Posted on 05/02/2004 6:21:12 PM PDT by EllaMinnow
Tactfully avoiding politics in a key swing state, Vice President Dick Cheney encouraged Florida State University graduates Saturday to take advantage of surprise opportunities in life and to be grateful for those who unexpectedly help them.
"Don't let your doubts get the best of you," he said during a brief commencement address at the Civic Center. "I've met some very successful people in my day, men and women of talent and character who have risen to the very top of their fields. It's the rare person who hasn't had a taste of failure or a false start along the way."
Large clusters of demonstrators gathered outside the arena, waving hand-lettered placards and holding aloft banners protesting the war in Iraq and Cheney's appearance at the university. His invitation drew widespread criticism in recent weeks, and more than 200 students signed an e-mail to FSU President T.K. Wetherell last week, urging him to ask the vice president not to repeat any of the criticism of John Kerry he made in a speech at Westminster College in Missouri last week.
Wetherell, a former Democratic state legislator who supported Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election in 2002, said he would not admonish the commencement speaker. But Cheney's relaxed, upbeat pep talk to graduates and their families echoed none of the partisan rhetoric he had used last week.
The crowd responded enthusiastically, giving Cheney loud ovations before and after his remarks and chuckling appreciatively at some remembrances of his college days and early political career.
"I thought it was great, an inspiring message despite the political background of an election going on," said Katrina Mendoza of Orlando, who got her master's degree in science education. "It was just right."
Jennifer Zukowski of Fort Myers, who got her master's in counseling, agreed with Cheney's message and its carefully apolitical tone.
"I think he did a great job for the occasion," said Zukowski. "He made it what it was, a commencement occasion, and he put aside any controversial things."
The crowd applauded when Cheney made a passing tribute to "the winningest coach in college football history, Bobby Bowden" and gave a louder cheer when he mentioned a tradition of "service to the community and country" at FSU.
"At this very hour, 25 FSU students are on active duty in the Middle East," Cheney said. "As we celebrate commencement, we are thinking of them all."
Then he said he would like to share "a few thoughts of my own" about lessons he learned since he left Yale after two terms - "actually, 'dropped out' is not quite accurate; 'asked to leave' would be more like it. Twice." After attending the University of Wyoming, Cheney said, he expected to go to graduate school and perhaps have a teaching career - but a Washington interview with then-Congressman Donald Rumsfeld, for an internship he didn't get, led to a life in government and executive boardrooms.
Cheney, who was secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, said he thought he was through with government when the current president's father lost his re-election bid in 1992. But then-Gov. George Bush of Texas asked him to head his vice-presidential selection team four years ago.
"One very practical lesson that comes easily to mind I learned in the year 2000," Cheney said. "If you're ever asked to head up an important search committee, say yes."
He also told students not to feel "a sense of entitlement" for opportunities and to be grateful when they come along.
"Gratitude generally is a good habit. It usually is a correct appraisal of one's situation," he said. "A grateful heart is an honest understanding of all that we've been given and all that is expected of us in return. Life has a way of working out better when we don't take things for granted, when we have a long memory of what others have given."
Cheney arrived and left Tallahassee without fanfare. Except for federal and local security forces, only 18 people turned out at the airport to see him off, and Cheney boarded his plane with a quick wave and no contact with spectators.
Wetherell and FSU board of trustees Chairman John Thrasher made no mention of the political controversy caused by the university's election-year invitation to Cheney. Introducing the speaker, Thrasher said simply, "We are honored to have him here today."
Senior class president Audrey Hicks welcomed him with a message for her classmates as rousing as the vice president's remarks.
"We will persevere, we will succeed and we will change this world," she said. "God bless America."
Well, that makes one of us. I shall not shrink from the duty that lies before me.
I know just how Kerry, Gore, clinton 1 & 2, Albright, Clarke and the rest of them will be treated as they are asked for commencement addresses.
I can hear Albright now, --"President Bush should admit he was wrong".
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