President Peterson, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, and most importantly, the members of the great class of 1996, your families and friends.
We are all very proud of you today. Congratulations on this joyous day.
It is my honor to bring you special greetings from the President of the United States. This President has placed unusually high importance on education, having waged a tough fight to maintain support for education in the budget, and most particularly, for student financial aid.
And, I might add that he takes special pleasure in the accomplishments of graduates like you, but clearly, no one can share your happiness on this day as those closest to you, seated in this audience. That observation leads me to the theme of my address---the intersection between one's personal life of family and friends, and individual choices, and the larger political, social and economic forces--seemingly beyond one's immediate control---that influence, in a myriad of ways, how we play out our lives.
And why it is essential to participate in influencing those larger forces in whatever way is possible, in order to have some impact on the choices we make for ourselves.
We have before us an example of the connection between our personal choices and the larger society which shapes them on this graduation day. It's safe to assume that most of you wouldn't be here if you had not developed an idea of who you want to be, and what kind of skills and knowledge you need to get there, and if you had not been encouraged by parents, teachers, and friends, to continue your education.
It's also safe to assume, judging by national statistics, that half of you would not be here today if there were no government student loans and grants available to you.
Your opportunity to receive your degrees today was made possible by the dynamic combination of personal choice and public policy, shaped and influenced by the democratic process which concluded that investment in education serves the common good. These are the dual forces that help define your life, and will continue to do so, as you raise your own families, live in your communities and figure out how much of your time and energy to reserve for the microcosm of your life--those closest to you --and how much to give to the larger society in the form of community or public service.
My own political evolution, if you will, developed in concentric circles, moving outward from my family.
My first political act was to organize my neighbors through a petition drive and public hearing process to obtain a flashing red light at a railroad crossing, which my children had to cross on their way to school.
A worried mother became an activist politician.
As you raise children, you will discover new concerns that go beyond your own hearth, concerns about the public schools, and if you combine work and raising a family, you will be seeking affordable quality child care, and you will most certainly want to live in a community that is safe, where your children can play freely, and you don't have to look over your shoulder, on your way home.
Public engagement is, when viewed in this light, not entirely altruistic. One may be motivated by a singular need --like protecting one's children --but the result remains significant. Not only my children, but other people's children, were also were more safe when they crossed these same tracks.
And if you, as parents, become involved in your child's education, you will not only give your child a great gift---all the research substantiates what we instinctively know, that parent involvement makes a tremendous difference in children's ability to succeed academically---but your gift to your child will also reverberate generously in your child's school, and in your community.
I wonder sometimes what makes certain people take this responsibility upon themselves --to change things --to see a new and different sense of possibility from what exists, and to act upon it; and alternatively, what enables others to live in their own worlds, without seeing all these possibilities, and quite content.
I know I could not stand to live that way. But I don't know precisely why.
Perhaps I was shaped as a result of being an immigrant to this country, which makes me eternally grateful for its refuge and gives me a sense of optimism about democracy; perhaps it was my mother, who told me and my brother, right from the beginning, that "anything is possible in America," made me see Europe, the old country, as a place where things were difficult if not impossible to change, where class was a determining factor, and the new country, the united states of America, was the place where you could be whoever you wanted to be, if you worked for it.
Perhaps the fact that I evolved as a woman in a time when one door after another was opening for women, and I rode the crest of the wave of the women's movement of the 70's with a tremendous sense of excitement, letting it sweep me to new shores, where I could make choices my mother and grandmother could not make, even though they may have dreamed similar dreams.
My political coming of age coincided with the emerging environmental movement, a revolution which I followed and supported as a state legislator , and then as lt. Governor and governor and the excitement and importance of that cause, fueled my courage and gave me a sense of purpose.
As an immigrant from Europe at the beginning of World War II, with Hitler making his sweep through the Netherlands and broadcasting each `night about death to the jews, I knew there was no safety in anonymity, or protection in silence, and I knew that I was privileged in a way that no one in my family had ever been, to speak, to act, to protest, without fear of retribution.
