Recently I was shocked to learn that our President, Barack Obama still had a lot of work do before being presented with an honorary doctoral degree from Arizona State University where he was asked to speak for its graduation. Just so you know, most often when a high-profile official speaks at ASU’s graduation, he or she is awarded an honorary doctorate. Let me get this straight, Obama graduated from Columbia and Harvard Law School, was Senator of Illinois and became the first Black President of the United States but isn’t good enough to get an “honorary degree” from Arizona State? What else does he have to do, turn water into wine?

I read the list of other speakers who’ve spoken at ASU’s past graduations and received degrees and was even more shocked! They’ve given out these degrees to newspaper publishers, successful movie directors and even generous donors. Another person who was awarded an honorary degree was Jerry Colangelo, owner of the Phoenix Suns and the person who helped return USA Basketball back to prominence (and this was before he started working with USA Basketball). No offense to Mr. Colangelo but I don’t think you can compare what he’s done (or many of the others who've spoken have done) with what Obama has accomplished so far.

ASU’s excuse for denying Obama’s honorary degree was because his “body of work is yet to come.” Someone needs to step up and take responsibility for the real reason why Obama was denied the degree. Maybe it was because Arizona is John McCain’s state or because McCain has donated a lot of money to the school or even because it’s a Republican state. Whatever the real reason is, don’t lie and tell us that it because Obama isn’t good enough. That’s like saying LeBron James isn’t good enough to play on your REC league team or that Yao Ming isn’t tall enough to play on your squad!

Over 63,000 people showed up to hear Obama speak at the graduation so that tells you something. It wasn’t like there was football game or sporting event at ASU. All of those people didn’t just show up to show their support for the graduates – they came to hear Obama. In my opinion, he’s the most credible speaker they’ve ever had and they should have been honored to have him as an honorary graduate of their university. Denying him that degree was a terrible injustice and I think they should go back, change their minds and give it to him.

Me and my friends have been talking about this for the past few days so I figured I throw it out there on the Yard and see how you guys feel about it. Holla at me!

B