2008 JPS HS valedictorian speech: turtles all the way down

Edward Yang, JP Stevens High School, Edison, NJ. 2008 graduation. Valedictorian speech, 06/18/2008

There once was a scientist-some say it was Bertrand Russell
giving a lecture on astronomy.
He described how the moon orbited around the earth,
the earth orbited around the sun,
and the sun orbited around our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, an old lady
came up to the scientist and said,

What you have told us is rubbish.
Everybody knows that the Earth is
actually a plate on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist paused for a moment
and then with a superior smile replied to the lady
If that is the case, what is the tortoise standing on?

The lady replied, ``That's very clever young man,
but it's turtles all the way down.


We might scoff at the idea of an infinite
tower of turtles as ridiculous
but why should we know any better?
Why should we buy into a theory
that posits the existence of an invisible force
between all objects in the universe and
is strong enough to keep our humble earth
from hurtling off into space?
I will take up the mantle of Thomas Friedman
who claims the Earth is flat
and assert the fanciful:
from where our world stands,
it most certainly is turtles all the way down.
With turtles in mind
I would like to offer some advice,
a reminiscence, and finally, an explanation
of this outrageous extended metaphor
an explanation John Donne conveniently
omitted from his published poems.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• valedictorian
• speech
• high
• school
• graduation

[mushroomcloudy]

Ahhh, he moves his hands way too much.

[dj02tc5]

wooohh go j.p.

[muffemod]

old speech is old

[fluggencheimen]

I hope he's doing well at MIT.

[vvjd8]

yeah edward

[RUtrumpetbeast]

EDDIE!!!!!! i loved this speech the first time!! and now i get to hear it again!!

[snsh13]

Nice!