How can we continue to believe American higher education is anything but an unethical, greed-propelled fraud if the institutions themselves don’t take their official mission seriously? (That would be education and the conferring of wisdom and inspiration, in contrast to the real mission, ideological indoctrination. Here is a revealing article about Harvard’s corruption, for example.)

The University of Maryland will have Kermit the Frog as its commencement speaker today to send the graduating class of 2025 off into the real world.

“I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” UMD President Darryll J. Pines wrote in a statement. “Our pride in Jim Henson knows no bounds, and it is an honor to welcome Kermit the Frog to our campus, 65 years after Mr. Henson graduated from the University of Maryland. I sincerely thank The Muppets Studio, Disney and their creative teams for making this possible.”

Sure, UMD has good reason to celebrate Henson, a genuine genius who graduated from UMD in 1960 with a degree in home economics (Wait, what?). During his time at the school, Henson took a UMD puppetry course in which he met his first performing partner and future wife, Jane Nebel. Together they launched their daily puppet show, “Sam and Friends,” in Washington, D.C. Kermit was born soon after. Jim Henson was Kermit the Frog, and vice-versa.

Henson gave several commencement speeches using Kermit as his mouthpiece. That was appropriate because Jim Henson had valuable insights to convey, and students were really listening to an accomplished and respected speaker at this transition in their lives. But Jim Henson, has been dead for 35 years. The current voice of Kermit the Frog is a puppeteer named Matt Vogel. Other than the green cloth puppet he manipulates, there is nothing special about Matt Vogel whatsoever. He’s a puppeteer, and that’s all he has been for his entire career. He’s not an author, or an entrepreneur: he doesn’t even write Kermit’s lines. He’s a father of five and I’m sure he’s a wonderful guy, but none of that makes him a qualified commencement speaker. Having him speak to a graduating class through the Kermit puppet would be like having “Joe Biden” address the class with an unknown ventriloquist speaking for him from under the podium. That would be ridic…hey, wait a minute….!

At least the law school class that had Ol’ Knucklehead inflicted on it knew who they were listening to. For that reason, and only that reason, Tim Walz was a more ethical choice as a commencement speaker than Kermit the Frog. I’m sure Kermit’s speech will be better than Walz’s. How could it not be?