Perhaps I became what we today would call "an engaged citizen" because I simply didn't know any better, and wouldn't listen to the people who said it couldn't be done. Instead of being discouraged when I was advised on the railroad crossing, "it won't happen until someone gets killed," I became more worried, and therefore, fanatically determined. Those lovely crossed railroad signs on their tall posts, may be my most concrete accomplishment to date.
There is much inertia and anonymity in the system, which also gives us permission to do nothing. We can hide in the anonymity of our social security numbers, which are requested more frequently at times, than our names. And the more global our economy and society become, the less sense of personal responsibility we maintain, even as we long for it.
Not long ago in the Department of Education I noticed a terrible odor coming from the recycling bins. People had to walk by them to get to the cash machine. That's how I discovered it. I picked up the phone and complained, and then wondered how many people had walked by, were hit by the same stink, held their breath, and moved on.
Certainly no one will punish you for just walking by, and perhaps you can detour such smells, but, then again, perhaps you can't.
It's safer, in my opinion, to do something about it. And that is as good a definition of why it is important to be engaged in the life of one's time as I can come up with. You are living in a very different time. Change is happening more quickly than our capacity to absorb it, so often if we wait, problems will seem to have gone away, because our attention span has shifted, and new images have appeared on the screen. Rwanda? Who remembers that? Bosnia? Can we stop long enough to figure it out?
And those who struggle with the answers often appear misguided, if not inept, making it easy for us to criticize from the sidelines, hunker down to our own lives, take care of ourselves and our families, and close the door on the world, which seems to make less and less sense. What I would like to leave with you this afternoon is a different strategy --a more complex one, and that is --to urge you to find new ways to be engaged in your community--at any level--local, state or federal --while simultaneously forging the close human ties that are only possible on a personal scale.
I will be the first to confess that merging these two levels of existence is not easy --creating a meaningful personal life with loving ties, and a meaningful public life which connects you to the larger circumference of the world around you.
It requires much agility, and considerable tolerance, as well as patience. And it requires a long view, knowing that whatever state you are in now, will not last long. People get married, have children, children grow up, all at surprisingly fast speeds, and each stage is different.
The balance between a personal life and work or a public life will shift back and forth., enabling you to do more or less, depending on the circumstances.
While the balance is never perfect, particularly for women who still have to be the world's most adept jugglers, and usually have or assume responsibility for caring for their family's well being, I can assure you that such an existence has one marvelous reward. It is never boring. And while we are accustomed to thinking that a personal and a public life are of necessity, always in conflict with one another, that is not always so.
One can inform the other.
I continue to be educated by my four grown children, and most recently, I am fascinated with the state of grandmotherhood, thanks to two boys, ages two and three and one half weeks.
No pictures.
Being engaged in the political and social life of one's time can take many forms. I was fortunate to be elected to public office and to serve in this capacity in the Clinton administration.
That's one pathway. There are others.
One heartening sign for your generation is that many of you are turning away from cynicism and that time worn word--apathy--to optimism and involvement through public and community service.
Just this past Thursday, the secretary of education, Richard Riley, and I, and Harris Wofford, head of the corporation for national service, released the results of a study done by the rand corporation and UCLA on the effects of service learning in 500 higher education institutions.
The results are happily optimistic.
Students who participated in community projects, working as tutors in schools, volunteers in battered women's shelters, and a wide variety of other activities, had higher academic achievement, a greater sense of civic responsibility and better life skills, including leadership abilities, than students who didn't participate.
And the communities which benefited from these college volunteers had nothing but rave reviews -- truly a win /win situation.
The moral of the story is simple --give and you shall receive, a lesson to be learned early, and continued throughout life.
Speaking at Pennsylvania state university last week, the president told those students:
"With this wonderful, precious commodity of a fine education, I hope you will go out into your community and find some way to give back some of what your country has given to you. No matter what you do or how busy you are, there is always a way to serve a larger community. The story of your generation should be the story of how we restore broken lives and shattered promises through citizen service."
The president has asked for more opportunities for students to serve by expanding work-study programs so that a million students have an opportunity to earn their way through college, and by fighting to support Americorps, the program that enables young people to improve their schools and their communities, while earning precious tuition dollars.
