It's an honour to have you here with us this evening, ladies and
gentlemen, the President of the United States.
Thank you.
QASU
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you,
please. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you. Thank you, President Crow for That extremely generous
introduction. For your inspired leadership as well here at ASU. I want to
thank the entire ASU community for the honour of attaching my name to a
scholarship programme that will help open the doors of higher education to
students from every background. What a wonderful gift. Thank you.
That notion of opening doors of opportunity to everybody. That is the core
mission of this school. It's the core mission of my presidency, and I hope
this programme will serve as a model for universities across this country.
So thank you so much.
I want to obviously congratulate the class of 2009 for your unbelievable
achievement.
I want to thank the parents, the uncles, the grandpas, the grandmas.
Cousins
Calabash cousins.
Everybody who was involved in helping these extraordinary young people
arrive at this moment.
I also want to apologise to the entire state of Arizona for stealing away
your wonderful former governor Janet Napolitano.
But you've got a fine governor here, and I also know that Janet is now
applying her extraordinary talents to serve our entire country. As the
Secretary of Homeland Security keeping America safe and she's doing a
great job.
Now before I begin, I'd just like to clear the air. About that little
controversy everybody was talking about a few weeks back.
I have to tell you I really thought this was much ado about nothing. But I
do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick
another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets.
It won't happen again.
President Crow and the Board of Regents will soon learn about being
audited by the IRS.
Now In all seriousness, I come here not to dispute the suggestion. That I
haven't yet achieved enough in my life.
First of all, Michelle concurs. With that assessment.
She has a long list of things that I have not yet done. Waiting for me
when I get home.
But more than that, I come to embrace the notion that I haven't done
enough in my life. I heartily concur. I come to affirm. That one title
Even a title like President of the United States. says very little about
how well one's life has been led. That no matter how much you've done or
how successful you've been, there's always more to do, always more to
learn, and always more to achieve.
And I want to say to you today. Graduates class of 2009.
That despite having achieved a remarkable milestone in your life,
Despite the fact that you and your families are so rightfully proud.
You too Cannot rest on your laurels. Not even some of those remarkable
young people who were introduced early, not even that young lady who's got
4 degrees today. You can't rest.
Your own body of work. is also yet to come.
Now some graduating classes have marched into this stadium in easy times,
times of peace and stability. When we call on our graduates simply to keep
things going and don't screw it up.
Other classes have received their diplomas in times of trial and upheaval.
When the very foundations of our lives, the old order has been shaken.
The old ideas and institutions have crumbled, and a new generation is
called upon to remake the world.
It should be clear to you by now the category in which all of you fall.
For we gather here tonight in times of extraordinary difficulty for the
nation. And for the world.
The economy remains in the midst of a historic recession, the worst we've
seen since the Great Depression, the result in part of greed and
irresponsibility that rippled out from Wall Street and Washington as we
spent beyond our means and failed to make hard choices.
We're engaged in two wars. And a struggle against terrorism.
The threats of climate change, nuclear proliferation, and pandemic defy
national boundaries and easy solutions.
For many of you, These challenges are also felt in more personal terms.
Perhaps you're still looking for a job. They're struggling to figure out
what career path makes sense in this disrupted economy. Maybe you've got
student loans. No, you definitely have student loans.
Or credit card debts.
And you're wondering how you'll ever pay them off. Maybe you've got a
family to raise.
And you're wondering how you'll ensure that your children have the same
opportunities you've had to get an education and pursue their dreams.
In the face of these challenges, It may be tempting to fall back on the
formulas for success that have been peddled so frequently in recent years.
It goes something like this you're taught to chase after all the usual
brass rings. You try to be on this who's who's list or that top 100 list.
you chase after the big money and you figure out how big your corner
office is. You worry about whether you have a fancy enough title or a
fancy enough car.
That's the message that's sent each and every day or has been in our
culture for far too long that through material possessions
through a ruthless competition pursued only on your own behalf, that's how
you will measure success.
Now you can take that road and it may work for some,
but at this critical juncture in our nation's history. At this difficult
time, let me suggest that such an approach won't get you where you want to
go.
It displays a poverty of ambition
that in fact the elevation of appearance over substance of celebrity over
character. of short term gains over lasting achievement. is precisely what
your generation needs to help end.
Now
I want to highlight, I want to highlight two main problems with that old
tired me first approach to life.
First of all, it distracts you from what's truly important. And it may
lead you to compromise your values and your principles and your
commitments.
Think about it. It's in chasing titles and status in worrying about the
next election rather than the national interest and the interests of those
who you're supposed to represent that politicians so often lose their ways
in Washington.
