Leon Panetta Kills It

Today Cal Poly held the first two of three graduation ceremonies. The university is divided into six schools and two schools walk in each of the three commencement ceremonies. I walk tomorrow with my fellow College of Liberal Arts graduates and the graduates of the Orfalea College of Business will walk with us. Today I worked crowd control for my company during the 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. commencement ceremonies. I was stationed up in the primary bleacher structure on the west side with the assignment to keep aisles and walkways clear per the fire code. Being positioned where I was I was ideally situated to observe the ceremony which was the third year in a row I worked the Cal Poly spring commencement ceremonies. Today's commencement ceremony attendees were treated to a most excellent speech by Leon Panetta. While I am not a Democrat and do not agree with him politically on many things and view some of the things he did working for the Clinton 42 and Obama Administrations as significant mistakes, I do recognize his lifelong service to my nation and my part of California in particular when he was a local congressman. I also must confess that he gave one hell of a commencement address not once, but twice today. I was duly impressed and must reassess my perception of him. Above, I have a recording of his afternoon address which received a standing ovation more so than after the morning performance of it. I regret that he will not be speaking during my commencement ceremony tomorrow which will be keynoted by somebody else.