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Release Date: 05/20/04 00:00:00
College Park, Md.
University of Maryland
Commencement Ceremony
May 20, 2004
(Remarks as Prepared)
Thank you! Good evening. Wow! So many people -- such loud applause. I had to look over my shoulder and make sure Coach Williams wasn't standing behind me!
This just tells me that I made the right decision, because, unfortunately, I had to say no to a competing engagement. It just didn't make the cut.
I'm sure Duke graduates won't mind.
Oh, well, that's just one more loss they'll have to get over this summer.
At least they can look forward to football season - right?
Let me just start by recognizing President Mote, members of the Board of Regents and trustees; deans, faculty, distinguished guests; family and friends, and, most especially, the Mighty Maryland Class of 2004! Thank your for your warm welcome.
Jamie and Liz - thank you so much for your kind introduction, and for inviting me to be a part of this wonderful night. I'm so honored, and quite flattered, to hear that I was your first choice for commencement speaker. So, why don't you go ahead and send me your resumes?
I love commencements. I really do. Everyone's so excited -- the big day has arrived -- the future awaits.
The only thing standing between you and your degree now is a speech. Well, Class of 2004, don't worry; I will do as all good commencement speakers should do -- be brief and soon forgotten.
First, I'd like to ask you to look up in the stands. If you look closely, you will see that your parents are smiling with happiness, pride and a bit of relief, and because they have big plans for your old room.
But today, we celebrate your big plans. Hard work has culminated in achievement, and now a springboard to a future of vast opportunity, in a world that awaits your name, and your contributions.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." "Work worth doing" has a broad definition but a meaning with a common thread.
The best prize in life, to our 26th president, meant service to a cause greater than self -- no matter what your chosen field of endeavor.
Then, as now, the "prize" is a passion. It is a pursuit, an unyielding desire to place a thumbprint on the clay of history and shape it for the betterment of the future. The "prize" is not in setting yourself apart, through celebrity and fame, but rather in holding your communities, your country, your world together, particularly, when it needs you most.
Adversity challenges every generation. And yet, far sooner than your parents and I would have liked, you learned that lesson during your "wonder years" -- the hard way -- by experience.
For my parents, adversity came with the attack on Pearl Harbor; the challenge was the test of will and patience and sacrifice that defined World War II. On a day of infamy, a nation was shaken and shocked by its vulnerability and quickly stirred to extraordinary effort, bringing new workers to assembly lines and new weaponry to the battlefield.
For the next generations, adversity came with the advent of the Cold War -- and the challenge was the sustained commitment of free nations that unraveled the oppression of communism, as it took its last collective breath in the rubble of the Berlin Wall.
The adversity of September 11th, 2001 and the challenge of the war against terrorism, is a test unlike any other, unspeakable, unimaginable to any of us before that tragic day. Many of you gathered around radios on the mall near McKeldin Library to hear the news; you watched the unwatchable unfold on televisions at the Student Union. As the Twin Towers fell, the Pentagon burned, and the passengers of Flight 93 made their heroic goodbyes, we all watched and heard and ached. And, then, for a moment, the world stood still.
It is characteristic of a free people that, even to this day, we find it difficult to comprehend the motivation behind the means. Yes, life in the minutes and months after 9/11 quickly became a civics lesson as we tried to summon our best efforts to our children's wide-eyed questions. But how could we, who value liberty, wrap our minds around one of the greatest shames of civilization? An act of sweeping inhumanity, embedded in the deepest ignorance and dismissal of the sanctity of life, and communion, and diversity, and freedom.
Great tragedies and challenges ask many things of our country and our leaders: Our country and our leaders have responded with commitment, compassion, confidence, political courage and faith. In the earliest days following the attacks, the President grasped the gravity of the moment and laid out the magnitude of the task.
He consoled; with great emotion and compassion, the National Cathedral echoed with the great words and full heart of a man who summoned his faith and steadied a nation in grief.
In the days ahead, our leaders reminded us who we are -- an open, welcoming nation of immigrants, that would and did, offer an outstretched hand of reassurance to Muslim Americans; to one fifth of all humanity, the Muslim community around the world. Our enemy is not the peaceful religion of Islam. Terrorists speak for no one but evil.
So very important in those early weeks after the attacks, the President also gave us the gentle nudge we so desperately needed -- the message that it was okay...and indeed necessary, to get back to living our lives as Americans. And what is more American than the October classic? Baseball. The World Series was in New York City; and with the words of Todd Beamer's "Let's roll" still fresh in our national heart, the President wisely said "Play ball."
And it was then that an opening pitch became more than it ever was -- a message to friend and foe alike that a way of life so unquestionably bound to freedom and progress and hope cannot be derailed by anyone, not in these United States.
We defend freedom; we cherish freedom; and we will continue to enjoy the liberties and opportunities our freedoms provide.
While terrorism is not a new phenomenon, we must recognize that in the 21st century, it is different.
