[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 18, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY GEN. COLIN POWELL

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 1994

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on May 14, 1994, Gen. Colin Powell delivered 
the commencement address at Howard University. His eloquent words of 
encouragement and tolerance for your fellow man bring much of the 
controversy surrounding speeches at college campuses into perspective. 
For this reason, I bring my colleagues' attention to these excerpts 
from his remarks.
       You know, the controversy over Howard's speaking policy has 
     its positive side. It has caused the university to go through 
     a process of self-examination, which is always a healthy 
     thing to do.
       Since many people have been giving advice about how to 
     handle this matter, I thought I might as well too.
       First, I believe with all my heart that Howard must 
     continue to serve as an institution of learning excellence 
     where freedom of speech is strongly encouraged and rigorously 
     protected.
       That is at the very essence of a great university and 
     Howard is a great university, and freedom of speech means 
     permitting the widest range of views to be presented for 
     debate, however controversial those views may be.
       The first amendment right of free speech is intended to 
     protect the controversial and even outrageous word, and not 
     just comforting platitudes, too mundane to need protection.
       Some say that by hosting controversial speakers who shock 
     our sensibilities Howard is in some way promoting or 
     endorsing their message. Not at all. Howard has helped put 
     their message in perspective while protecting their right to 
     be heard. So that the message can be exposed to the full 
     light of day.
       I have every confidence in the ability of the 
     administration, the faculty, and the students of Howard to 
     determine who should speak on this campus. No outside help 
     needed, thank you.
       I also have complete confidence in the students of Howard 
     to make informed, educated judgments about what they hear.
       But for this freedom to hear all views, you bear a burden 
     to sort out wisdom from foolishness.
       There is a great wisdom in the message of self-reliance, of 
     education, of hard work, and of the need to raise strong 
     families.
       There is utter foolishness, evil and danger in the message 
     of hatred, or of condoning violence, however cleverly the 
     message is packaged or entertainingly it is presented.
       We must find nothing to stand up and cheer about or applaud 
     in a message of racial or ethnic hatred.
       I was at the inauguration of President Mandela in South 
     Africa earlier this week. You were there too by television 
     and watched that remarkable event.
       Together, we saw what can happen when people stop hating 
     and begin reconciling.
       De Klerk the jailer became De Klerk the liberator and 
     Mandela the prisoner became Mandela the President. Twenty-
     seven years of imprisonment did not embitter Nelson Mandela. 
     He invited his three jail keepers to the ceremony.
       He used his liberation to work with his former tormentors 
     to create a new South Africa and to eliminate the curse of 
     apartheid from the face of the Earth. What a glorious 
     example! What a glorious day it was!
       Last week you also saw Prime Minister Rabin and PLO 
     Chairman Arafat sign another agreement on their still 
     difficult, long road to peace, trying to end hundreds of 
     years of hatred and two generations of violence. Palestinian 
     authorities have now begun entering Gaza and Jericho.
       In these two historic events, intractable enemies of the 
     past have shown how you can join hands to create a force of 
     moral authority more powerful than any army and which can 
     change the world.
       Although there are still places of darkness in the world 
     where the light of reconciliation has not penetrated, these 
     two beacons of hope show what can be done when men and women 
     of good will work together for peace and for progress.
       There is a message in these two historic events for us 
     assembled here today. As the world goes forward, we cannot 
     start going backward.
       African-Americans have come too far and we have too far yet 
     to go to take a detour into the swamp of hatred. We, as a 
     people who have suffered so much from the hatred of others, 
     must not now show tolerance for any movement or philosophy 
     that has at its core the hatred of Jews or of anyone else.
       Our future lies in the philosophy of love and understanding 
     and caring and building. Not of hatred and tearing down.
       We know that. We must stand up for it and speak up for it!
       We must not be silent if we would live up to the legacy of 
     those who have gone before us from this campus.
       I have no doubt that this controversy will pass and Howard 
     University will emerge even stronger, even more than ever a 
     symbol of hope, of promise and of excellence.
       That is Howard's destiny!

                          ____________________