Go Big Grad | Marilyn Moore | The Air Between Us
University Communication
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07/28/2020
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204
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Marilyn Moore delivers remarks to August 2020 graduates of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Moore is a lifetime educator and influential community leader. She served forty years as a middle school teacher, a human resources administrator and associate superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools. As an encore career, Dr. Moore served as President of Bryan College of Health Sciences. She has been recognized with numerous community and educational awards, including the Outstanding Alumnus Award from UNL’s College of Education and Human Sciences. Dr. Moore has devoted time and talent serving on dozens of community boards and organizations, including serving as the President of the Lied Center Advisory Board and is a new member of the Nebraska Alumni Association Executive Board.
Dr. Moore earned her Bachelor of Science (’71) and Master of Science (’74) degrees in education and human sciences, and her doctorate degree in Educational Administration (’80), from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
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- [00:00:00.091](uplifting piano music)
- [00:00:03.737]"The air between us", a phrase uttered by Edward
- [00:00:07.000]a teenage boy who's the main character
- [00:00:09.370]in the novel, "Dear Edward" by Ann Napolitano.
- [00:00:13.020]This is a story of a boy
- [00:00:14.390]who is the sole survivor of an airplane crash.
- [00:00:17.300]And it's based on a real crash in 2010.
- [00:00:21.090]In the novel, Edward has to rebuild his life,
- [00:00:23.680]physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally
- [00:00:27.650]in absolutely every way,
- [00:00:30.030]while living with his aunt and uncle
- [00:00:31.890]in a home that is new to him, a new community,
- [00:00:35.040]a new school and blessedly, a new best friend, Shay.
- [00:00:39.170]A girl his own age, who lives next door,
- [00:00:41.740]who manages the just right balance
- [00:00:43.740]of watches out for him and cuts him no slack.
- [00:00:47.520]His high school physics teacher introduces him
- [00:00:50.030]to the Large Hadron Collider
- [00:00:51.950]and the research on particle physics,
- [00:00:54.050]attempting to answer the questions
- [00:00:55.710]of the smallest particles, their speed,
- [00:00:58.490]their behavior, their relationship to one another.
- [00:01:01.960]In Edward's mind, the questions
- [00:01:04.070]are at the very heart of existence, his and everyone else's.
- [00:01:08.480]And as the story draws to an end
- [00:01:10.670]and Edward is healing, is stronger in every way.
- [00:01:13.900]He reflects on all the people
- [00:01:15.550]who were a part of his rebuilding process,
- [00:01:18.500]especially his uncle, his physics teacher,
- [00:01:21.330]his principal and Shay.
- [00:01:23.740]And in reflecting, he utters the words,
- [00:01:26.067]"the air between us is not dead space."
- [00:01:30.400]I'm struck by Edward story for so many reasons.
- [00:01:33.580]I started my career as a middle school teacher,
- [00:01:36.230]and I shall always and forever
- [00:01:37.790]have a special place in my heart
- [00:01:39.690]for the students in the middle.
- [00:01:41.540]Edward was 12 when the plane crashed,
- [00:01:43.920]right in the middle of middle school,
- [00:01:45.900]which is a hard time for most early adolescents.
- [00:01:49.320]Like Edward I'm attracted
- [00:01:50.970]to the wonders of our world revealed by the physicists
- [00:01:53.990]and the metaphors for life, from particle physics.
- [00:01:57.050]Unlike Edward, I wonder about the air between us
- [00:02:00.600]and I so agree that it is anything but dead space.
- [00:02:05.920]The past five months in which all of you
- [00:02:08.160]who are graduating today have completed your degrees
- [00:02:11.170]in a manner never before considered
- [00:02:13.500]have given us ample opportunity
- [00:02:15.360]to consider the air between us.
- [00:02:17.400]The great disruptors, a worldwide pandemic,
- [00:02:20.500]unlike any in the past 100 years
- [00:02:23.150]and a worldwide reaction and revulsion
- [00:02:25.700]to the murder of a black man
- [00:02:27.530]by Minneapolis white police officer
- [00:02:29.890]have sent waves of questions, doubts and fears
- [00:02:33.680]through the air between us.
- [00:02:35.730]I call these events disruptors because they have been,
- [00:02:39.170]they are, and they will continue to disrupt our lives.
- [00:02:42.780]Our individual lives and our collective communal lives.
- [00:02:46.340]The pandemic has changed how we work,
- [00:02:48.740]how we learn, how we socialize, how we transact business,
- [00:02:52.920]how we travel, how we worship.
- [00:02:55.410]It has changed how medical care is delivered,
- [00:02:57.780]how courtroom cases are heard,
- [00:02:59.770]how legislatures conduct business
- [00:03:02.060]and how children are educated.
- [00:03:04.630]George Floyd's murder and the subsequent racial unrest
- [00:03:07.820]has caused people in this country and around the world
- [00:03:11.510]to reconsider what they believe to be true about history,
- [00:03:14.660]to compare what are communities or nations stated values are
- [00:03:19.020]to the lived experiences
- [00:03:20.510]of people within that community or nation,
- [00:03:23.320]and to think again about language
- [00:03:25.490]and symbols and power and voice.
