During Shepherd University speech, Lehrer laments loss of civil discourse

PBS newsman Jim Lehrer earned a round of applause Saturday for telling Shepherd University graduates that society's most serious loss in recent years is the loss of civil discourse.

"There is a meanness of communication alive in the land right now," Lehrer told the more than 650 members of Shepherd's 138th graduating class.


Lehrer announced this week that he is stepping down June 6 as anchor of "The PBS NewsHour," the public television news program that he started with Robert MacNeil in the 1970s that became as "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," and eventually its current title.

"I see it in the mail. We get it at our program. I hear it on television, the radio, in the newspapers and magazines," said Lehrer, who was given an honorary degree Saturday.

"There will always be differences because there must always be differences in a free and open democratic society," he said. "We are civilized people. We should disagree in a civilized manner. We might learn more from listening than from talking., More from talking than from shouting."

Lehrer said that as a part-time resident and full-time lover of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle (he lives near Charles Town, W.Va.), "I feel very much at home with all of you."

He said after being present at hundreds of commencement speeches, "I not only cannot remember what any of the speakers said, I can't remember what any of them looked like. Nobody comes to a commencement to hear a speech."

Welcoming remarks were given by Anna Bih Boh, a nursing school graduate who reminded her classmates how they traveled down "a long, long, long road to graduation. It took a lot of work and many sleepless nights studying."

Boh moved to the United States from Cameroon with her family when she was 14. She is vice president of the student body and is the student representative on the Shepherd University Board of Governors.

A graduate of Hedgesville (W.Va.) High School, Boh is the oldest of five children. Her younger brother just finished his freshman year at Shepherd.

Of the 656 members of the 2011 graduating class, 33 seniors earned highest honors, 34 received high honors and 59 graduated with honor.

This year's President's Award recipients were Tia McMillan and Robert A. McMillan of Shepherdstown, who, according to Shepherd President Suzanne Shipley, were honored "for their exemplary service to Shepherd University and the community.

Robert McMillan is chairman of the Shepherd University Create the Future Campaign, a fundraising effort that exceeded its $20 million goal. Tia McMillan is a founding member of the Contemporary American Theater Festival.

Lehrer received a second round of applause when he reminded the graduates that Americans their age are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Whatever your opinion, I urge each of you, as well as everyone in this audience and everywhere else, that these men and women chose a career in the military ... they are risking, and some are giving, their lives in your name, my name, our names, in the name of our country.

"The bottom line is no matter what your view is, support or hate what's happening, cheer them when they come home."