"CARRY YOUR FAIR SHARE OF THE BURDEN"
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's
Keynote Address at NU's 98th Morning Commencement
Dr. Freeland, Provost Hall, Vice Chairman Marini, President Glaser,
Governor Dukakis; old friends Kip O'Neill and Tom Keady; the eloquent Luisa
Melo; Class of 2000 and your families; members of the university community;
fellow honorees, protestors, and friends-good morning. Thank you in advance
for the honorary degree, which I will cherish. And thank you for giving
me the opportunity to share with you this very special day. As a former
professor and current mother, I must confess that I love graduations. For
parents, it is cause to marvel at how short the interval is between diapers
and diplomas.
For the graduates, it is reason to celebrate. For today is the payoff
for all the exams, the late nights in the library, and the carpal tunnel
syndrome caused by so many hours at the computer. Graduation is truly one
of the five great milestones in life, the others being birth, death, marriage,
and the day you finally pay off your student loan.
In fact, only one thing can spoil a ceremony such as this-and that is
the commencement speech.
But this morning, I promise not to bore you, at least not intentionally.
I will not tell you that you will never again have as much fun as in college,
because that would depress you. I will not try to put the weight of the
world upon your shoulders, because that will happen soon enough. And I
will not lecture you about your social habits, for that will always be
your parents' job.
I will tell you how delighted I am to be here. Boston is one of my favorite
cities, and this morning I will go on record as predicting that the Red
Sox will absolutely and without question win the World Series-at least
once before the millennium is out.
An even safer prediction is that Northeastern's reputation-regionally,
nationally, and globally-will continue to grow. Because the graduates here
today will depart this campus with greater confidence, sharper skills,
and more hands-on preparation than most of your contemporaries. The reason
is that Northeastern believes the best way to learn is not by sealing yourself
up in an ivory tower, but rather by venturing out into the workplace, where
real decisions-with real consequences-are required.
There is no better way to gain expertise in your field, faith in your
abilities, and knowledge about what's needed to make your mark in the world.
Moreover, Northeastern is committed to excellence, and increasingly
recognized for it. No school in this highly competitive region can claim
a more outstanding record of producing graduates with twenty-first-century
business and information-technology skills.
Now, when I was your age-and how many times have you heard that phrase
before?-high technology was not a major preoccupation. Our phones had cords,
our mail had stamps, and we found the Web not by clicking on a mouse but
by dusting in the corners.
Perhaps because of my family background, however, I did have a deep
interest in foreign policy. Whenever I entered a new school, I would start
an international affairs club-and name myself president.
But I never dreamed that one day I would become secretary of state.
It's not that I was modest; it's just that I had never seen a secretary
of state in a skirt.
Now, every day, in my heart, I thank President Clinton
for the opportunity he has given me to represent America around the globe.
And I am proud that under his leadership, the United States is helping
to create a more secure world by supporting reconciliation in the Middle
East, recovery in Kosovo, development in Africa, and stability on the Korean
Peninsula, where a historic NorthSouth summit has just taken place.
And by helping to bring peace with justice and dignity to all the people
of Northern Ireland.
I am also proud that our country has done so much to build a more prosperous
world by opening markets, expanding trade, harnessing technology, and striving
to create a global economy that is not only healthy and growing but also
fair. This matters, because I suspect you are like me. When we buy a blouse
or a shirt, we want to know that it was not produced by workers who are
underage, underpaid, under coercion, or denied their basic right to organize.
We Americans cannot and will not accept a global economy that rewards
the lowest bidder without regard to fundamental considerations of right
and wrong. That's why the Clinton-Gore administration has joined with leaders
in Congress such as senators Kennedy and Kerry to see that core worker
standards are respected, and abusive practices such as exploitive child
labor are ended. We want a future where profits come from perspiration
and inspiration, not exploitation.
Finally, I am proud that the United States is a leader in promoting
human rights and advancing the status of women and girls. In years past,
we have made enormous progress. But today, in many countries, terrible
abuses are still being committed against women. These include domestic
violence, dowry murders, mutilation, and so-called honor killings. Some
say all this is cultural and there's nothing we can do about it. I say
it's criminal and we each have an obligation to stop it.
