Near Two Harbors, 34 structures burned and Highway 61 closed; in Crow Wing County, a 1,600-acre fire sparked evacuations

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Over the next few weeks, we'll be getting a steady diet of commencement speeches given by bigshots paid tens of thousands of dollars to blather on in the interest of getting the school a little publicity.

Here's a shorter one that didn't even need the whole 140 characters.

Daivon Reeder, 22, graduated on Saturday from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. He's got a criminal justice degree now.

"When I tweeted it I was just looking at my picture and the emotion was kind of ironic. I was saying because of two situations we’re two black statistics and he's on the bad statistic on the negative in jail and I'm on the good statistic on the black man who just graduated college," 

He lost his scholarship at one point but got it back after three years.

"This was a young man that was really destined for greatness because he wanted to persevere and endure,” his JROTC teacher said.

Reeder says he's not sure what he's going to do with his degree, but says he's started a program to mentor kids.

Another irony: Former U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade delivered the commencement speech. She specialized in putting people in prison.

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

Over the next few weeks, we'll be getting a steady diet of commencement speeches given by bigshots paid tens of thousands of dollars to blather on in the interest of getting the school a little publicity.

Here's a shorter one that didn't even need the whole 140 characters.

Grad to stepdad: ‘I’ve got a degree. You’re in prison’

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox