Joe Oglesby, editorial page editor of The Miami Herald, asked the question below of Vernon Jordan, former president of the National Urban League and a close advisor to former President Bill Clinton. Jordan currently is senior managing director with Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, an investment banking firm whose latest book is Make It Plain: Stand Up and Speaking Out (2008: Perseus Publishing; $24.95):

Question: The speech that you gave at your daughter's college graduation ceremony was touching. You said things that were sweepingly grand -- yet personal, too. If I were in the audience, I would have felt that were speaking directly to me. How did you pull this off?

Answer: That was so very personal. My thinking was that I didn't want it to be so much in my role as an advocate for justice. My heart and soul and mind were that of a parent who was just so proud that his daughter was graduating from college. . . You watch them grow and mature, and then they're ready to graduate.

I had talked about it [with his wife and friends], and I was prepared to give it.

The day before, I had been on a plane from Zurich and I didn't get to Philadelphia until 3 in the morning. After I slept for a while, I went right to the robing room. I opened the page to her name -- and went into a corner and wept . . .

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