    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
    [May 12, 1991]
    [Pages 500-502]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 500]]

    Remarks at the Hampton University Commencement Ceremony in Hampton,
    Virginia
    May 12, 1991

        President Harvey, Senator Warner, and Congressman Bateman, and
    members of the university administration, and especially the class of
    1991. May I thank the class president, Carvel Lewis, for his remarks;
    pay my respects to the faculty, and to Mr. Dillard and this magnificent
    choir. My first exposure to music at Hampton was in the year either 1935
    or 1936, when one of your predecessor singing groups came to Eastern
    schools. And this is a magnificent tradition of Hampton. And let me say
    to those who graduated 50 years ago, you don't look so old to me.
    [Laughter]
        One of the pleasures of coming here is getting to know your
    university president better. You know, President Harvey is an avid
    tennis player. Really avid. When I shook his hand he corrected my grip.
    [Laughter] At any rate, it's a real pleasure to join with you today. I'm
    the ninth President to visit your campus, and I might say that eight of
    them have been Republicans. [Laughter]
        Hampton is an elite institution. It boasts the largest endowment of
    any historically black college or university in the United States. Its
    graduates contribute daily to our national progress and national well-
    being. Patricia Stevens Funderburk, Hampton '71, whom you honor today,
    serves in our Department of Health and Human Services. Patricia,
    congratulations to you for this fine award.
        As President Harvey said and Carvel said, you all will make your
    marks in the world. And today I'd like to talk about the new world that
    you will enter, a world no longer divided by superpower confrontation
    but engaged in economic competition and international cooperation.
        You in this magnificent Hampton Roads area understand this world
    better than most. More than 100 firms in this region conduct business
    beyond our borders. And when many of you leave this university, you'll
    look to distant shores, places where you hope to spread American
    ingenuity--your ingenuity.
        You ought to be excited about your opportunities. I know that I am.
    We stand on the verge--if you look around the world you'll understand
    this--we stand on the verge of a new age of freedom. If we build upon
    our strengths, if we join hands as a people, we will build a nation and
    a future unlike any ever seen in human history.
        Our first and greatest strength, of course, is our intelligence, and
    our greatest tool for developing that strength is our educational
    system. But we have to be honest with ourselves: Contrary to your
    tradition of excellence, our educational system as a whole has slipped
    in recent years. Test scores continue to fall. Dropout rates soar in
    many of our school systems. Businesses complain that some high school
    graduates don't have the basic reading, writing, or math skills. And
    meanwhile, our elementary and high school students don't compare well to
    those in other industrial countries in math, science, and even in
    American geography.
        We've got to do better. We ought to improve our schools the old-
    fashioned way through commitment and competition. Our America 2000
    strategy tries to make a quality education available to every child and
    every citizen who wants to learn. We have challenged Americans to
    reinvent the American school--not to improve it but to reinvent it--not
    by turning the task over to experts in Washington but by inviting a
    nationwide competition to create better schools.
        The concept of choice--letting parents choose schools for their
    children--plays a role. Its time has come. Polls show that 62 percent of
    the American public favor choice, and 72 percent of minority Americans
    advocate choice in the schools.
        This should surprise no one, because choice means hope. It lets
    children from poor neighborhoods enroll in the same schools as our
    children from wealthier ones. It gives parents the freedom to find good
    schools for their sons and daughters. It frees

    [[Page 501]]

