eastern Mennonite Seminary graduates 22 \u2018better Christ-followers\u2019 to many callings<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Christopher Clymer Kurtz provided transcription services.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Urgently Needed! Defenders of Peace and Justice Thank you, President Huxman. This is really a lot of pressure. In one hundred years of EMU&#8217;s existence, who would have told anyone <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/leymah-gbowees-2018-commencement-address-eastern-mennonite-university\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Leymah Gbowee&#8217;s 2018 Commencement Address, Eastern Mennonite University<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14184,12503,16077,8845],"tags":[],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-38235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-guests","category-cjp","category-commencement-alumni","category-emu-at-lancaster"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leymah Gbowee&#039;s 2018 Commencement Address, Eastern Mennonite University - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/leymah-gbowees-2018-commencement-address-eastern-mennonite-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leymah Gbowee&#039;s 2018 Commencement Address, Eastern Mennonite University - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Urgently Needed! Defenders of Peace and Justice Thank you, President Huxman. This is really a lot of pressure. 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