I Didn't Say It ... The Resistance

Scott Pelley, American author and reporter for CBS News, speaking at Wake Forest University’s graduation, using the graduates to take a stand:

“I fear there are some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today. But I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty.

I’m a reporter so I won’t bury the lead. Your country needs you. The country that has given you so much is calling you, the Class of 2025. The country needs you, and it needs you today. As a reporter, I have learned to respect opinions. Reasonable people can differ about the life of our country. America works well when we listen to those with whom we disagree and when we listen and when we have common ground and we compromise. And one thing we can all agree on—one thing at least—is that America is at her best when everyone is included.

To move forward, we debate, not demonize. We discuss, not destroy. But in this moment—this moment, this morning—our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. An insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak. In America? If our government is—in Lincoln’s words—“of the people, by the people and for the people”—then why are we afraid to speak?

The Wake Forest Class of 1861 did not choose their time of calling. The Class of 1941 did not choose. The Class of 1968 did not choose. History chose them. And now history is calling you, the Class of 2025. You may not feel prepared, but you are. You are not descended of fearful people. You brought your values to school with you and now Wake Forest has trained you to seek the truth, to find the meaning of life.

Let me tell you briefly about three people I have recently met who discovered the meaning of their lives in moments of crisis not unlike what we have today.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, spent his entire career as an entertainer on television. His first elected office was president of Ukraine. And three years ago, the Russian army came at him from three directions. He had a decision to make. And so he reached for the most lethal weapon in the Ukranian arsenal: his cell phone. 

He walked out of front of the presidential offices in Kyiv and made a video selfie. He told his people, “I’m still here and your army is still here, and we are going to fight.” He galvanized 44 million people instantly. Today, three years later, he is all that stands between a murderous dictator in Russia and the rest of free Europe. I asked him, “Where did that come from?” And he said, “Well, you look in the mirror and you ask, ‘Who are you’”?

Nadia Marad, a woman whom we at 60 Minutes found in a refugee camp in Iraq. Her family was murdered by ISIS and she had been sold for money into slavery. We convinced her to tell her story on 60 Minutes, which she did and she found her voice. Then she began to write, and then she began to speak about the crimes that women suffer in war. And a few years later, this young woman who we had found in a refugee camp won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Who are you?

Finally, Dr. Samer Attar, an orthopedic surgeon in Chicago and a professor of surgery at Northwestern who volunteers to do surgery in war zones. In Gaza. In Ukraine. In To save lives of innocent people by using whatever meager supplies he has at hand. I asked him, “Where does this come from?” He told me, “It’s not much, but it beats burying your head in fear and ignorance.”

Who are you?

What is the meaning of life?

Today, great universities are threatened with ruin. So what did President Wente and Provost Gillespie do? They spoke out. They joined other institutions signing the call for constructive engagement, a declaration of the relationship between government and higher education. It reads in part, “Institutions of higher education share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.”

Who are you? What does this make Wake Forest in this moment? Well, I think we know.

Did you hear that phrase in the Declaration? “Pursuit of truth?” Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power.

First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists. For nothing. Then send masked agents to abduct a college student, a writer of her college paper who wrote an editorial supporting Palestinian rights, and send her to a prison in Louisiana and charge her with nothing. Then, move to destroy law firms that stand up for the rights of others.

With that done, power can rewrite history. With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes. And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality.

“Diversity” is now described as “illegal.” “Equity” is to be shunned. “Inclusion” is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends. There is nothing new in this. George Orwell – who we met on the street in London – in 1949, he warned of what he called “new speak.” He understood that ignorance works for power.

But it is ignorance that you have repudiated every single day here at Wake Forest University. Who are you? I think we know.

Can just speaking the truth actually work? Well, consider this day. This day. May 19. May 19, 1963. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was published for the first time. In that letter, Dr. King says, “The first thing that has to be done in the pursuit of justice is collecting the facts.”

Power was telling him in a jail cell, “Do not speak the truth because power will crush you.”

But consider that just months before that letter was published, Wake Forest University became the first major private institution of higher education in the South to integrate. In 1962.

The year after Dr. King’s letter –1964 – the Civil Rights Act is passed. And the year after that – 1965 – the Voting Rights Act is passed. Now today both of those are under attack. But can the truth win? My friends, nothing else does. It may be a long road, but the truth is coming.

Did you hear the other phrase in the declaration that was signed by President Wente and Provost Gillespie? “Without fear.”

That does not mean there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s an affirmation that you know who you are. That you know what you stand for. And that you know in the end – the long end – the Constitution will defend you even in the face of fearsome times.

In the words of one of your former Wake Forest professors:

‘You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies.

You may tread me into the very dirt, but like dust, I’ll rise.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise.

Into a daybreak that’s wonderfully clear, I rise.

Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave me, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise.

I rise.

I rise.’

The poet Maya Angelou taught at Wake Forest. She saw the fear that power sought to impose, yet in her famous phrase, she still knew why the caged bird sings.

This university, old and wise, has seen worse. It has overcome existential threats before to our country. You are not alone. A legion has gone before you. And now it is the Class of 2025 that is called in another extreme time.

Will you permit me another word of advice? I think this is how I created at least one astronomer.

Do not settle. You only get one pass at this. This world is going to tell you no a thousand times, but listen to the song in your heart. If they can’t hear it, that’s on them and not on you.

