President George W. Bush told graduates of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College that their perseverance after Hurricane Katrina was an inspiration.
According to an article in the LA Times, Bush received "rousing applause" during his commencement speech to the more than 1,400 graduates of the MGCC.
"You have shown a resilience more powerful than any storm," Bush said. "You continued your studies in classrooms with crumbling walls. You lost homes and slept in tents near campus to finish courses. You cleared debris during the day and then went to class at night."
"By your determination to reach this day, you have sent a message to the world: Mississippi is coming back, and it will be better than ever before," Bush said.
Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, Laura Bush was speaking to graduates of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. According to the LA Times, she encouraged the young men and women to "dedicate a vacation to recovery" before pursuing other goals.
"Travel to the Gulf Coast and help with the reconstruction," she said.
For those living in the wake Katrina's wrath, President George W. Bush spoke of faith and determination.
"In these trying months, we have been aided by a power that lightens our struggles and reveals our hidden strength," he said. "We can never know God's plan, but we can trust in his wisdom and in his grace." Bush added, "We can be certain that with his help, the great state of Mississippi will rise again."
Unlike the president's previous commencement speech, he apparently didn’t drop any subtle hints of immigration reform. Earlier this week, Human Events U reported how Bush encouraged college graduates at Oklahoma State University not to "wall America off."
