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To the Class of 2007: 'Listen to your hearts'
Politicians, activists, even rock musicians deliver commencement addresses across the country.
from the June 7, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Bill Clinton
Former US president
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
What is the fundamental nature of your world, the 21st century world? Most people say "globalization."
I far prefer "interdependence," because this is about more than economics, travel, and even information technology. This is about the increasing web that binds us together, the increasing diversity within all rich countries. Interdependence has no necessary value content. It simply means we cannot escape each other. Divorce is not an option.
Julian Bond
Chairman of the NAACP
Loyola University, New Orleans
An early attempt at ending illiteracy in the South developed a slogan that was also their method – "Each One Teach One" until all could read. After [hurricane] Katrina, Loyola University instituted the "Each One Reach One" campaign to get every member of its community to recommend a student to apply for the class of 2010. As you leave Loyola, you can continue and expand Each One Reach One.
Each one reach one until we all are registered and voting.
Each one reach one until we all are productive citizens of our world.
Each one reach one until the weak are strong and the sick are healed.
Each one reach one until your problem is mine, until mine is yours....
This is not easy work, but you know what hard work is – that is what brought you here today.
Tom Brokaw
TV journalist
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Let me also say something about those who are not here today. While we are gathered here, in this place of privilege and promise, other young men and women, your fellow citizens, many of them without the advantages that brought you to this ceremony of hope and celebration, are in uniform and in harm's way.
However you feel about the decisions that placed them in peril, you must not forget them or their families, for they have volunteered to risk their lives if necessary to insure your security and defend this country. They come from working-class families in places such as Big Timber, Montana; the barrios of East Los Angeles; the African-American neighborhoods of greater Detroit; the red soil of the American South; the backwoods of New England. It is hard duty with a high price, as we have all learned so painfully. It is about death and lifelong debilitating wounds, about policies gone awry, about terrible mistakes and heroic, noble action. It is a duty, a burden, not to be borne by the military families alone.
You come to these ceremonies with many choices before you. Those choices must include a commitment to honor the sacrifices of those in uniform, to connect in some way to their families and to become involved in the debate on the course of national security, now and in the future.
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