MARK CUBAN: “We must seize this moment to build a smarter, more resilient, more compassionate America.”
Photo by Danny Fulgencio.
Mavericks owner and Preston Hollow neighbor Mark Cuban made a virtual graduation video for the Class of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. It was inspiring and oddly presidential. Here’s what he said:
“We miss hugs and we miss handshakes, and family we haven’t seen in too long. Who would’ve thought there’d come a time where we’d be nostalgic for traffic? Man do we miss watching our team win. Hell, even watching them lose. You wonder when your kids will be able to go to school. Many of you, too many of you, have lost your jobs and had to say goodbye to the people you love most. No matter what you’ve been through, I’m sure you’ve wondered, ‘When can we go back to the way things were?’
“But maybe you’ve also had that flicker of hope. I’m telling you our best days are still ahead of us because Americans have never set the bar at returning to the past. Never. And Americans don’t quit, ever. We’ve explored the heavens above and the oceans below. Whether fighting World Wars or economic downturns, whenever we’ve been knocked down, we’ve always stood back up taller, stronger, ready to build an even better future. World War I inspired us to invent the blood bank. In amidst the horrors of World War II we found a way to mass produce penicillin. Hell, the Great Depression led to the creation of the chocolate chip cookie. Think about that. There was a time before the chocolate chip cookie.
“From the depths of despair, Americans always come together united. And that’s what we must do again. We must seize this moment to build a smarter, more resilient, more compassionate America. If you look closely, you can already see new flashes of American creativity. That spirit is what will empower us to emerge from this crisis stronger than ever. None of us can be heroes unless all of us are heroes. Not only by each of us taking the responsibility to do our own small part, but also by dreaming up big ideas, remembering that innovation often comes from ordinary people during extraordinary times. That’s what makes America unique and exceptional. All the Americans who’ve ever stopped asking, ‘Why me?’ in favor of a better question. ‘Why not me?’ Every defining moment in our history, every movement for social change, every immigrant who has come to our country with a dream, every business that has contributed to our greatness from the smallest corner store to the biggest tech giant started with those three words. ‘Why not me? Why can’t I be the one to change history? Why can’t I be the one to change the world? Why not now?’ No one knows what’s next, but here’s what we do know. The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself, which raises the question, ‘Why not you?’ The class of 2020, your graduating class, it is all of you that will change the world.”
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1264258813781311500
