Press ReleaseCeremonial2026-06-03

Raskin Delivers Commencement Address at Goucher College

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This press release from Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was published on 2026-06-03 and titled "Raskin Delivers Commencement Address at Goucher College".

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Raskin Delivers Commencement Address at Goucher College

On May 17, 2026, Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08) delivered the commencement address at Goucher College. These are his remarks as delivered: Goucher College Commencement Address May 17, 2026 Happy birthday, Mr. President. He gave me a surprise party for his birthday. I didn't know I was going to get this honorary doctorate. My cup runneth over. I don't know if I deserve it but I will work every day to deserve it. Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. President Devereaux, Board Chair Cindy Plavier-Truitt, distinguished Members of the Board of Trustees, Distinguished faculty members, retiring faculty - Professor Florence Martin and Dr. Amanda Woodson. Nalani Brown, Lisa Van Riper - beautiful speeches. Moms, Dads, uncles and aunts - I don't think they have been recognized yet - brothers and sisters, best friends and cousins who might be here today. Residents of Maryland's beautiful Eighth Congressional District who might be here today. Hello Goucher Class of 2026. Hello. Thank you for honoring me by inviting me to address you for this modest two hours and 45 minutes today. Just kidding guys, don't worry. Congratulations on your success, which is the concept I want to explore today, perhaps in a kind of counter-cultural and provocative way. I have come to praise the success embodied in your studies and in your hard work. Your summer jobs and part-time jobs, your late night bull sessions, your arduous endeavors - victories and losses both - on the playing fields, your essays, your senior papers, your wonderful relationships, your first loves, your beautiful and wrenching relationships, your service on clubs and choirs and a cappella groups, your identification of lifelong mentors and scholars to emulate, your decision to take your place in the Modern Enlightenment, which continues to this day. I have come to praise you and your professors and all your supporters at this remarkable college on the spectacular, hard-won success surrounding and infusing this moment in our time. And I have come to tell you why I insist on using that word "success" to describe what you have done. First, I want to start with a question. If you have a friend or roommate who told you that somebody has got the Midas Touch, would you understand them to be saying a positive thing in general? Raise your hand if you think that would be a positive thing that someone has got the Midas Touch. I'm seeing most of the hands up there. It's usually intended indeed as a compliment, a positive statement. Does anybody take it to be a criticism? I have not heard that. Oh - well you're getting ahead of me in my speech, then, Sir. The Goucher students are too smart. In our culture, in our time, if you look it up online, the Midas Touch is a positive thing. What is fascinating is the Midas Touch has a meaning quite opposite to its original meaning, derived from the myth of King Midas. It all started when King Midas judged a music competition between Pan and Apollo and Midas chose Pan as the winner simply because he was his friend. And Apollo got mad and punished him for using personal favoritism by giving him donkey's ears to dramatize that he'd acted like an ass in choosing a winner by favoritism instead of merit. Midas was forced to wear that hat in public to hide his ears and keep people from laughing at him all day. But after King Midas treated a drunken satyr with kindness, the god Dionysus was very moved and treated Midas to the granting of one wish. We all assume that King Midas would have wished for removal of his drooping donkey ears, but that was not his wish. Despite being repeatedly warned away from it, King Midas insisted upon this seductively simple wish: he wished that everything that he touched would turn to gold. When that wish came true immediately, he was ecstatic. That was, until he touched his roast beef, his potatoes, his wine and his wife and his daughter - and all of them turned into gold. He could not eat or drink, he could not play with his children or kiss his wife because they had all turned into golden statues of themselves, and he couldn't fall asleep on a hard golden bed with a hard golden pillow. Now desperate to get rid of the wish that turned his life into a golden curse, Midas begged Dionysus to reverse it. He agreed. He told Midas to wash his hands in the river, which he did, and the terrible magical curse was washed away. Midas asked if he could get his original wish back so he could get rid of the donkey's ears, but at least in the original version, Dionysus made Midas keep the donkey's ears as a reminder of his folly, first judging a competition in a biased way, and then placing gold above all other dreams, all other relationships and values, converting everything into an extension of his gilded obsessions and fantasies of unlimited wealth somehow conferring unlimited happiness. Now, why am I telling you - or retelling you, presumably - the myth of King Midas? It's been on my mind a lot la

