Thank you,
President Merton, the Honorable Ed mace, and my fellow honorary degree recipients.
Now first of all, we have find out what are these privileges a permanent they are to President Merton. I keep hearing that, and I haven't quite figured that out. It is an enormous pleasure to be here today at George Mason University. After all, it's a day of joy for everyone. You graduates have no more University exams or classes to endure. And I might say the faculty no longer has you to endure. You have you have fame and fortune ahead of you, your family, spouses and friends can look forward to seeing more of you. And your speaker has the rest. But from her labor's up on Capitol Hill, so it's quite a day. Now, I realize we've gathered here today to applaud those of you who are receiving degrees. But there are a few other people here today who should also be recognized and with whom you graduates probably would like to share your glory. I refer, of course to the parents, spouses or other family members who have made some significant contributions to your presence here today. First of all,
your parents have the brains which you were lucky enough to inherit. And your family probably provided at least some of the money you needed to sustain yourself while you were here. So I congratulate your families and command you graduates for your good judgment in selecting them. Now, a commencement speech is a particularly difficult assignment. The speaker is given no topic and is expected to be able to inspire all the graduates with a stirring speech about nothing at all. I suppose that's why so many lawyers are asked to be commencement speakers.
They're in the habit of talking extensively, even when they have nothing to say. In this case, the University asked not only a lawyer but an elderly judge to be the commencement speaker. Now I was born in Texas, and on Texas they say an old judge is like an old shoe. Everything is all worn out except the tongue
will achieve function of a commencement speaker of course is to be brief. Lord canning was once asked by a preacher how he enjoyed his sermon. canning replied, You were brief us at the preacher I always like to avoid being tedious. canning thought for a moment and then replied, You were also tedious. So there's no absolute guarantee of success here this morning, but I'll do my best. Now today we note and celebrate your liberation from the rigors of academic life. Tomorrow, you have to decide where to go from here. commencement speakers are always full of advice, and true to form, I want to mention two things I think are important to keep in mind. The relates to how you should go about performing the tasks you will soon undertake. The other deals with the quality of your relationship with your community. The first suggestion is to aim high but to be aware that even before you've reached your ultimate professional destination, if you strive for excellence, you can and should have a substantial impact on the world in which you live. Presumably most of you plan on hope to reach the point where you have interesting and important work to do. And when you are paid as much or better yet more than you're worth for doing it. But if your career path is at all like mine, you won't be starting at the top of the ladder. As some of you may know the only job offer I received in the private sector on my graduation from law school many years ago, was a job as a legal secretary. So I started my own private practice sharing a small office with another lawyer in a shopping center in a small community in Arizona. Other people who had offices in the same shopping mall, repaired TVs, clean clothes or loaned money. It was not a high rent district. I got walking in business. People came in to see me about grocery bills, they couldn't collect landlord tenant problems, family matters, and other everyday things not usually considered by the United States Supreme Court. But I always did the best I could with what I had. I learned how the law affects the average citizen, and how a lawyer can help solve day to day problems. When I applied to the Arizona Attorney General's Office for work, they didn't have a place for me. I persisted, however, and got a temporary job and quickly rose all the way to the bottom of the totem pole in that office. As was normal for a beginner, I got the least desirable assignments. But that was all right. Because I managed to take away from those rather humbled professional beginnings, some valuable lessons. I learned, for example, the habit of always doing the best I could with every task. No matter how unimportant it might seem at the time, such habits can breed future success. as Abraham Lincoln once observed, I always prepared myself for the opportunity I knew would come my way as his career a test, devotion to excellence and all things, even when it seems as he put it, the world will little note in our long Remember, the small task in which you find yourself engaged, it can have its rewards. And starting at the bottom, working hard while you're there can have its present constellations and benefits as well. The pay is lower. The perk was that's non existent. And usually the title isn't that impressive. But you will quickly learn as I did, that the person at the bottom despite a low rank on the totem pole can develop skills and earn respect, the person at the bottom gets the first opportunity to propose a solution to whatever the problem is. That first proposed solution, if supported by the right facts and logic, often will be the one that's adopted. Though it may be years before you have the authority to decide which solutions will be adopted, you can start right away to generate the ideas that make those solutions feasible. So for those of you who are disappointed not to be moving from your graduation, directly into a partnership in a 200 person firm, or a cabinet level, position and government, this ought to give you some solace.
