[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 90 (Monday, June 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7708-S7709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RAYMOND KELLY'S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH TO MARIST COLLEGE

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, on May 20, 1995, Raymond W. 
Kelly, the esteemed former police commissioner of New York City, gave a 
moving commencement speech at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. 
Senators will recall that, in addition to his service as the head of 
the Nation's largest police force, Commissioner Kelly recently returned 
from a very demanding assignment as director of the International 
Police Monitors in Haiti.
  In his speech, Commissioner Kelly urged the Class of 1995 to be, and 
I quote, ``America's new idealists. * * * America needs new, energetic 
voices to counter the current wisdom that says all government is 
suspect. The class of '95 should be that voice.''
  In recognition of Commissioner Kelly's public service, Marist College 
awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. His fine 
commencement address truly deserves the attention of the Senate, and I 
ask that the text of the speech be printed in the Record.
  The speech follows:

                      Remarks by Raymond W. Kelly

       President Murray, Brother Paul, Chairman Dyson, friends, 
     family, and members of the class of 1995. I want to express 
     my appreciation to Marist College and its board of trustees 
     for conferring this honorary degree on me. And I want to 
     express my congratulations to the class of '95 who earned 
     your degrees the hard way. This honor permits me to share 
     with the class of '95 the soaring reputation of this great 
     institution; a reputation which has spread far beyond the 
     confines of the Hudson Valley, across America and beyond, to 
     some unexpected corners of the world.
       What Brother Paul Ambrose and the original Marist 
     fraternity planted with their sweat and broad shoulders has 
     blossomed beyond even their inspired dreams. It has blossomed 
     because the secular community who followed in their footsteps 
     kept the faith and worked hard. The result is this beautiful 
     campus, a crown jewel on the Hudson River.
       But Marist College is far more than that. It has preserved 
     what other institutions have lost, or are still trying to 
     achieve: namely, a faculty that teaches, an administration 
     that leads, and a board of trustees that governs. The 
     result--and I know this first hand--are graduates who leave 
     Marist College ready to take on the world, in all of its 
     complexity, and even its dangers.
       Last fall, when President Clinton asked me to go to Haiti 
     to direct the international police monitors, he put at my 
     disposal over twelve hundred police professionals from around 
     the world. In addition, I had United States Army and Marine 
     Corps personnel reporting to me. Our job was to stop human 
     rights abuses by a notorious Haitian police and military, and 
     to establish an interim public security force. We did all 
     that, and more.
       I was honored to lead the effort, but I certainly could not 
     do it alone. With a large and highly skilled group from which 
     to choose, I needed three individuals for key positions. I 
     had neither the time nor the inclination to check their 
     college credentials. I just went on my instincts that came 
     with 30 years of judging leadership in the New York City 
     Police Department and the United States Marine Corps.
       And today, I want the Marist College class of 1995 to meet 
     the three individuals who I asked to go in harms way to lead 
     Haiti out of the hell created by a brutal dictatorship. They 
     are (and I'd like them to stand): [[Page S7709]] 
       United States Marine Corps Major Samuel Delgado, military 
     liaison for Haiti's second largest city, and Marist College 
     graduate, class of 1977.
       United States Marine Corps Major Mario Labpaix, interpreter 
     and military liaison for Haiti's largest city, and Marist 
     College graduate, class of 1978.
       And former assistant commissioner of the New York City 
     Police Department, Paul J. Browne, the deputy director of the 
     international police monitors in Haiti, and Marist College 
     graduate, class of 1971.
       They are three reasons who our mission in Haiti was a 
     success. And if the President of the United States called 
     again tomorrow and asked me for three good men, I'd call 
     Delgado, Lapaix and Browne. And if the President of the 
     United States called tomorrow and asked me for three hundred 
     good men and women, I'd call the Marist College placement 
     office.
       Professor Lavin described it as an ``uncanny coincidence.'' 
     But I'm not so sure. It should be no surprise that the tenets 
     of ethics and of public service rooted in the Marist 
     tradition and carried forward in its classrooms emerge in its 
     graduates, just when the world needs them most.