They spend time thinking about polls but not about principle.
It was in pursuit of gaudy short-term profits. And the bonuses that came
with them. That so many folks lost their way on Wall Street. Engaging in
extraordinary risks with other people's money.
In contrast, the leaders we revere. The businesses and institutions that
last. They are not generally the result of a narrow pursuit of popularity
or personal advancement, but of devotion to some bigger purpose. The
preservation of the union or the determination to lift the country out of
a depression. The creation of a quality product. A commitment to your
customers, your workers, your shareholders, and your community, a
commitment to make sure that an institution like ASU is inclusive and
diverse and giving opportunity to all. That's the hallmark. of real
success.
That other stuff, that other stuff, the trappings of success may be a
byproduct of this larger mission.
But it can't be the central thing.
Just ask Bernie Madoff.
That's the first problem with the old attitude. The second problem with
the old approach to success. Is that a relentless focus on the outward
markers of success can lead to complacency. It can make you lazy.
We too often let the external, the material things serve as indicators
that we're doing well, even though something inside us tells us that we're
not doing our best. That we're avoiding that which is hard but also
necessary, that we're shrinking from rather than rising to the challenges
of the age. And the thing is, in this new hyper competitive age, none of
us, none of us can afford to be complacent. That's true whatever
profession you choose. Professors might earn the distinction of tenure,
but that doesn't guarantee that they'll keep putting in the long hours and
late nights and have the passion and the drive to be great educators.
The same principle is true in your personal life. Being a parent is not
just a matter of paying the bills, doing the bare minimum. It's not just
bringing a child in the world that matters, but the acts of love and
sacrifice it takes to raise and educate that child and give them
opportunity.
It can happen to presidents as well.
If you think about Abraham Lincoln. And Millard Fillmore had the very same
title. They're both presidents of the United States. But their tenure in
office and their legacy could not be more different.
And this is not just true for individuals, it's also true for this nation.
In recent years, in many ways we've become enamoured with our own past
success.
lulled into complacency by the glitter of our own achievements, we've
become accustomed to the title of military superpower.
Forgetting the qualities that got us there, not just the power of our
weapons, but the discipline and valour and the code of conduct of our men
and women in uniform.
The Marshall Plan and the Peace Corps and all those initiatives that show
our commitment to working with other nations to pursue the ideals of
opportunity and equality and freedom that have made us who we are.
That's what made us a superpower.
We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting
that it wasn't reckless deals and get rich quick schemes that got us where
we are, but hard work and smart ideas, quality products, and wise
investments. We started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit
instead of building up savings. We saw businesses focus more on rebranding
and repackaging than innovating and developing new ideas that improve our
lives. All the while the rest of the world has grown hungrier, more
restless, in constant motion to build and to discover, not content with
where they are right now, determined to strive for more. They're coming
So graduates, it's now abundantly clear that we need to start doing things
a little bit differently. In your own lives, you'll need to continuously
adapt to a continuously changing economy.
You'll end up having more than one job and more than one career over the
course of your life. You'll have to keep on gaining new skills, possibly
even new degrees, and you'll have to keep on taking risks as new
opportunities arise.
And as a nation, we'll need a fundamental change of perspective and
attitude. It's clear that we need to build a new foundation, a stronger
foundation for our economy and our prosperity, rethinking how we grow our
economy, how we use energy, how we educate our children, how we care for
our sick, how we treat our environment.
Many of
Many of our current challenges are unprecedented.
There are no standard remedies, no go to fixes this time around.
In class of 2009, that's why we're going to need your help. We need young
people like you to step up. We need your daring, we need your enthusiasm,
we need your energy, we need your imagination.
And let me be clear, when I say young, I'm not just referring to the date
of your birth certificate.
I'm talking about an approach to life, a quality of mind and a quality of
heart. A willingness to follow your passions regardless of whether they
lead to fortune and fame. A willingness to question conventional wisdom
and rethink old dogmas.
A lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige
and a commitment instead to doing what's meaningful to you, what helps
others, what makes a difference in this world.
That's the spirit that led a band of patriots, not much older than most of
you to take on an empire. To start this experiment in democracy we call
America. It's what drove young pioneers west. To Arizona and beyond.
It's what drove young women to reach for the ballot. What inspired a 30
year old escaped slave to run an underground railroad to freedom.
What inspired A young man named Cesar to go out and help farm workers.
What inspired a 26 year old preacher to lead a bus boycott for justice.
It's what led firefighters and police officers in the prime of their lives
up the stairs of those burning towers. And young people across this
country to drop what they were doing and come to the aid of a flooded New
Orleans.
