I was rather disappointed in the editorial written by Technician staff attacking Phillip Rivers for his commencement speech in May 2012. I was a graduation marshal last May, so I had the opportunity to listen to Rivers’ speech. Rivers spoke about his passions and what motivated him in life. One of those things happened to be his faith in God. Rivers spoke from the heart about what he thought was important in life and wanted to share that with the graduates. Who can fault him for that? We came to N.C. State to be faced with challenging subjects, and sometimes, there are subjects that make us uncomfortable or that we don’t agree with. But I have learned that, out of respect, sometimes you have to put your big boy/big girl pants on and suck it up. You don’t have to agree, no one is forcing you to, but the least we can do is be respectful and listen. It’s called the real world, folks. We can’t be sheltered in our thinking forever. I respect Rivers for talking about his faith in God and that he had the audacity to share it with so many people on such a public stage.

Kathryn Loyd

junior,  chemistry