Graduates are getting their share of mixed messages in commencement speeches by politicians, business leaders and educators. What they take away from the ceremony may vary widely, but possessed as they are with higher education, they should be able to sort it out. Most speeches in the past weeks contained references to terrorism and America’s place in the world, albeit from different viewpoints.
President George Bush pushed compassionate conservatism to grads at Lutheran Concordia University. Much of what he said has been heard before, some of it verbatim, as in this pro-life pitch, ” . . . to protect and honor life in all its seasons. A compassionate society shows a special concern for those at the beginning of life, those at the end of life and those who struggle in life with disabilities.” Sounds a lot like what that bishop said in denying communion to anyone who votes for a candidate who doesn’t espouse the church’s line on abortion, stem cell research and euthanasia.
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice talked about segregation and civil rights at Vanderbilt University, noting that she grew up in Birmingham, Ala., once the most thoroughly segregated city in the nation, where she heard the bombing of a Sunday school that claimed the life of her friend. She said, “With the privilege of higher education, you also have certain obligations. The world in which it is possible for you to attend a great university was built by optimists, not pessimists. They did not sacrifice and sweat so that you would wallow in cynicism.” Knowing the difficulties of our own history, “we should be humble in singing freedom’s praise, but our voice should never waver in speaking out on the side of those who seek freedom,” Rice said. “What was wrong in Birmingham in 1963, is wrong in 2004 in Baghdad.”
Speaking at Cornell, former President Bill Clinton said globalization has given us “the opportunity to bring people together across the planet in common cause for common good.” Interdependence can be good or bad. Trade and travel are good, terrorism is bad-they are two sides of the same coin, he said. “The great mission of the 21st century world is to build up the positive forces of interdependence and beat back the negative ones. Most of the world’s problems are not well suited to unilateral solutions. You can tear down a building alone, but you normally need some help to build one. Most of the world’s problems respond better to cooperative solutions.”
He said his hopes are that we will choose to defend, define and expand a more perfect union, and we can “if we recognize that our differences make life interesting, but our common humanity is far, far, far more important.”
At Columbia University, George Soros told grads that, as they enter the real world, they must know it’s a troubled place and international relations are at the core of our troubles. Soros blames the war on terror for turning victims into perpetrators. The war has claimed more innocent victims than the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Soros noted this is not recognized here because the victims of the war on terror are not Americans. But the rest of the world does not draw the same distinction and world opinion has turned against us. “Terrorists seem to have hit upon a weak point in our collective psyche. They have made us fearful,” he said. “By succumbing to fear, we are doing the terrorists’ bidding: We are unleashing a vicious circle of violence.”
If we want to preserve our privileged position, he warned grads, “we must use it not to lord it over the rest of the world but to concern ourselves with the well-being of others.” Then echoing Clinton’s observations on globalization and the interdependence of nations, he said, “Instead of undermining or demeaning our international institutions because they do not necessarily follow our will, we ought to strengthen them and improve them. Instead of engaging in preemptive actions of a military nature, we ought to pursue preventive actions of a constructive nature, creating a better balance between carrots and sticks in the prevailing world order.”
That’s a lot for our young graduates to tackle, but we can only hope that enough of them will bring their privilege, education, optimism and hope for humanity to work in finding solutions for our troubled planet.