It's what led two guys in the garage named Hewlett and Packard to form a
company that would change the way we live and work. What led scientists
and laboratories and novelists and coffee shops to labour in obscurity.
Until they finally succeeded in changing the way we see the world.
That's the great American story. Young people just like you. Following
their passions, determined to meet the times on their own terms. They
weren't doing it for the money. Their titles weren't fancy. Ex-slave,
minister, student, citizen.
A whole bunch of them didn't get honorary degrees.
But they changed the course of history, and so can you, ASU.
So can you, class of 2009.
So can you.
With a degree from this outstanding institution. You have everything you
need to get started. You've got no excuses.
You have no excuses not to change the world. Did you study business?
Go start a company.
Or why not help a struggling not for profit find better, more effective
ways to serve folks in need.
You study nursing?
Understaffed clinics and hospitals across this country are desperate for
your help.
You study education
Teaching a high needs school where the kids really need you give a chance
to kids who can't. Who can't get everything they need maybe in their
neighbourhood, maybe not even in their home, but we can't afford to give
up on them. Prepare them to compete for any job anywhere in the world.
You study engineering.
Help us lead a green revolution. Developing new sources of clean energy
that will power our economy and preserve our planet.
But you can also make your mark in smaller, more individual ways. That's
what so many of you have already done during your time here at ASU
tutoring children, registering voters, doing your own small part to fight
hunger and homelessness, AIDS, and cancer.
One student said it best when she spoke about her senior engineering
project building medical devices for people with disabilities in a village
in Africa. Her professor showed a video of the folks they've been helping
, and she said. When we saw the people on the videos, we began to feel a
connection to them. It made us want to be successful for them. Think about
that. It, it made us want to be successful for them.
That's a great model for all of us. Find somebody to be successful for.
Raise their hopes.
Rise to their needs.
As you think about your life after graduation, as you look into the mirror
tonight after the partying is done.
That shouldn't get such a big cheer.
You may look in the mirror tonight and you may see somebody who's not
really sure what to do with their lives.
That's what you may see, but a troubled child might look at you and see a
mentor. A homebound senior citizen might see a lifeline. The folks at your
local homeless shelter might see a friend. None of them care how much
money is in your bank account or whether you're important at work or
whether you're famous around town. They just know that you're somebody who
cares, somebody who makes a difference in their lives.
So class of 2009, that's what building a body of work is all about. It's
about the daily labour, the many individual acts, the choices large and
small that add up over time, over a lifetime. To a lasting legacy.
That's what you want on your tombstone.
It's about not being satisfied with The latest achievement, the latest
gold star, because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it's
never finished. It's cumulative. It deepens and expands with each day that
you give your best, each day that you give back and contribute to the life
of your community and your nation. You may have setbacks and you may have
failures, but you're not done. You're not even getting started, not by a
long shot.
And if you ever forget that, just look to history. Thomas Paine was a
failed corset maker, a failed teacher, and a failed tax collector. Before
he made his mark on history with a little book called Common Sense that
helped ignite a revolution.
Julia Child didn't publish her first cookbook until she was almost 50.
Colonel Sanders didn't open up his first Kentucky Fried Chicken until he
was in his 60s. Winston Churchill was dismissed as little more than it has
been, who enjoyed Scotch a little bit too much before he took over as
Prime Minister and saw Great Britain through its finest hour. No one
thought a former football player stocking shelves at the local supermarket
would return to the game he loved, become a Super Bowl MVP, and then come
here to Arizona and lead your Cardinals to their first Super Bowl.
Your body of work is never done.
Each of them at one point in their life didn't have any title or much
status to speak of, but they had passion, a commitment to following that
passion wherever it would lead, and working hard every step along the way.
That's not just how you'll ensure that your own life is well lived. It's
how you'll make a difference in the life of our nation. I talked earlier
about the selfishness and irresponsibility on Wall Street in Washington
that rippled out and led to so many of the problems that we face today. I
talked about the focus on outward markers of success that can help lead us
astray, but here's the thing, Class of 2009, it works the other way too.
Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what's in it for you.
That also creates ripple effects, ones that lift up families and
communities, that spread opportunity and boost our economy that reach
folks in the forgotten corners of the world who committed young people
like you see the true face of America, our strength, our goodness, our
diversity, our enduring power, our ideals.
I know starting your careers in troubled times is a challenge, but it is
also a privilege. Because it's moments like these that force us to try
harder and dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had. To find
the greatness that lies within each of us. So don't ever shy away from
that endeavour. Don't stop adding to your body of work.
I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort, as
will this nation that we all love. Congratulations class of 2009 on your
graduation. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.