I have been to the poorest school districts of America, and I have seen Americorps young people, turning their idealism into reality, and by their actions, changing the lives of the children they help, from despair to hope. And that is no exaggeration or sentimental observation. It's reality.
One adult can make a difference in a child's life.
But I must tell you, so can one voice in the public debate about what our tax dollars should buy and what they should not..
Voices raised for funding for title one, for disadvantaged children, for head start, for high standards in education through Goals 2000---for safe and drug free schools, were finally heard in the congress, and lead to a more or less bipartisan conclusion, so much better than what had been first proposed by the leader ship of the house of representatives.
The pendulum shifted on education, the environment, Medicare and Medicaid only because people spoke out, let their voices be heard. Old fashioned, grass roots politics still works. Use it.
But there are other ways to influence the political process, and thereby, have an impact.
You --this newly minted generation of college graduates --are the most highly skilled technology generation ever produced. And right now you are in your prime, before your younger siblings take over.
My 30 year old assistant made this clear to me, when he told me how his skills were outmoded, because in no way could he compete with his new 21 year old intern from Stanford.
You can use technology not only to gather information at record speed from an incredible variety of sources, but you can use the net as an organizational tool.
This past week, I was told of one modest, but powerful example:
Net day. This was the day---March 9 --when the state of California mobilized more than 50,000 volunteers to wire 20 percent of the schools in California to the Internet.
What is fascinating is not only what was accomplished---bringing technology to schools who otherwise never could afford it --but how it was done.
Without permission from authorities, without a phone, without mail, without staff, just two guys with a generous idea.
The Internet creates a vehicle for organization, for information, for social engagement, the likes of which we have not seen before.
Your high technology skills give you a special advantage, and a special responsibility --to use those skills not only for your own benefit, but as a force for social change. Like any innovation, it can be used to make life better or worse. The great possibility is that it will unite us in ways we cannot fathom, even know. The danger is that it will divide us further into haves and have nots. That is why it is so critical that our schools have a fair and equal capacity to take advantage of what technology has to offer.
The vehicles and tools are there for you to become engaged in the social and political changes necessary in this time. What no one else can create for you, however, is the desire to get engaged, and no one can give you the faith that if, in fact, you do contribute a portion of your life to the larger society around the small circumference of your life, it will make a difference.
What I can tell you is two things --to encourage you.
One , that you are very much needed.
And two, that you will make a difference.
We need you to narrow the gap between rich and poor which is wider in this country than in any other industrialized nation, and those who are affected most sharply are the children who live in deplorable conditions of poverty and neglect.
We need you to revitalize the environmental movement so that we continue to develop sustainable development policies. The environment continues to have its adherents and believers, who surface when under attack, but there are also consistent and persistent doubters and detractors. Those who understand the interconnection between sound environmental policy and economic policy.
We need you to help change corporate America into family friendly, socially responsible organizations, which many are beginning to recognize is a good thing to do, and not only is more humane, but more profitable, when mothers or fathers can stay home with a new born baby, a sick child, or care for an aged parent.
When investment in long term skills is considered more economical than short term downsizing.
We need you to bridge the racial divides that grip our country and sometimes threaten to crack the buttresses that support our democratic form of government.
We need you to restore our generosity of spirit --we are not diminished when we give of our time, our money, our ideas --but enriched. And education is but one splendid example of how when we increase the supply, we do not deplete ourselves, but rather, enrich ourselves, our families, and all those who step within the circle of our embrace.
But is it worthwhile, to lead a life devoted both to a personal agenda and a pubic purpose?
From my own experience, as you may surmise, the answer is a resounding yes.
Not that I have not been disillusioned.
I have been.
Not that I have won every battle .
I have not.
Not that I have never suffered from conflicts between my many roles, as a woman and as a public person.
I have.
What spurs me on is the occasional reward which comes when one expresses one's personal values and views in the public arena, and they are confirmed. Change occurs. The process works.
I urge you to lead a full and engaged life, to see the nexus between your personal well being and that of your loved ones, and that of your street, your community, your state, country, and yes---world.
It is not only a meaningful way to live one's life, it is interesting, and it is fun.
My congratulations to each one of you, and God speed.
Thank you.
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