Posted on 05/11/2003 5:10:56 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Clinton tells graduating Syracuse students to participate in life
Sunday May 11, 2003
By WILLIAM KATES Associated Press Writer
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) Former President Bill Clinton on Sunday told nearly 5,400 graduating Syracuse University students to ignore the headlines and focus on the trend lines while taking an active role in public affairs.
``The trend line is, we are growing more interdependent. We cannot escape each other,'' Clinton said, as more than 19,600 parents and well-wishers looked on inside the Carrier Dome at the school's 149th commencement.
``We reap enormous benefits and assume greater risks. Your job, as a citizen the world, is to spread the benefits and reduce the risks. To move from an age of interdependence to a global community where we share values and benefits and responsibilities,'' Clinton said.
Clinton's appearance was the first time a former or sitting president delivered commencement remarks at Syracuse, although both John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to graduates before their years in the White House, school spokesman Kevin Morrow said.
The former president received a standing ovation as he entered the dome in the chancellor's party at the end of the faculty processional. He wore a blue and orange baseball cap trumpeting Syracuse's NCAA men's basketball championship victory.
After some humor and thanks to the basketball team for the ``gift of a lifetime,'' Clinton became more serious, mixing motivational thoughts with world politics during a 25-minute address.
He reminded students how their world had changed since they entered Syracuse as freshmen in 1999. Not just in negative ways, such as the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but also in positive ways, such as the sequencing of the human genome by an international consortium of scientists.
The former president told students it was his hope that as they went through life they would use their education to draw the distinction between the trend lines and the headlines.
He used the SARS epidemic as an example, pointing to how headlines have focused on the hundreds killed in China and Hong Kong and the tens of thousands of afflicted around the world.
The trend line, Clinton told his audience, was the successful response of the global medical and health communities, which came together through the World Health Organization and in a few short weeks identified the virus and how to fight it.
``The trend line is ... it was fought by international cooperation,'' Clinton said.
Another trend line, he said, is that many other infectious diseases still haunt humankind, as well as other unsolved problems, such as terrorism, poverty and global warming.
Clinton finished his speech by asking students to serve in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps or in some other charitable relief work.
``Not all the work of the world can be done by governments,'' he said.
He also urged students to become involved in politics.
``Your generation, to be fair, has gotten a bum rap. You do more community service than any previous generation of young Americans, and you should get credit for it,'' Clinton said.
``But ... you are less likely to vote and participate in politics than previous generations of young Americans. And that's a big mistake because it does make a difference,'' he said.
Clinton said he wondered whether students were willing ``to make the sacrifice and undertake the burdens of public service and public participation.
``You must increase your involvement in American public affairs if you want the kind of world I have talked about today,'' he said.
Julie Klassman, of Boston, who graduated from the School of Arts and Sciences, said afterward that she found Clinton's words inspirational.
``It was nice to hear something of substance and not just rah-rah words of advice. He made me think about what he was saying. It's a speech I'll definitely remember,'' she said.
June 12, 1999 NATO moves into Kosovo to take up peacekeeping duties and ensure the safe return of the Albanian refugees; Russian government claims it had no idea soldiers were moving into Kosovo; Peacekeepers turn a road to Pristina into the busiest little highway in Europe and discover it is also the most dangerous; Governor George W. Bush is now unofficially off and running for the Republican presidential nomination; Pope John Paul II slips and bumps his head requiring three stiches; First tropical storm of the season is Arlene; Federal officials will continue to hunt for the source of worm.explore.zip computer virus; National Skin Cancer Foundation blasts the decision of the FDA to change the familiar numbered SPF factors in sunscreens; Wildfire in Arizona is now contained; New subway station in Hollywood is not winning rave reviews because taxpayers across the country are footing the bill; North Korea threatens to use military force on South Korea over an area in the Yellow Sea; Russian jet crashes in the Paris Air Show; Dozen University of Chicago graduates refuse to shake hands with President Clinton; Messages in graduation speeches
Trend Line & Headlines?? .. What is this the new DNC key words??
``But ... you are less likely to vote and participate in politics than previous generations of young Americans. And that's a big mistake because it does make a difference,'' he said.
Pushing for votes huh??
``It was nice to hear something of substance and not just rah-rah words of advice. He made me think about what he was saying. It's a speech I'll definitely remember,'' she said.
$10 Bucks says a year from now .. she won't remember a thing he said
Hey, I never thought Clinton would be so brave to tell they to go with the trend.
The trend line is that the country is going more conservative...
Your job, as a citizen the world
That comment tells me how much he hates America....
and America hates him back
No doubt none of this clueless crowd noticed, or cared. All they wanted was their diplomas and to get out of town.
Will this buffoon ever go away and leave the rest of us to a decent and well-deserved peace?
The Toon should participate in life without the possibility of parole.
A citizen of nothing.
IOW, it takes a planet!
Hey, where does Clinton get off wearing that robe? Isn't this a phoney photo op? I am shocked, and offended by this I tell you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.