America must lead: That was one of the great lessons of the twentieth
century, and is certain to be an imperative throughout the twenty-first.
That is why your role is so important. Because the decisions that democratic
nations make reflect the character of the choices made by its citizens.
And as you proceed through life, you will constantly be required to choose,
as our nation is required to choose, whether to exist timidly and complacently,
or to act with courage and faith.
Eventually, you may find, as have I, that there are essentially two
types of people. Some are drifters who are blown about with every breeze.
Others are doers who set their own course and are unafraid, when necessary,
to set sail against the strongest wind. The drifters will always find reasons
not to act. But the doers find reasons why inaction cannot be excused.
Confronted by injustice, they strive to cure it. Confronted by suffering,
to ease it. Confronted by hate, to transform it. Confronted by evil, to
defeat it. More often than not, their strivings are not immediately successful.
But to their efforts, all human progress may be ascribed. I look around
this arena, at the Class of 2000, and all I see are doers.
Which is good, for in years to come there will be much for you to do.
During the century just passed, we humans learned how to transplant hearts,
fly spaceships, clone sheep, and squeeze a library's worth of data onto
a single slender disk. But we remain far from mastering the art of human
relations. We have invented no technology that will guide us to the destinations
that matter most.
We have not heeded well enough Mahatma Gandhi's advice that "there
is more to life than increasing its speed." When I leave my current
job, I know that the people I will remember most are not those I have met
in fancy rooms or the high councils of state. Instead, it will be those
encountered in camps and clinics, remote villages and barren fields, where
nothing grows except the appetites of small children.
I will remember the victims of land mines in El Salvador, Angola, and
Vietnam; and the people-some too young even to know what they had lost-whose
arms or legs had been hacked off in Sierra Leone. I will remember the refugee
girls from Afghanistan who have been denied everything except the right
to remain silent and invisible.
And I will recall the volunteers at a mass grave in Rwanda gathering
the grim evidence of genocide; and trying to comfort an infant in Uganda
whose family had been killed, telling the baby everything would be all
right, but not knowing whether that was true.
I have been called the world's most powerful woman, but when a mother
dying of AIDS in Africa asked me to be sure her children were cared for,
I lacked even the power of speech, because I did not know what I could
honestly say.
This does not have to be. There was a time when we could say that we
did not know enough, or did not have the resources, or were too imperiled
by other urgent threats. But today, there can be no doubt that if only
we would
so choose, we could produce enough food, build enough shelter, deliver
enough medicine, and disseminate enough knowledge to allow people everywhere
to live better and more productive lives.
I said earlier that I would not put the weight of the world upon your
shoulders, and I will not. But I do hope you will use the skills and knowledge
gained here at Northeastern to carry your fair share of the burden. I hope
you will devote at least some of your time and energy to purposes that
go beyond the borders of your own comfort to teach and nurture, help and
heal. I hope you will be more than a consumer of liberty, but also a defender
and enricher of it, contributing to your community, country, and the world.
Above all, I hope you will do more than drift through life, that you
will be strong and determined to chart your own course. This will make
all the difference to you, and to us all. Because the future depends not
on the stars or some mysterious forces of history, but rather on the choices
that you and I and every one of us make.
It depends on whether we settle for an America that takes the easy path
or help build an America that will blaze new trails of freedom and shared
prosperity in the new century. It depends on whether we settle for a world
divided by bigotry and debilitated by suffering, or help create a more
just and tolerant world, where every individual is valued, and no nation
or faction is allowed to run roughshod over the rights of others.
It is said that all work that is worth anything is done in faith. This
morning, at this ceremony of warm memory and high expectation, I summon
you in the name of this school and all who have passed through it, to embrace
the faith that every challenge surmounted by your energy, every problem
solved by your wisdom, every soul stirred by your passion, and every barrier
to justice brought down by your determination will ennoble your own life,
inspire others, serve your country, and explode outward the boundaries
of what is achievable on this earth.
Class of 2000, congratulations once again; and thank you again for letting
me share with you this very special moment in your lives.
Return to top
of page