Commencement Address
Commencement Ceremony for Master's & Doctoral Degree Candidates
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
May 10, 2002
Thank you President Bowen. Governor Perry, Regents, faculty members, students, family members, and most importantly--degree candidates: Howdy!
I bring greetings from the students, faculty, and staff of the second oldest public university in Texas. (pause) Congratulations to Texas A&M on 125 years of rich tradition and distinguished service to Texas.
The Dallas Morning News treated my appearance here as an unnatural phenomenon, likening it to "the lions lying with the lambs." We will set aside the question of who are the lions and who are the lambs. Nevertheless, I do not view my presence here as an aberration. The University of Texas and Texas A&M University share a common purpose in service of our state. We both have our sights set on a better and more just future. We both answer the same clarion call of the people of Texas. We agree on a single, overarching mission. We both want to beat the hell out Oklahoma. (Of course, you are all serious-minded graduate students, so I presume you don't pay attention to football.)
Joining you today, I am reminded of President John Kennedy's remark in 1962 upon accepting an honorary degree from Yale University. President Kennedy was a Harvard graduate. "It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds," said the president, "a Harvard education and a Yale degree."
In my case, I have a UT degree, and I've been to College Station so many times in the past few years that I feel as if I'm getting an Aggie education on the installment plan. Earlier today, we were walking under the famous Century Oak near the Academic Building, which has inspired so many romantic moments, and I was moved to propose to Mary Ann all over again. She accepted.
I salute the degree candidates for all the work and industry that has brought you to commencement. I know the hard side of graduate school: the place from which you think you may never return. The place from which it appears that the rest of human race is engaged in one long picnic--and you did not receive an invitation. I appreciate the tremendous effort that you have made to earn your degrees, and I congratulate you and all of those--friends, family, and teachers--who supported you in the journey.
This is the last graduate school commencement over which Dr. Bowen will preside as President. I want to acknowledge the outstanding work he has done here and the friendship we have developed. Furthermore, he has cultivated great friendship and respect between our two institutions.
All members of this community had to confront the tragedy that occurred here on November 18, 1999. I was on this campus later that day in this very arena, and I will never forget the response of the Aggie family. I was also extremely proud of the reaction of the UT community. Our candlelight Unity Gathering attracted more than 10,000 people, and on that night we darkened the Tower in memory of those lost.
President Bowen has led Texas A&M during a period of great progress. He also has had to make some tough decisions. I applaud his leadership.
But I'm not here to praise Athens to the Athenians. You know, as I do, that Texas A&M ranks among the best public universities. I ask you to think about something still bigger--about a Texas, an America, a world that needs educated brainpower of the highest order. Sometimes I think our society underestimates the importance of it. There is a tendency for folks to believe that what's in a person's heart is the important thing, not what is in his or her head. Well, that's one of those enticing half- truths. The state of a person's heart really is important. But in this world, the content and skill of the brain count, too--big time.
You see, the easy problems have been solved, and the hard ones are not going to be solved by intuition. The world has become a desperately intricate place, confronted by tough problems that rarely have simple solutions. At the time of your birth, few could have imagined that the French franc would cease to exist, that the Soviet Union would no longer pose a daily, mortal threat to our nation, that something called the internet would penetrate our households and change the way we interact, that a phenomenon called computer viruses could shut down large organizations, or that the twin towers of the World Trade Center would fall to earth because of a command given in the caves of Afghanistan.
As graduate students, you have invested extraordinarily in knowledge. You have made sacrifices to acquire advanced skills and to expand the boundaries of scholarship. You have prepared to tackle complex problems, to discover answers, and to implement solutions. We all need the skills that you have to offer. Civilization must have wisdom informed by your knowledge and creativity.
Our state has set a goal of increasing college enrollment in Texas by 500,000 students by the year 2015. Where are we going to get the faculty? You are part of the solution. How are we going to build productive relationships between the West and the Islamic world? You are part of the solution. How will we be able to handle economic and population growth in a sustainable way? You are part of the solution.
There is another area in which our nation is depending on you. We live in a democracy, and that requires the participation of the citizenry. I know that Governor Perry would agree with me on this point. Democracy, at every level, needs good people. I want you to ask yourself, "Why not me?" You are needed in your neighborhood organization, on your school board, on your city council, and in Congress. You have two sources of inspiration on this campus. The George Bush Presidential Library down the street and Governor Rick Perry on this platform. Rick Perry went from living on the quad to living in the Governor's Mansion in 28 years, with a great deal of public service in between. So ask yourself, "Why not me?"
And that brings me back to what's in the heart.
It is hardly possible to speak today without reference to September 11, for the events of that day now color the future of everyone here. Human history is a story in which titanic experiences transform attitudes of whole societies for long stretches afterward. We can readily reel off the events that have done that for America in our lives and in the lives of our parents: the stock market crash of 1929, Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy, Watergate, the fall of the Soviet Empire. On September 11, we all went through one of those soul-searing experiences, and it is defining the tone of the next years.
Gone altogether is the irrational exuberance of the late 1990s. Gone is the idea that American power cannot be challenged in our era. Gone is the implicit notion that our culture is the only one that really needs to be understood. Gone is the confidence that an intricate society can be made a fully secure society.
We have been awakened to a starker reality than we remembered or hoped for, but it is not the first time. The same thing happened in 1929 and in 1963. It will happen again. It is in the nature of humankind to live life in seasons: seasons of plenty, seasons of scarcity, seasons free of worry, seasons of fret and care.
Conflict in the Middle East, terrorism, virulent disease. Poverty, pollution, and disregard for human rights. These are fiercely difficult things. But they make up the hand that we have been dealt.
Still, it is no time for despair. We don't have the worst of times, for sure. Every generation has its hard challenges. That of your parents did. That of your grandparents did. It is valuable now to take note of the way in which the leaders of earlier years manifested a marvelous optimistic determination as they addressed tough challenges. In his First Inaugural, in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt told Americans reeling from economic collapse that, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." And in October, 1941, after England had endured the worst of the Battle of Britain and still stood virtually alone in the fight against Hitler, Winston Churchill had the spirit to say this,
"Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days--the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race."
What remarkable things Roosevelt and Churchill said, given the circumstances! Their phrases were not mere expressions. Their words were windows into their own souls, through which the people could see the fire of optimism and the determination to overcome the challenges of their days, which were also fierce indeed.
Let us approach our challenges with the same qualities. These need not be dark days; these are sterner days. We can negotiate them with honor and success if we use our brains and maintain our faith in the core values on which this university is founded: truth, justice, charity, integrity, freedom.
In short, I challenge you to commit your head and your heart--your whole self--to the challenges of the day, to your community, and to your family. The times call for that, but I want you to know also that, in my experience, this is the direction where satisfaction lies.
The great Abraham Lincoln, beset by challenges that could melt the soul, faced them with a quality of heart and intelligence hardly equaled in the pages of history. He once wrote this:
"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me."
He committed his life to things bigger than himself. He trusted his values. Somehow, we know that he did have at least that friend left. I wish the same for you, when, many years from now, you lay down the reins.
Take the great Aggie spirit…and values…and the things you've learned on this campus…and get busy! A wonderfully rich, challenging world is waiting for your heart and your mind. Good luck, and Godspeed.
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