The Wisdom of Jack McWethy
Revisiting a 2003 commencement speech filled with timeless advice, and wishing he was still here to help navigate an uncertain time.
Every year about this time, as college graduates don caps and gowns, collect diplomas, and begin the adventure that is adulthood, I think about the video above.
On its face, it’s the 2003 commencement speech at DePauw University in Greencastle Indiana, delivered by then-ABC News correspondent and alumnus John McWethy. In typical fashion for a guy that friends and family called Jack, it’s filled with a wonderful dose of smart and silly advice, humor, and wisdom.
For me, the clip is also bittersweet reminder of a very painful loss. Jack was family. He was married to my cousin Laurie, father to Adam and Ian, and an incredibly important father figure and mentor to me. We lost him way too early to a skiing accident in 2008.
As I watched Jack’s speech again this morning— through a few tears— it occurred to me that he would have a lot to say about the perilous state of our country in 2025, including the importance of journalism to democracy. A lot of what Jack said then is still relevant today, and I really wish he was here to help me, and the rest of us, make sense of it all. So I decided to share it here.
“It is not unpatriotic to question the government. It is unpatriotic not to.” - JACK McWETHY
“In college, I learned to ask the question, ‘why?’”, Jack told the graduates and their families. “The word ‘why’ is, in my view, the most powerful word in the English language. It is the driving force of my profession, and it's also the driving force and at the heart of your professors, of creative sciences, of honest politicians and of good parents. Don't stop asking the word ‘why’ just because you leave DePauw. All institutions, all endeavors, all relationships are improved by a good scrubbing using the word ‘why’. In democracy, it is the question we must all constantly be asking our government and our leaders. It is not unpatriotic to question the government. It is unpatriotic not to.”
Powerful and pertinent.
I‘ve collected a few more of my favorite lines from the speech down below, but I encourage you to watch the entire clip. If you didn’t know Jack, the speech is a great 18-minute introduction to his personality and principles, filled with some important (and some goofy) reminders.
And though I can’t help but feel enormously sad and a little angry that he’s not here to help guide us through this really scary and uncertain time, I still find comfort in Jack’s timeless insight. And especially his trademark humor.
“Humor is the salve for pain,” Jack reminds us. “It's the relief from fear, and it's a spiritual vitamin pill. Humor is a moment of relief that almost rivals sex. But it's much less complicated, and you can do it in public.”
Jack was a special man. My office was next to his. I absorbed anything I could through the walls. I called him my hero because he retired "early" to live his life. I agree with Clayton, he left us too early.