Vote for Stephen Colbert!

Stephen Colbert's 2006 Commencement Address at Knox College is among the "Ten Best Commencement Speeches" selected by the Huffington Post, which is asking readers to vote for their favorite.

Knox alumni and friends are encouraged to vote for Colbert at the Huffington Post web page Ten Best Commencement Speeches.

The others contenders include commencement addresses by Bono, David Foster Wallace, George Marshall, John F. Kennedy, Jon Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Russell Baker, Toni Morrison and Steve Jobs.

"The speeches were chosen for the intensity of their messages, humor and historical significances," wrote Huffington Post reporter Katharine Zaleski.

Colbert's Commencement address already made Time magazine's Top Ten list, among some of the same luminaries and some new ones, including Winston Churchill, Conan O'Brien, and Barbara Kingsolver.

The full address, video, audio and transcript, are available on the Knox website. Colbert, who was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, closed with a meditation on the power of saying "yes."

When I was starting out in Chicago, doing improvisational theatre with Second City, there was really only one rule... When you improvise a scene with no script... you have to accept what the other improviser initiates... Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say "yes." And if you're lucky, you'll find people who will say "yes" back.

Now will saying "yes" get you in trouble at times? Will saying "yes" lead you to doing some foolish things? Yes it will. But don't be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying "yes" begins things. Saying "yes" is how things grow. Saying "yes" leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say "yes."

And that's The Word.

VOTE NOW for Stephen Colbert's Knox College Commencement Address

UPDATE
June 10, 2009:
Stephen Colbert's address is now at 34% -- the highest vote tally by more than 21 percentage points. Keep voting!