We have witnessed the brutality of people whose arms are crossed tightly in defiance, anger, and hatred. They cannot free themselves from the hatred that could instead be the hope of a better life. The intolerance that could instead be an invitation to a diverse and global community. The fear of change that could instead be the first footsteps toward economic opportunity and a brighter future.
Such entrenched and irrational ideology resides figuratively, and, in some cases literally, in a cave, and is difficult to change, as centuries of terrorism have shown. But in our century, in our time, the message to terrorists has changed.
America is resolved and resilient and unrelenting when it comes to the security of our people and our nation, just as the great Founders of freedom had hoped we would be. America will not abdicate that freedom to anyone, ever.
Instead, to terrorists, we send a message, sure and clear: We will meet your threats, in the fullest throttle of response, wherever you seek to hide, wherever you seek to operate, wherever you threaten our families, our friends, our fellow citizens, be it on foreign soil, or on our own.
Less than two weeks from now, ladies and gentlemen, our nation will honor the veterans of previous wars. But today let us honor those who, at this very hour, are fighting around the world in the war against terror. Some of us here today are former soldiers who know the high cost of freedom; all of us here today are citizens who know and enjoy the high reward of another's sacrifice. Our brave soldiers must know: America supports them and prays for their safekeeping.
Here at home, images of 9/11 still chill the spine but heat the passion of our nation. They are the force that motivates us to work every single day to protect our country from those who wish us harm. Nowhere is that more evident than in the daily tasks carried out by the men and women of Homeland Security.
It's been just more than a year since 22 agencies merged under the umbrella of a new Department – 180,000 people all united under a single mission: to make the fullest protection of our people the highest charge of our nation.
During our first year, we made great progress in widening a base of protective measures to make this nation safer. Our job is to get smarter and more secure everyday using people and technology. We do, thanks to the sense of mission and purpose of the men and women who do the "hard work worth doing" of homeland security.
While we have high expectations of ourselves and a monumental task ahead, we won’t cut corners in a rush to security solutions that are contrary to our values.
We know that free nations are open and diverse and welcoming, not because that is the way of freedom, but because that is the will of free people. And so, this nation must and will always be careful to respect people's privacy, civil liberties and reputations. To suggest that there is a trade-off between security and individual freedoms, that we must discard one protection for another, to me is a false choice. You do not defend liberty to forsake it.
"True liberty" is the pure love of it, not merely the desire to be free, but to see it furthered from one generation to the next. You will have your opportunity to further liberty, in many ways.
I would not be a good government official if I didn't take this opportunity to make a plug for public service. Whether we speak of a Customs officer improving our port security, an FBI agent pioneering DNA forensics, a nurse working in a veterans hospitals, or a chemist investigating the ozone layer, the work these bright, talented people do under the banner of public service today enriches the lives of countless individuals and will surely impact the world for generations to come.
Let me also say that public service doesn't always mean that you receive a government paycheck. In this day and age, "work worth doing" can mean that you are contributing in ways that say "Let's roll," "Play ball", ways that economically, socially and culturally keep your country moving forward.
While I took on this position, facing what some have called "an uncertain endeavor," the future of this country is very much certain. From crisis to conflict, from security issues to social dilemmas, America has led the peace without ever changing the free republic that our founding fathers established nearly 228 years ago, nor the values in keeping with 10 generations of history, freedom, compassion, integrity, duty, honor, country.
Going forward, and with your help, we will advance ourselves and our country as we always have, through the hard work of incorrigible pioneers, persistent visionaries, impassioned patriots -- the stubborn goodness of a people who, generation to generation, continue to give all that is good and just and astonishing to their country. A people who embrace the most abiding of American principles -- the notion that we are all called to serve as long as we call ourselves free.
Winston Churchill said, we shape our buildings; thereafter, our buildings shape us. That is especially true of America's historic campuses.
Members of the Class of 2004: You are about to bring vast knowledge from a wonderful institution of learning into a world of new frontiers. And though you may soon forget the Socratic method, the names of 15th century kings, the hallmarks of iambic pentameter, or how to solve for "x" and "y," you will always remember Maryland. And unlike the series finale of two weeks ago, your "friends" will last a lifetime. Not in reruns, but in reunions and lasting friendships.
And when you do see each other, talk to each other, think of one another, when you talk of Terrapins, I know that fond memories will come to mind. But here’s something else to think about: the terrapin is one of the longest living creatures on Earth. Many live for nearly 150 years.
One hundred and fifty years from now, future generations of Maryland grads will be making their way through the world, a world defined by those of you who sit here tonight, a world defined by your contributions.
So marvel at yourselves, now, for all you are about to set out to do, for the children you will nurture, the business trends you will evoke, the creativity you will inspire, and the many channels of science and communication and discovery you will hold open for generations to follow.
And years from now may you look back on those contributions and enjoy a collective pride for the in the way in which you kept your country moving forward amid challenging times, the commitment and compassion and "hard work" that you gave to it all, and the blessings that it will most surely return to you. It will be the best prize in your life.
Thank you again for inviting me to share this wonderful evening with you. My heartfelt congratulations go out to you
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This page was last reviewed/modified on 05/20/04 00:00:00.
