■ Vice President Harris cited the challenges of a “fragile” world during her Naval Academy commencement address.
VP says pandemic has ‘accelerated’ our world
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Vice President Kamala Harris focused on the challenges of the pandemic, climate change and cybersecurity threats during her keynote speech to graduates at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday, the first by a woman at the 175-year-old institution.
Harris said the pandemic “has accelerated our world into a new era.”
“It has forever impacted our world,” she said. “It has forever influenced our perspective, and if we weren’t clear before, we know now: Our world is interconnected. Our world is interdependent, and our world is fragile.”
A pandemic can spread throughout the world in a matter of months, a gang of hackers can disrupt the fuel supply, and one country’s carbon emissions can threaten the sustainability of the Earth, the vice president said.
“This, midshipmen, is the era we are in, and it is unlike any era that came before,” Harris said. “So, the challenge now, the challenge before us now is how to mount a modern defense to these modern threats.”
Harris described the cyberattack earlier this month that shut down the nation’s largest fuel pipeline as “a warning shot” in what the new Navy and Marine Corps officers will be facing.
Most of the 1,084 graduates were commissioned as officers in the
Navy and Marine Corps, including 784 Navy ensigns and 274 Marines as 2nd lieutenants. About 28 percent of the graduating class are women.
Midshipman Sydney Barber, who was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Marines at the ceremony, said it was an exciting and emotional day to graduate with Harris as the speaker.
She said she was scheduled to meet with the vice president after the ceremony.
In her speech, Harris said she has put Barber’s shoulder boards on display in her ceremonial office.