Speaking at Northeastern University commencement ceremonies on Friday morning, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry advised newly-minted graduates that the world is on its way to becoming âborderlessâ and that the critical issues of our time are terrorism, poverty and, of course, climate change.
âI am honored this morning to address a university family that thankfully is one very utterly unafraid to look beyond our borders and into the future,â told a Boston Garden crowd of about 25,000, reports The Boston Globe.
Kerry advised graduates that a border wall would not deny entry to terrorists.
âMany of you were in elementary school when you learned the toughest lesson of all on 9/11,â he said, according to The Washington Examiner. âThere are no walls big enough to stop people from anywhere, tens of thousands of miles away, who are determined to take their own lives while they target others.â
The former Massachusetts senator warned that âdangers like climate change, terrorism and disease do not respect borders or any of the norms of behavior.â
Kerry then took some veiled â and totally unveiled â shots at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
âI think that everything that weâve lived and learn tells us that we will never come out on top if we accept advice from sound-bite salesmen and carnival barkers who pretend the most powerful country on Earth can remain great by looking inward,â he said.
âFor some people, that is all they need: simply to climb under the sheets, close their eyes and push the world away,â he also said. âAnd shockingly, we even see this attitude from some who think they ought to be entrusted with the job of managing international affairs.â
âThe future demands from us something more than a nostalgia for some rose-tinted version of the past that did not really exist in any case,â Kerry declared. âYouâre about to graduate into a complex and borderless world.â
Kerry also called this yearâs crop of seniors at Northeastern â which includes graduates from 77 different countries â âthe most diverse class in Northeasternâs history.â
âIn other words, you are Donald Trumpâs worst nightmare,â Kerry wisecracked.
Audience members enthusiastically waved flags from many nations far-flung, including China, Vietnam and South Korea, the Globe notes.
The cost for a year of tuition, fees and room and board at Northeastern University is about exactly $60,000. It is slated to increase next quite a bit in the fall.
Source: The Daily Caller