#168 / And Now... A Word From The Chancellor

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, pictured above, has been given an honorary degree by Harvard University. She made a speech, too, of course. The New York Times ran an article on the speech on Friday, May 31st. The Economic Times carried an article about the speech, too, and that is where I got the picture. 

Merkel is an extraordinary political leader. It is worth reading the articles I have linked in this blog posting, to see what she had to say to the Harvard graduates. The following statement, from The Times article, stood out to me: 

"I experienced firsthand how nothing has to stay the way it is,” she said. “This experience, dear graduates, is the first thought I wish to share with you: Anything that seems set in stone or inalterable can indeed change."

The political landscape we see when we look around us is bleak. Just as bleak as the face of that Berlin Wall that Merkel faced from its Eastern side.

Merkel is right. When the apparent and disastrous immobility of our political world suggests that we should despair, remember Merkel's "first thought."

ANYTHING can change.

I would translate Merkel's remark this way: ANYTHING can BE changed.

It is up to us to do it!

Image Credit:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/angela-merkel-awarded-havard-honorary-degree-in-law-receives-standing-ovation-for-speech/articleshow/69590662.cms