[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]



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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

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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

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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.