Natalia Chi
Tom Hanks told Harvard alumni on Thursday to become superheroes to defend the truth and American ideals and resist those who twist the truth for their own gain.
“Truth for some people is no longer empirical. It’s no longer based on data, common sense, or common sense,” the two-time Academy Award winner said in his keynote address. rice field. He quoted the Harvard University motto, the Latin word “veritas,” which means truth.
“Truth-telling is no longer the standard of public service,” he said. “It is no longer to assuage our fears or guide our actions. Truth is now considered malleable by opinion and zero-sum endgame.”
That’s why the more than 9,000 graduates of Harvard’s 372nd Commencement Ceremony were left with no choice, say astronauts, soldiers, boys in a man’s body, and even Harvard in their decades-long film careers. said the Hollywood icon who has played up to the professor of .
“It’s the same choice for every adult who must decide to be one of the three types of Americans: open, unopen, or indifferent to liberty and liberty for all.” he said. “Only the first will do the work of building a more perfect union, an indivisible nation. Others get in the way.”
Near the end of his speech, he got the point across to a group that included not only undergraduates, but graduates of Harvard’s technical and extension schools.
“The responsibility is yours. It is ours. Effort is voluntary. But the truth, truth is sacred. It cannot be changed. It is engraved in stone and is the foundation of our republic,” he said. Told.
Hanks, who received an honorary doctorate in the arts, made fun of his lack of education on stage with the world’s brightest minds and most accomplished scientists.
“I know it’s unfair, but please don’t get offended by this fact,” Hanks said. “Now, without doing any work, without spending any time in class, without ever setting foot in its library, I have never met a Harvard graduate, its faculty, or its distinguished alumni. To have some sort of connection, I do. “I make a very good living playing those characters,” he said, referring to the three films based on Dan Brown’s novels The Da Vinci Code. He mentioned playing the fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon in Angels & Demons and Inferno.
“Kids, that’s the way the world works,” he said, to a burst of laughter.
Before Hanks took to the podium to speak, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow, who was officiating at his final graduation ceremony before leaving office, called Hanks “Wilson’s best friend, Buzz’s sidekick, Ryan’s savior, America’s father.” , gave a Harvard volleyball. In honor of his role in “Cast Away,” his character speaks to an aging volleyball to keep his sanity.
Hanks proved to be the most popular person on stage, posing for selfies with faculty and staff before the ceremony and congratulating dozens of Harvard students who graduated top of the list.
“May goodness and mercy follow you all day long,” he said, quoting a passage from the Bible. “All the days of your life. God speed.”
