At the last minute, someone asked Najah Bazzy if she would speak at their graduation ceremony. Bazzy said sure.

It was at the Islamic Center of America. A commencement for all graduating Muslims — high school and college — in the community.

When the speech came, Bazzy stepped up to the microphone at the podium, in front of parents and children and friends and teachers. But her speech wasn’t filled with grandiose themes, the world, its challenges or global responsibility.

She told them congratulations. Then she told them to grow up to be … journalists. Not doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, pharmacists, or even politicians. Journalists. Bazzy is on to something. More on that in a minute.

Now, if you’re a parent whose body just went numb when you read journalism as a preferred career, relax. My father had a similar reaction back when I first told him I wanted to become a journalist. He even tried to talk me out of it. For good reason. Journalists don’t generally make a lot of money, unless you’re working for a network or big market newspaper.

Fortunately, though, making money wasn’t my motivator. Making change was.

That passion carried me to my first broadcast-journalism job at TV station WBKB in Alpena (pop. 11,304). But I was anything but natural when I delivered my first on-air reports. But I came in early and stayed late, and eventually improved. Then a year later I found myself working at a TV station in Saginaw and Flint, as a reporter.

Two years later, 9/11 happened. I remember clinching my fist and slamming it against the electronic panel on the treadmill at the gym, when I saw Osama’s picture on TV. Next confession: I’m a Muslim, and every single one of my ancestors was a Muslim. So, it bothered me more than a little bit when Osama and a few others decided to pervert my faith by killing in the name of God. I got angry. Then I got an idea. My news director agreed to allow me to produce a three-part series called Muslims in Michigan. Here was my shot at making a difference by shining a more accurate light on Islam, broadcasting to tens of thousands of homes in mid-Michigan.

We spoke with several practicing Muslims in Saginaw and Dearborn, home to the largest concentration of Muslims in America. They talked candidly about what it’s like to be Muslim, living daily with the stereotypes cast on them by the uneducated. We spoke about the basics of the religion, pointing out the similarities and the differences between Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

And we landed up defeating most of the idiocies that sprung up immediately after 9/11. The general sentiment, through viewer response, was that Muslims are everywhere and 99.9 percent of them are not evil.

The opportunities to inform and, hopefully, inspire people to action to didn’t stop there.

When I moved home to Dearborn in 2002, I took a job as a newswriter at WXYZ-TV. In light of the events of 9/11, there was this need in the newsroom to better understand Muslims and bring people of all faiths together. Through my experience with Islam and my father’s tireless work in the interfaith community, I was able to help facilitate that need to producers and reporters in the field.

Then Your Community Voice came along in 2004. We set out with the simple premise that Arabs and Muslims are good people too. We show people our good side, when so much of mainstream media is concentrated on the bad.

Which brings me to my point in all this. A few days after the Lebanon-Israeli war began in 2006, I remember covering an event at the Islamic Center of America. And I’ll never forget this. A young man walked up to me and asked, “Why is the media so biased towards Israel?” I replied, “Because they can be.”

My point to him is my point to you, parents and graduates: If you want change anywhere, quit complaining and do something about it. If you want to influence thousands, even millions, if you want to reach the masses, and help shape the decisions we make, then represent. Do what Najah Bazzy suggested: Become a journalist. Be a part of the solution. Or expect more of the same.

Your choice.

You can reach Raad Alawan at (313) 333-5369 or at: yourvoice1@aol.com.