In a speech that sprinkled Irish poetry on a spirited plea for public service, Mayor Martin O'Malley addressed about 300 graduates, their families and the faculty at the Goucher College commencement yesterday.
"How broadly will you dare to define community?" O'Malley challenged the Class of 2003 at the liberal arts college's wooded campus in Baltimore County.
He quoted passages from From the Republic of Conscience, by Nobel laureate poet Seamus Heaney, to illustrate the nature of the individual's quest in society.
Referring to Baltimore's troubles and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, O'Malley pressed the idea of acting for the greater good. "Our country really needs you, especially now," he told the audience.
"Your community, your state your republic, your world is made and defined by what you chose to do and what you chose not to do," O'Malley said. "Will you change the world or will the world change you?"
O'Malley spoke of his most tragic days as mayor, including the deaths of seven members of the Dawson family in a fire at their home last year that is thought to have been started by a neighborhood drug dealer angry about their complaints to police.
"One entire family was firebombed," O'Malley said. "I stood beside a weeping grandmother who buried her daughter, her son-in-law and five beautiful grandchildren.
"You don't have to go far to fight injustice and suffering. It's right here, all around us."
He encouraged graduates facing a bleak economic outlook to measure America's greatness by "the power of moral example," not by military might.
As Goucher marked its 112th commencement, the student body, once all-female, is 30 percent male, according to officials.
The University of Baltimore also held commencement ceremonies yesterday. Donald C. Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, was the main speaker. Nearly 800 degrees were conferred, most of which were bachelor of arts degrees.
