For the second time since the town-leveling tornado of a year ago, Greensburg High School bestowed diplomas this weekend on its graduating seniors in a setting no one could have foreseen prior to that stormy night.
   Holding commencement under a sprawling complex of tents on the relatively unscathed eastern edge of town two weeks after the tornado’s passage last year, Sunday’s commencement was held in an actual building this year—a building, in fact, that didn’t exist a year ago—the school’s practice gym that sits in the heart of the temporary K-12 campus hurriedly erected over the summer.
   The drama surrounding this year’s commencement, however, was largely owing to the nation’s sitting president flying in to deliver the address and later hand diplomas to the 18 graduates.   George W. Bush returned to Greensburg Sunday for his second visit since the devastation of May 4, 2007.  The first—just five days after the tornado’s whirlwind tour—was to survey damage and console stricken survivors.  The second was to congratulate a community on its recovery efforts since, while reminding its young people of their pivotal destiny as the generation that will finish the task of reconstruction begun by their parents and local leaders.
   “The future of Greensburg and the nation belongs to the young,” Bush told the graduates and hundreds of others gathered in the gym—the only structure in town large enough to host such an event.  “The lessons you’ve learned in this town over the past year will enable you to meet any challenge yet to come your way…lessons of what it means to serve a greater cause.”
    As examples of that selfless devotion, Bush mentioned the resolve of several seniors who were “not concerned about what you’d lost, but finding the loved ones you hoped you hadn’t,” that fateful night.  He likewise lifted up Chris Skrzypczak, the Alabama teen who raised hundreds of dollars to buy and then transport books to Greensburg to replenish library shelves; the efforts of middle school teacher Josh Dellenbach and students to raise thousands in February to relieve tornado victims in Tennessee; and graduate Aaron Widner, who enlisted earlier this year in the Marine Corps.
    To Widner Bush enthused, “Best of luck in boot camp and I look forward to serving as your commander in chief.”
   Bush drew thunderous applause early on in his 15-minute message when he spoke of the seniors’ “resilience” sending a powerful message to the nation—“Greensburg, Kansas is back and its best days are ahead.” He paid tribute to the graduates’ perseverance, noting many had gone home each night to a cramped, temporary home in a FEMA trailer, having spent the day “juggling schoolwork with activities and helping in the recovery process of the community at the same time.”
    Superintendent Darin Headrick’s leadership in making good on his promise just days after the tornado to reopen school by the appointed date of August 15 was also acclaimed by the forty-third president, as was the dedication of teachers and parents.
    “The winds of destruction may have torn apart your town, but they could not break the bonds of faith and friendship that have held you together as a community,” Bush said midway through his speech, comparing the resilience of Greensburg and its residents to the same commitment to rebuilding “stronger and better than before” he cited in Americans’ response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, as well as the natural disasters of Hurricane Katrina, tornadic mayhem in Florida and wild fires in the west.
   The President grew nostalgic near the conclusion of his comments, recalling having spoken with a number of residents the morning of May 9, 2007 as he strode over a dozen blocks in the southwest section of town.
   He specifically referred to Kaye Hardinger having told him that morning, “I would’ve invited you in for coffee, but I didn’t have time to dust.”  Bush said Hardinger should have the coffee on in the future in the event of a third visit to the recovering town.
   Co-owner of the BTI implement dealership, Kelly Estes, was also singled out by Bush, as a businessman who’d lost $18 million worth of equipment in the storm, and is now “looking forward to rebuilding” his business in a groundbreaking, environmentally friendly fashion that will “create two dozen new jobs” in the process.  Such a commitment to the future is, according to Bush, proof of the community taking advantage of an opportunity to “rebuild with a free hand and clean slate.”
   Symbolically referencing the stark meteorological reality of the first weekend in May a year ago, Bush closed his comments by saying, “The dark clouds of a year ago have parted and a bright future has dawned before you.  God bless you and may God bless the class of 2008.”