Now the second suggestion I have to help make your life meaningful and fulfilling is to become involved in the community in which you find yourself become a part of it by participating in it directly and fully. Whether it's a volunteer worker, or an elected or appointed representative in some community, agency or institution, or simply as a citizen who persuades others to take needed action, you will find that the individual can and does make a difference. Even in this increasingly populous complex world of ours, the individual can make things happen. It's the individual who can bring a tear to my eye and cause me to take pen and hand. It is the individual who's acted or tried to act who will not only force a decision, but have a hand in shaping it. And whether the individual acts in the legal governmental or private realm, one concern dedicated person can meaningfully affect what some consider to be an uncaring world. at George Mason, you've invested several years to acquire the skills to become a more effective person, and the experience and insights to become a more caring person. Your efforts will pay enormous dividends and the future not only for you, but for countless others who can benefit from your actions, be willing to serve as a volunteer in community activities. As I've gone around the world, I've observed how no other nation in the world has the level of volunteer service that we have in this country. Perhaps that was the pioneer spirit of helping each other build and develop a new nation that caught on here. Even in Western Europe, there's not the same tradition of volunteer service that we have. In countries in the former Soviet bloc volunteers, so service and the formation of private clubs, groups and organizations to affect change in social policy, living conditions, or even recreational activity is virtually non existent. That's one reason why these nations have not yet succeeded fully in forming effective democratic societies. Every country needs certain basic institutions, free elections, an independent judiciary, a means of protecting minority rights. But apparently something else also is needed to make democracy work. The best studies I've read indicate that surprisingly enough, it is the existence of a wide array of voluntary associations of citizens that ultimately creates a climate in which democracy can flourish. Whether it is coral societies, auto clubs, chess clubs, or public interest groups, people need to learn that they can gather together in voluntary associations or groups with a common interest to accomplish common goals. This translates itself into citizen action within communities through the democratic process. I've been reading lately, and perhaps you have to that we Americans are starting to lose some of our own tradition of gathering together and voluntary associations. One leading essay is entitled The Lone bowler people are leaving bowling leagues the writer says and bowling by themselves in greater numbers, the author believes that's only one example of a wider trend. I urge you not to let that happen. Give of yourselves to voluntary associations that you carry about, that you care about and nourish that American tradition. And never forget that you as an individual can make a difference. Many of the people who've made a significant contribution to their communities have seen in the ordinary course of life, a great need, and after identifying the need, having the insight to envision a solution. And these people have drawn on their own experience to tackle the problems they see around them. Let me give you a couple of examples. Princeton undergraduate when the cup saw a need among her fellow students for a competitive high prestige alternative to the investment banks, corporations and management consultant groups that were recruiting on campus, many students wanted to go into public service but lack direction. she conceived the idea of a nonprofit national teaching corps to recruit graduates from top universities to teach in school districts suffering the most persistent shortages. She worked up a proposal for Teach for America as her senior thesis, boiled it down to a prospectus and send it to about 30 CEOs. Now Teach for America places about 500 teachers each year. All recent college graduates who sign up for two years of teaching, typically in inner city urban areas or remote rural areas, Wendy tops idea, coupled with her initiative has made a difference for thousands of chronically underserved school children across the country. Teach for America since motivated, creative, energetic young teachers into the areas that need them the most, and at the same time provides a meaningful way for recent graduates to enter public service. Mohamed Yano Yunus put his background in economics to work to improve the lives of the poor and his native Bangladesh. After spending seven years studying economics at Vanderbilt, Yiannis returned home, he taught economics at a university but became frustrated with its irrelevance to the Bengali poor. One day he met a widow who was weaving bamboo stools for a profit of two cents a day because she was poor and illiterate and at the mercy of loan sharks. his conversation with her gave him an idea that led to an improvement in the lives of millions of his countrymen. Yama saw a way to address poverty, it's at its roots by helping villagers set themselves up and small businesses, along with the assistance of his students, a little government money as well as some of his own. Yama has founded the Grameen Bank, meaning village bank, to provide small loans to women, typically 75 to $100. To allow the women to start small businesses. About 50% of Grameen Bank borrowers have pull themselves out of poverty. Thanks to these starter loans, another 25% have come close to crossing the poverty line. What's more, Grameen Bank has 98% repayment rate, and as economically self sufficient, some people have been inspired by a tragedy in their own life to take action to help others. You remember candy Leitner, whose 13 year old daughter Harry was walking into a church Carnival when she was struck and killed by a drunk driver. Leitner was outraged when she discovered that the man responsible for daughter's death was unlikely to spend any time in jail, despite a long history of arrest or intoxication. In fact, only a week before he had been bailed out on a hit run driving drunk, drunk driving charge. Candy Leitner was determined to try to do something about drunk driving, and to persuade legislators to mandate harsher punishments for drunk drivers. She founded Mothers Against Drunk drunk driving, the acronym is mad, and organization to educate the public about the dangers of drunk driving, and to push for traffic laws. Man has grown into hundreds of chapters nationwide. And these groups have made drunk driving laws succeeded in getting legislators to make drunk driving laws tougher all over the country, and have had a major impact on public awareness of the problem. Candy Leitner transformed her private grief into a nationwide movement to make the streets and sidewalks safer for everyone. Remember, also that perhaps the most important work in our nation is not being done just here in our nation's capital. It is being done all over our country, in every state and every community. We are blessed by having a federal system comprised of 50 states, wherever you go, wherever you live, you can be part of solving our nation's problems. We have 50 separate state laboratories working on solutions, so go be part of those efforts. George Mason, whose name Grace's this university played a crucial role in the formation of our nation, and in the development and adoption of the Bill of Rights. And a letter written to Richard Henry Lee in June 1770. He advised that every member of society is in duty bound to contribute to the safety and good of the whole. And when the subject is of such importance as the Liberty and happiness of a country, every inferior consideration must give place to it. Nor is this any hardship upon them, as themselves and their posterity are to partake of the benefits resulting from it. So consistent with George Mason's advice. I urge you to be full participants in life's opportunities. Join in trying to leave the world a little better that then you found it on your arrive. Use your talents and your education here to help those who need it and in ways which will make your families and this university proud of your efforts. live well by caring for others and the community in which you find yourself. Congratulations and Godspeed.