 What an honor to stand here before you need to back up a little bit Chancellor jerks distinguished faculty and honored guests The staff the Californians parents friends and most especially fellow graduates of class of 2016 Wow, or in the immortal words of Channing Tatum's hacked emails wow times five thousand My name is Tomas morning and actually my legal name is Thomas with an H But I dropped the H after protesting in the immigration right branches in 2006 Although I am in fact one-quarter Mexican my friend Jose Jimenez loves to point out that my skin is not brown but pink I Am returning student, but there's so many other reasons why I never expected to graduate Not the least of which is that last May I almost died Three days after moving to Portland, Oregon I set off on a bicycle on route to a grinder date and if any of you have dated online You know how that goes. I Woke up. I woke up laid out flat blinded by Sun and unable to move The EMT's reported that the front wheel of the bike had popped off my right leg had been degloved My brain was bleeding and I was revived twice and experienced not unlike a bear being thrown into serial hibernations Obviously, I survived that accident But in no small part due to friends and family and three of those people are here today Regina Marlar Tracey Ellen Rodriguez and Shaw smoke When I was in the hospital's trauma unit, I reached out to my doctor David turn off at Tang who wrote back Is there anything we can do for you? I knew where I needed to be and return to Berkeley There's nothing like being thrown off of a bicycle to clarify your life Like some or maybe many of you I first came to Berkeley seeking an education But also in terms of a community and some water As a teenager it took me a while to find my community and here's why I Arrived at Cal with a secret that I've never spoken about in public when I was 16 years old I was subjected to get a straight therapy I'll spare you the details, but nausea inducing drugs and electric shocks were used in an attempt to make me straight Obviously, it was a total failure Anyone at Cal who met me my first year would have guessed never guessed what I'd survived You would have seen a skinny 17 year old boy dressed in black with blonde hair with a blonde hairdo It was high on one side and died in the front It took me 20 minutes minimum to get right with hair gel two special brushes and a blow dryer That's the look I was working when I met Darrell Adams in a decal class and found one member of my community Darrell was 27 years old and what people at the time called a Castro clone He wore tight jeans had close cropped hair and a handlebar mustache. We became friends He took me to the gym and he taught me how to work out. He said girl. Oh, you need is a great body as It turned out gay men needed a lot more than great bodies a couple years after we met Darrell was dead at The height of the AIDS epidemic. I dropped out of Cal Moved to Los Angeles and devoted myself to service Changing diapers and holding men's hands as they died But my story is hardly unique Everyone here the graduates and people who've supported them have faced adversity As every graduating student here knows nobody finishes Cal with a special without a special kind of grit and determination Today we are earning a degree from the best public university in the world Yeah, you can give yourself a hand But we are also weighed down with gifts not the least of which are superior research and critical thinking skills Often we don't just question we interrogate and our evident our drive is evident in the results Berkeley grads are MacArthur recipients Nobel and pooled surprise winners. We are poets scientists and gold medal winners Medalists, please take a moment and look around you may seated be seated next to the future president Today's ceremony signals the moment We step off our glades and eucalyptus tree line paths with skills that will literally Change the world and change it for the good a good that is not necessarily visible to the naked eye a good That may take decades to realize a good that by moral consensus means you should be free Provided for and feel safe Black Panther Angela Davis Disabled rights activists Judith human free speech agitator Mario Savio gay politician Harvey milk You may not know these names But you should because there's a Chinese saying you are nothing without the generation that came before you or The one that comes after I Thought about the same when I read an editorial by the About the election by Charles blow the New York Times columnist It said I am not trying to convince anyone of anything But rather to speak up for truth and honor and inclusion In the coming years the class of 2016 will be called upon to rise up and resist the gathered forces of fear greed and evil Yet, I know we will answer the call with clear eyes presence of mind kindness and a bear like ferocity born of an open heart Because we are Berkeley graduates We have fought the good fight and will again now more than ever But nothing in our lives or education at Berkeley have with its legacy of protest Agitation and free speech has prepared us for the hatred misogyny and racism that many of us face The AIDS epidemic and other social justice movements born in the Bay Area Mean that we live in a place where many role models can guide us and share the skills of how to fight But I believe the challenge for us will be how to carry on and Reinvent our courage our legacy of courage truth and progress We are an army of misfits and nerds, but we are also warriors and bears who've awoken to fight monsters and Clawback the curtains on authoritarian wizards who live in gold towers and in the face of these as yet Unimaginable tests and battles. We heard truly the best and the brightest America has to offer Will not only fight for a greater good. We will prevail in Solidarity stay woke congratulations and go Bears