Stephen Colbert just does not stop. He plays the role of arrogant, selfish, pseudo-journalist with such flair and commitment that I sometimes wonder where his line between satire and actual belief system is drawn. Seeing his lecture Saturday at the University of Rochester for the college's Meliora Weekend was like watching an hour and a half personalized "Colbert Report" - with digs on UR, Rochester's weather, and at one point a comparison of John McCain to white hots that somehow seemed all too appropriate (though admittedly, the visuals on the jumbo screens helped).

But Colbert's message was simple. As he so eloquently put it, referring to 18- to 24-year-olds, "You are the coddled generation." The first generation legally required to wear helmets while riding a bicycle. He scolded, pointed fingers, and finally asked, "Where is your passion?" He followed that up by commenting on how the youth of 40 years ago filled the streets to make change; now they blog and make YouTube videos. After his rant about the current state of the presidential campaigns, Colbert told the audience (directing it at the students) that while they've been at the university, we've "broken the world."

What resonated with me the most was his story about the University of Florida student who was tazed by campus police while trying to ask John Kerry a question. After Colbert criticized (on an episode of his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report") the other students who stood by and just watched the incident, one student wrote his show asking, "What were we supposed to do? The police told us to stay in our seats."

Colbert never answered that question. But as the event wore on, finally culminating in a question/answer portion, I began to think he should have. As student after student got up and asked questions that got increasingly asinine (one student tried to even ask Colbert a question while wearing a John McCain mask, muffling the words so much he finally had to move on to another person), it was apparent that the 18- to 24-year-old generation has lost something that was present in generations past. I won't put words in Colbert's mouth, but I'm pretty sure he was trying to tell the students that it's OK to think outside the box, challenge the status quo, and stop the injustices of our leaders. But maybe all was not lost. Here's my blog; where's yours?