       I urge the class of 95 to hold fast to those tenets, and to 
     make ethical conduct and service to your fellow human beings 
     the hallmarks of whatever careers await you. America, and the 
     world, sorely need both. America and the world also need 
     people who will stand on principle. And, uphold in their 
     daily lives the values that this institution believes in.
       My advice to the class of 95 is: Tell the truth, be loyal 
     to your friends, but not blind to their failings, and set a 
     standard of ethical conduct for yourselves and to be true to 
     it no matter what.
       Whatever perceived advantage in your personal or public 
     life is sacrificed by doing the right thing is not worth 
     attaining if it means compromising what you believe in.
       One other thing: I have never made a career decision based 
     on money, and I have never regretted it. I can see all of you 
     with loan payments cringing. But I mean it. Simply put, money 
     is overrated. America has plenty of money and plenty of money 
     makers, what it needs is idealists.
       I urge class of 95 to be Ameria's new idealists.
       Somewhere between Dallas, Vietnam and Watergate, our 
     idealism was shattered. Idealism was the great casuality of 
     my generation. It need not be yours.
       America needs new, energetic voices to counter the current 
     wisdom that says all government is suspect. The class of 95 
     should be that voice.
       America needs a conscience that counters the lie that the 
     poor are responsible for their own plight. The class of 95 
     should be that conscience.
       America needs the confidence to refute the proposition that 
     self interest should come before all other interests. The 
     class of 95 should have that confidence.
       There is also a disturbing manifesto of government mistrust 
     abroad in the land. It is embraced by a radical fringe that 
     is not prepared to die for its cause but ready to kill for 
     it. But it is not embraced by the radicals alone. It is 
     espoused by newcomers to leadership who say they are drawn to 
     government for the principal purpose of dismantling it. It 
     has also given rise to a new mean-spiritedness and a new 
     cynicism; one that casts a cold eye on the plight of the poor 
     and the aspirations of minorities and immigrants. And it has 
     given rise to a new isolationism which would confine American 
     foreign policy to the dark parameters of narrow self 
     interest.
       All of this suspicious introspection is unbecoming of the 
     American character.
       Americans are, by nature, generous and optimistic and we 
     need to reclaim our heritage.
       You need to reclaim it.
       I was recently told about a retired General Electric 
     employee who had immigrated to the United States from the 
     Ukraine during World War Two. He came, by way of Russia, by 
     way of Germany, by way of France. He was a refugee. Along the 
     way he met American soldiers, the first Americans he had ever 
     seen. He said the Americans were fundamentally different from 
     him and from everyone he had ever known.
       The Americans were full of hope. They were full of optimism 
     and idealism. They laughed easily and looked to the future. 
     He knew no one like them. They were unencumbered by the old 
     European notions of family position, of wealth, of status. 
     They were free of the elitism that held so many people back. 
     He said he saw the Americans as ``a new tribe,'' completely 
     and irresistibly different from his experience, and he 
     desperately wanted to be a member of the tribe.
       That was 50 years ago. But the world still sees Americans 
     in much the same way. In Haiti, we were welcomed as 
     liberators by the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere. 
     The graffiti on the walls in Port-Au-Prince said: 
     ``Americans, please stay in Haiti for 50 years.''
       American self-interest was served in Haiti, certainly as it 
     applied to curtaining the flow of illegal immigration into 
     the United States. But we also went to Haiti because it was 
     the right thing to do. We put our might were our mouth was. 
     We fed the hungry. We saved lives. We routed the bullies, and 
     rescued fellow human beings from despots. We restored 
     democracy. We treated some of the poorest people in the world 
     with great dignity, which was a completely new experience for 
     them.
       We need to practice that charity at home, and not be afraid 
     to remain engaged abroad. America needs you to do that. 
     America needs optimists. It needs idealists. America needs 
     the class of 95 to be engaged in the world.
       If your country asks you to serve, say yes. If it doesn't 
     ask, volunteer.
       We need to have the kind of faith in ourselves that the 
     world has in America.
       We need Americans who believe, as President Kennedy did, 
     that ``Here on Earth, God's work must truly be our 
     own.''
     

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