Tom Hanks was invited to deliver a commencement address to the fresh graduates at Harvard University
Tom Hanks is basking in another achievement of life.
On Thursday, the 66-year-old actor was invited to deliver a commencement address to the fresh graduates at Harvard University, where he has also conferred an honorary doctorate of arts “without having done a lick of work, without having spent any time in class, without once walking into that library,” as he quipped.
During his lengthy oration, the Forrest Gump actor interspersed wisdom of life among whimsical anecdotes.
"I don't know much about Latin, I have no real passion for enzymes, and public global policy is something I scan in the newspaper just before I do the Wordle," he quipped, as he urged the students to stand up against the "indifference of a people who have been made weary by struggle."
The actor made several references to Superman and other superheroes, noting the negative consequences entailed by “indifference.”
“Indifference makes citizens into indentured servants held in labor by the despots and tyrants whose default setting is cynicism, who outlawed dissent and ban art and dialogue and books.
“Every day, every year, and for every graduating class, there is a choice to be made," Hanks continued. "It’s the same option for all grown-ups who have to decide to be one of three types of Americans: those who embrace liberty and freedom for all, those who won’t or those who are indifferent."
"Only the first do the work of creating a more perfect union, a nation indivisible. The others get in the way,” he added.