Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in a commencement speech to graduates of Hillsdale College, called for more action, more faith and more fights for freedom, asking them bluntly: If not you, then who?
"I am of a different time," he said, Mediaite reported. "Today there is much more focus on our rights as citizens and what we are owed. It is not often that one hears of our obligations or duties as citizens. ... If we are not making deposits to replenish our liberties, then who is? Are we content to let others do the work?"
Thomas also referred to his personal difficulties while ascending to the Supreme Court, rooted in the highly charged political atmosphere that opposed his nomination, and said now-deceased Justice Antonin Scalia was his immediate friend in need.
"When I think of Justice Scalia, I think of the good man I could instinctively trust during my first days on the court," he said, "and those were challenging days. He was a man of character."
He further appealed to graduates to speak loud in the face of wickedness.
"Do not hide your faith and your beliefs under a bushel basket, especially in this world that seems to have gone mad with political correctness," Thomas said.
His Christian-based comments and appeals for self-service stand as a strong contrast to President Obama's more politically charged – and less complimentary to the self-sufficient crowd – commencement remarks.
As WND reported, Obama just a few days ago told Howard University graduates to "be confident in your heritage, be confident in your blackness," and to question the nature of success.
"We have to not only question the world as it is, and stand up for those African-Americans who haven't been so lucky – because yes, you've worked hard, but you've also been lucky," he said then. "That's a pet peeve of mine – people who have been successful and don't realize they've been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasn't nothing you did. So don't have an attitude."