In the 1980s, I was rejected by CBS News over and over and over again over the years. They told me at one point, “Please stop applying.” They really did. And at the time, I thought “What’s wrong with these people?” They couldn’t hear the song in my heart. Maybe they were smarter. Every time I was rejected, I got better. Maybe that was the plan. But I finally made them hear the music in my heart.

You only lose if you quit. Do not settle.

What is the meaning of life? Who are you? You are the educated. You are the compassionate. You are the fierce defenders of democracy, the seekers of truth, the vanguards against ignorance. You are millions strong across our land.

You might be sorry that you were picked by history for this role. But maybe that was the plan. Hard times are going to make you better and stronger. In a few minutes, when that diploma hits your hand, it’s not a piece of paper you’re holding. We’re handing you a baton. Run with it.

Why am I here today? I’m 50 years farther down the trail than you are, and I have doubled back this morning to tell you the one thing I have learned from Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Nadia Marad and Samer Attar and a thousand others: In a moment like this, when our country is in peril, don’t ask the meaning of life. Life is asking, “What’s the meaning of you?”

With great admiration for your achievements and with confidence that you will rise to this occasion, I thank you very humbly for the honor of being with you.

Thank you very much.”

Fox News wants Pelley arrested for his words.

The DOJ may investigate Pelley for his words.

The Felon, already suing Paramount and CBS, is riled up AF for his words.

His words need to be spread because that is the Resistance.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Pete Hegseth, Fox & Friends co-host, on _____’s response to investigations:

“It’s interesting you hear the narrative from the left that they’re getting under his skin. I think it’s opposite. This guy has the thickest skin considering the investigations and the resistance he’s been under. And when he gets asked a question, he answers it.”

Does Hegseth get paid by the lie?

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Seth Rogen, actor, saying he regrets the homophobic jokes in some of his earlier films:

“We do not want people to feel bad when they’re watching our movies. I’ve had people come up to me and be like, ‘That made me feel like sh*t when I was in the movie theater and everyone was laughing about that.’ Like the ‘How I know you’re gay’ thing [from The 40-Year-Old Virgin], it’s something people have been like, ‘It’s not fun to be in the theater when people are laughing at that, knowing what they’re probably actually laughing at.’ And I don’t want anyone to have that experience watching our movies.”

Too bad it took him so long to learn it, but maybe others will now learn the same thing.

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Pete Buttigieg, on Colin Kaepernick’s right to take a knee during the national anthem, and on _____ going after the protesters:

"The way I feel about it is the flag that was on my shoulder when I served represented, among other things, our right to free speech. You don't have to like it, but one of the reasons we serve was to defend that right, the right of peaceful protest and the idea that we can protest what is wrong with our country. If the president had served, maybe he'd feel a little more strongly about some of those freedoms. And, I get that there's a lot of strong opinions about this, but that's part of why we served."

For freedom, something _____ wants to take away.

Use your right to Free Speech, often, and loudly.

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Scott Pelley, former CBS Evening News anchor, on being ousted for complaining about the news division’s “hostile work environment”:

“I lost my job because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management. Four or five years ago, I went to the [David Rhodes] president of the news division and explained to him that this hostile work environment couldn’t go on, for women and men. And he told me if I kept agitating about that internally then I’d lose my job. I went to [ousted CBS president Les Moonves], who told me he didn’t share my concerns, and so, having exhausted the possibilities in the news division, I went to the chairman of the CBS corporation who listened to me very concerned for an hour, asked me some penetrating questions about what was going on. I didn’t hear back from him but in the next opportunity in my contact, I was let go from the Evening News.”

Looks like CBS doesn’t want anyone to know about the way they treat their female employees?

Of course, with Moonves in the picture is anyone surprised.

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Grant Stinchfield, NRA TV host, in a money beg for the Hate Group:

“The battle for the soul of this nation has to be won. We have no choice but to win. So today I declare this: you are either with us or against us. The NRA fights for all our freedoms, protecting the Second [Amendment] first, because once the Second is gone, they all implode. That’s why they come after us. That’s why they pounce on the NRA like hyenas feeding off prey. They want us destroyed. The only problem is, we aren’t prey and we can’t be destroyed. So here is the reality, the NRA wins, the NRA is the most successful civil rights group in the history of this nation. They can kick and scream about how we get it done. They can try to make all of us, the members, look bad. But in the end, we do get it done. We always have and always will. To feed this machine, of course, takes money. It is a massive engine that runs on all pistons firing. The NRA’s winning record cannot be disputed.”

First off, any group that wants to continue selling assault weapons after children were murdered at Sandy Hook literally has no soul, so STFU.

Secondly, actually, it’s without the First Amendment that everything crumbles, because not everyone wants or needs a weapon, but everyone wants and needs to ability to think and say what they choose, so, again, STFU.

Lastly, STFU.

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Mackenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon billionaire, and adulterer, Jeff Bezos, promising to giveaway $17 billion to charities over the course of her lifetime and in her will:

“There are lots of resources each of us can pull from our safes to share with others—time, attention, knowledge, patience, creativity, talent, effort, humor, compassion. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”

I like that, a lot, but let’s be clear, Mackenzie could give away 95% of all her money this instant and still be set for life, so, yeah, you know.

Still, it’s nice …

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