    students from the tyranny of inadequate education.
        We've encouraged communities and businesses to roll up their sleeves
    and help--communities, by taking on crime and hunger and other
    disturbances that make it almost impossible to learn; businesses, by
    contributing expertise to local schools and by developing education
    programs at the workplace. You've set a great example right here with
    Hampton Harbor. You've built a successful commercial residential area,
    and you're turning the profits into student scholarships.
        We remain committed to such programs as Head Start, which help
    prepare young students for school. It works. As long as I'm President,
    it will be adequately funded, and it will keep on working.
        The business of education is the business of creating a better
    world. A good education lets you see possibilities you would never have
    imagined before, and reach them. But education is also a commitment of
    labor and love.
        I recently got a letter from an Army sergeant serving in Saudi
    Arabia. He talked about his daughter. And he wrote, ``I am very proud of
    her and would like for her to know this: I am thinking of her even as I
    sit in the Gulf, serving my country.'' Nilka Bacilio, who will receive a
    bachelor of science from the School of Education and Liberal Arts, with
    honors in therapeutic recreation--your dad says, ``Hi.''
        Other parents here have written me, and I want to thank you all.
    Nothing is more natural, no feeling more fulfilling than having pride in
    your kids. And when I talk about educational choice or educational
    reform, I always remember a crucial truth: We can't go anywhere without
    the support of the people who love us, who believe in us. And if there
    is any advice I can give today, it is this: Cherish those who give you
    this kind of lift, and return the favor whenever you can.
        Speaking of educational excellence, let me pause now to honor Dinee
    Riley, who has achieved the highest grade point average of anyone in
    this class. It is my privilege and honor to hand her her diploma--a
    biology major, 3.95. What a magnificent record. Dinee, you and your
    classmates should be proud of your accomplishments. And now comes the
    challenging part: making use of knowledge once you get out of school.
        As a nation, we must give everyone a chance to make full use of
    their imagination and intelligence. Our administration does this by
    trying to remove barriers to progress. We want to free people now
    trapped by self-doubt and despair.
        We've put together an ambitious housing reform package. We call it
    HOPE, which extends the dignity of home ownership to people who live in
    public housing communities. The idea is simple: Give people assets; give
    them permanent wealth, not just consumable scraps of paper; offer people
    independence; don't hold them in the bondage of dependency. HOPE offers
    an ethic of encouragement. It encourages people to take an active part
    in building better lives for themselves, for us all.
        We must free people who have been held back by barriers of
    discrimination. This administration will fight discrimination
    vigorously, because a kinder, gentler nation must not be gentle or kind
    to those who practice prejudice.
        We must free people bound by red tape and unnecessary regulation.
    Last year, Americans devoted 5.3 billion hours to filling out regulatory
    paperwork--5.3 billion hours at a cost to the economy of $185 billion;
    and this can't continue.
        We must free people from the specter of punitive taxation, which
    takes money that might otherwise buy a home, pay for a child's college
    education, or establish a family nest egg. The controversial budget
    agreement that we signed last year restrains the growth of Federal
    spending. It offers hope that workers in the future will be able to
    spend less time working for their tax collector and more time working
    for their families.
        We must free people to create the next great invention. Our
    administration repeatedly has sought a cut in the capital gains, a tax
    on the wealth that you will create. That tax is a tax on ideas, on
    innovation, on the American dream.
        But mainly, we must free ourselves from doubt. We must free
    ourselves from fear. We can't afford to hide from the rest of the

    [[Page 502]]

    world by erecting protectionist walls. If we want to learn, we have to
    compete. If we want to test ourselves, we have to compete. And if we
    want to take full advantage of all the world's diverse cultures, ideas,
    and innovations, we have to compete. Our future lies in the world
    economy.
        Last year, exports accounted for 84 percent of our economic growth.
    Between 1986 and 1990, our exports to the rest of the world increased 73
    percent, and exports to our major competitors grew even more: to
    Germany, 80 percent; Japan, 82 percent; the European Community by 87
    percent. We exported $673 billion in goods and services last year.
        And our future depends on trade. We've asked Congress to extend the
    Fast Track trade procedures that Presidents have been able to use since
    1974. Without Fast Track, we will have trouble moving forward with
    critical trade initiatives, including the Uruguay round of the GATT
    talks, North American free trade agreement, and the Enterprise for the
    Americas Initiative. Unfortunately, some of the opponents of free trade
    have resorted to slurs against our Mexican neighbors in the hopes of
    derailing Fast Track.
        I can think of no more revealing contrast between a free-enterprise
    view of the human community and the protectionist view. Prejudice is
    usually nothing more than a breed of cowardice. People afraid to test
    themselves, or to risk challenging their assumptions, hide behind
    restrictive laws and restrictive walls.
        If we want to lead the post-cold war world, we must not build walls
    of prejudice and doubt. We must involve ourselves in the world around
    us. We must build ties of mutual interests and affection everywhere. And
    the same sentiments ought to guide us at home. In the end, prosperity
    requires trust. You cannot build a business if you spend all your time
    worrying about being cheated or conned or attacked. True brotherhood
    represents the key to happiness and growth.
        The programs that I've discussed today give every American, rich or
    poor or middle class, white or black or brown, a fair chance to pursue
    his or her destiny. And they try to harness the engine of ambition in
    service to the common good. They do not divide people along race or
    class lines; they give everyone a shared stake in everyone else's
    success.
        We have a chance to rekindle the kind of optimism that characterized
    the civil rights movement of the '60s--one in which men and women of all
    races and backgrounds joined to pursue goals that we all hold dear:
    opportunity, prosperity, justice, freedom, tolerance.
        So, today you assume responsibility for shaping an international
    commonwealth of freedom. Believe in yourselves. Trust in yourselves.
    Don't abandon your passion for ideas or causes. Work hard, but serve
    your community. Attend to the thousands of tiny deeds that constitute a
    good and decent life; treat yourself well and respect others. Be a Point
    of Light. Build a truly good society.
        To you, and to the friends and especially the families who have
    supported you over the years, congratulations. Thank you for letting me
    share in your commencement exercises. And may God bless you and God
    bless the United States of America.

                        Note: The President spoke at 10:40 a.m. at Armstrong
                            Field. In his opening remarks, he referred to
                            William R. Harvey, president of the university;
                            Senator John W. Warner; Representative Herbert
                            H. Bateman; Royzell Dillard, director of the
                            university choir; Patricia Funderburk, Director
                            of the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs,
                            Public Health Service; and students Carvel
                            Lewis, Nilka Bacilio, and Dinee Riley.