- [00:03:29.640]These have been hard moments
- [00:03:31.540]as we have confronted that which was in the air between us
- [00:03:35.660]and yet through these moments of questions
- [00:03:38.410]and doubts and fears, there have been other moments,
- [00:03:41.530]moments that remind us and make clear to us
- [00:03:44.180]the connections we share with one another
- [00:03:46.810]in the air between us.
- [00:03:48.900]Both disruptors made abundantly clear
- [00:03:51.130]that no one stands alone.
- [00:03:53.090]That the idea of the rugged individual is far less viable
- [00:03:56.830]than the idea of the common good.
- [00:03:59.920]We are absolutely dependent upon one another
- [00:04:02.330]to emerge from the pandemic.
- [00:04:04.400]We're dependent upon the scientists
- [00:04:06.110]to understand the disease and to develop a vaccine.
- [00:04:09.300]We're dependent upon the healthcare workers
- [00:04:11.370]to provide the highest level of care
- [00:04:13.560]for those now 15 plus million persons worldwide
- [00:04:17.380]who have contracted COVID-19.
- [00:04:19.930]We're dependent upon essential workers,
- [00:04:22.560]those who could not work from home
- [00:04:24.610]so that we could have groceries and transportation
- [00:04:27.700]and protection of life and property.
- [00:04:30.340]And we're dependent upon our neighbors and colleagues,
- [00:04:33.200]they who make wise decisions to help the spread of the virus
- [00:04:36.580]and in so doing make the community safer for everyone.
- [00:04:40.900]We are absolutely dependent upon one another
- [00:04:43.200]to emerge through the very real racial unrest and tension
- [00:04:46.930]that has marked the past three months
- [00:04:49.100]and the previous four centuries.
- [00:04:51.860]This is a time that forces those of us
- [00:04:53.910]in the majority culture to confront and acknowledge
- [00:04:56.930]our own biases and actions.
- [00:04:59.360]Our part in a society marked by systemic racism.
- [00:05:03.070]This is communal work.
- [00:05:04.530]It is work that happens because we listen,
- [00:05:07.100]we hear, we reflect and we act.
- [00:05:10.720]With both disruptors, we have the opportunity
- [00:05:13.560]to create new knowledge, new connections,
- [00:05:16.300]and new stories in the air between us.
- [00:05:19.010]Because that air between us as Edward recognized
- [00:05:22.250]is not dead space.
- [00:05:24.730]One person ill in one part of the world
- [00:05:27.560]is followed by more than 15 million people ill
- [00:05:30.610]around the world because the virus recognizes no boundaries.
- [00:05:35.370]We are connected to one another.
- [00:05:38.030]One black person killed by one white police officer
- [00:05:41.680]unleashed action and reflection around the world.
- [00:05:45.580]We're connected to one another.
- [00:05:48.210]And in the day is going forward,
- [00:05:49.960]we have the grand opportunity to do better,
- [00:05:52.880]to strengthen communities,
- [00:05:54.440]to take actions for health and healing,
- [00:05:57.050]to make decisions for the greater good.
- [00:06:00.130]And you graduates of the class of 2020,
- [00:06:03.450]are in the best of positions
- [00:06:05.040]to help the world write a better story,
- [00:06:07.600]to strengthen the air between us,
- [00:06:09.970]a story of regard for science
- [00:06:11.850]and regard for the inherent value of humankind.
- [00:06:15.130]A story of connections, rather than divisions,
- [00:06:17.900]a story of hope, rather than fear.
- [00:06:20.800]Every discipline represented by you the graduates of 2020,
- [00:06:25.280]connects to and lends value to the story of connectedness
- [00:06:29.310]that is waiting to be written.
- [00:06:31.860]Representative John Lewis,
- [00:06:33.650]who led and lived civil rights activism
- [00:06:36.450]until his death this summer said,
- [00:06:39.087]"when you see something that is not right,
- [00:06:41.567]"not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation
- [00:06:45.757]"to say something, to do something.
- [00:06:48.957]"Our children and their children will ask us,
- [00:06:52.137]"what did you do?
- [00:06:53.807]"What did you say?"
- [00:06:56.220]Edward was captivated by the study
- [00:06:58.020]of the subatomic particles in the air between us.
- [00:07:01.100]Some physicists described those particles
- [00:07:03.380]as bundles of potential.
- [00:07:05.760]I love that phrase, the image of light and energy,
- [00:07:08.970]all bundled together, ready to explode into action
- [00:07:11.900]and effect and impact,
- [00:07:14.970]poised on the precipice of this next step,
- [00:07:17.970]you are a bundle of potential.
- [00:07:20.550]You bring all that and more to your next step.
- [00:07:23.690]So go and do, the world is waiting for you
- [00:07:27.550]to write the new story of the air that is between us.
- [00:07:31.393](uplifting music)
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