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Raskin Delivers Commencement Address at Goucher College On May 17, 2026, Representative Jamie Raskin (MD-08) delivered the commencement address at Goucher College. These are his remarks as delivered: Goucher College Commencement Address May 17, 2026 Happy birthday, Mr. President. He gave me a surprise party for his birthday. I didn't know I was going to get this honorary doctorate. My cup runneth over. I don't know if I deserve it but I will work every day to deserve it. Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. President Devereaux, Board Chair Cindy Plavier-Truitt, distinguished Members of the Board of Trustees, Distinguished faculty members, retiring faculty - Professor Florence Martin and Dr. Amanda Woodson. Nalani Brown, Lisa Van Riper - beautiful speeches. Moms, Dads, uncles and aunts - I don't think they have been recognized yet - brothers and sisters, best friends and cousins who might be here today. Residents of Maryland's beautiful Eighth Congressional District who might be here today. Hello Goucher Class of 2026. Hello. Thank you for honoring me by inviting me to address you for this modest two hours and 45 minutes today. Just kidding guys, don't worry. Congratulations on your success, which is the concept I want to explore today, perhaps in a kind of counter-cultural and provocative way. I have come to praise the success embodied in your studies and in your hard work. Your summer jobs and part-time jobs, your late night bull sessions, your arduous endeavors - victories and losses both - on the playing fields, your essays, your senior papers, your wonderful relationships, your first loves, your beautiful and wrenching relationships, your service on clubs and choirs and a cappella groups, your identification of lifelong mentors and scholars to emulate, your decision to take your place in the Modern Enlightenment, which continues to this day. I have come to praise you and your professors and all your supporters at this remarkable college on the spectacular, hard-won success surrounding and infusing this moment in our time. And I have come to tell you why I insist on using that word "success" to describe what you have done. First, I want to start with a question. If you have a friend or roommate who told you that somebody has got the Midas Touch, would you understand them to be saying a positive thing in general? Raise your hand if you think that would be a positive thing that someone has got the Midas Touch. I'm seeing most of the hands up there. It's usually intended indeed as a compliment, a positive statement. Does anybody take it to be a criticism? I have not heard that. Oh - well you're getting ahead of me in my speech, then, Sir. The Goucher students are too smart. In our culture, in our time, if you look it up online, the Midas Touch is a positive thing. What is fascinating is the Midas Touch has a meaning quite opposite to its original meaning, derived from the myth of King Midas. It all started when King Midas judged a music competition between Pan and Apollo and Midas chose Pan as the winner simply because he was his friend. And Apollo got mad and punished him for using personal favoritism by giving him donkey's ears to dramatize that he'd acted like an ass in choosing a winner by favoritism instead of merit. Midas was forced to wear that hat in public to hide his ears and keep people from laughing at him all day. But after King Midas treated a drunken satyr with kindness, the god Dionysus was very moved and treated Midas to the granting of one wish. We all assume that King Midas would have wished for removal of his drooping donkey ears, but that was not his wish. Despite being repeatedly warned away from it, King Midas insisted upon this seductively simple wish: he wished that everything that he touched would turn to gold. When that wish came true immediately, he was ecstatic. That was, until he touched his roast beef, his potatoes, his wine and his wife and his daughter - and all of them turned into gold. He could not eat or drink, he could not play with his children or kiss his wife because they had all turned into golden statues of themselves, and he couldn't fall asleep on a hard golden bed with a hard golden pillow. Now desperate to get rid of the wish that turned his life into a golden curse, Midas begged Dionysus to reverse it. He agreed. He told Midas to wash his hands in the river, which he did, and the terrible magical curse was washed away. Midas asked if he could get his original wish back so he could get rid of the donkey's ears, but at least in the original version, Dionysus made Midas keep the donkey's ears as a reminder of his folly, first judging a competition in a biased way, and then placing gold above all other dreams, all other relationships and values, converting everything into an extension of his gilded obsessions and fantasies of unlimited wealth somehow conferring unlimited happiness. Now, why am I telling you - or retelling you, presumably - the myth of King Midas? It's been on my mind a lot la