I am an undergraduate at BYU. A letter to the editor was published complaining that BYU’s decision to do graduation ceremonies online “has let down their seniors” and added a finishing touch to “our year of virtual misery”.
I would like to remind the author of that letter that the misery has not been virtual for most of us. It has been too real.
COVID cases are going up, not down. New variants are getting more deadly, not less. Vaccines will help, but they take weeks to take effect, and graduation is in just 10 days.
Yes, we are all tired of COVID restrictions. But we are more tired of people who ignore the restrictions because they are inconvenient. And we are tired of people getting sick.
I, for one, am grateful that BYU places more value on the health of its students than on a ceremonial pat-on-the-back.
I urge the author to consider how lucky he is to have a graduation unmarred by death or hospitalization – or even a graduation at all. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will never attend a graduation again, and their families have endured much worse than “virtual misery”.
Russel Aaron Anderson, Springville
