[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[June 6, 1997]
[Pages 706-708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Commencement Address at the Sidwell Friends School
June 6, 1997

    Thank you. Well, Mr. Bryant, I may not hit a homerun today, but I 
won't be quite as off as Teddy Roosevelt was. Even good people have bad 
days. [Laughter]
    Mr. Harrison, Mr. Noe, friends, family, and guests, members of the 
Class of 1997: Thank you for inviting me. Hillary and I especially want 
to thank Sidwell's faculty and staff, students and families for making 
our family feel so at home here, when we came under somewhat unusual 
circumstances.
    Also, I thank the school for its superlative commitments to academic 
excellence, to diversity, and to service, to the welfare of all students 
here, to the maintenance of good character, good citizenship, and good 
spirits.
    In particular, I have come to appreciate the school's observance of 
the Quaker practice of meaningful worship--an hour spent in reflective 
silence, broken only when someone has something truly meaningful to say 
in a respectful way. After the parents had a chance to participate in 
meaningful worship this week, I left wishing that Congress were in 
control of the Quakers. [Laughter]
    I asked the senior in this class I know best what I should say 
today. Her reply was, ``Dad, I want you to be wise, briefly.'' 
[Laughter] Last night she amended her advice, ``Dad, the girls want you 
to be wise; the boys just want you to be funny.'' [Laughter] That's what 
I get for asking.
    Members of the class of '97, you are not the only graduates here 
today. Even though we're staying home, your parents are graduating, too. 
Just as your pride and joy in this day must be tempered by the 
separation from Sidwell and the daily contact with the wonderful friends 
you have made here, our pride and joy are tempered by our coming 
separation from you.
    So I ask you at the beginning to indulge your folks if we seem a 
little sad or we act a little weird. You see, today we are remembering 
your first day in school and all the triumphs and travails between then 
and now. Though we have raised you for this moment of departure and we 
are very proud of you, a part of us longs to hold you once more as we 
did when you could barely walk, to read to you just one more

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time ``Good Night, Moon'' or ``Curious George'' or ``The Little Engine 
That Could.''
    We hope someday that you will have children of your own to bring to 
this happy day and know how we feel. Remember that we love you, and no 
matter what anybody says, you can come home again.
    We celebrate your passage into the world in a hopeful time for our 
Nation and for people throughout the world. For the first time in 
history, more than half of all the world's people live free, under 
governments of their own choosing. The cold war has given way to the 
information age, with its revolutions in technology and communications 
and increasingly integrated economies and societies. Scientific advances 
and a growing global determination to preserve our environment give us 
hope that the challenges of the 21st century can be met in ways that 
will permit us to continue the advance of peace and freedom and 
prosperity throughout your entire lives.
    Admittedly, we face serious threats to humanity's forward march, 
threats that go beyond the possible outbreak of disease or environmental 
catastrophe. They include the spread of weapons of mass destruction; 
terrorism; the worldwide network of crime and drug trafficking; awful 
ethnic, racial, tribal, and religious rivalries that unfortunately are 
most appealing to people your age throughout the world who feel poor and 
dispossessed. With vision, discipline, and patience, we can meet these 
challenges as well.
    Here at home, our economy is strong. Crime and welfare rolls have 
dropped steeply. We are on the leading edge of emerging technologies. 
People are living longer, fuller lives. America is leading the world 
toward peace and freedom and progress, but you know well that we, too, 
have our challenges.
    We still have yet to give all our children the chance you have had 
to develop their God-given capacities. We still have to deal with the 
coming retirement of your parents' very large generation and the 
appalling rates of poverty among young children. We have to develop the 
proper balance of discipline and freedom, of creativity and stability 
necessary to keep our economy growing, to make our society less crippled 
by crime and drugs, to help our families and communities to become 
stronger. And perhaps most important as you look around this class 
today, we have to make out of our rich diversity the world's first truly 
great multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious democracy. No one has 
ever done it before, and I hope our country can do as well as you have 
done with each other.
    Now, all these are formidable tasks, but we are moving in the right 
direction. What I want to say to you is that now that you're adults, you 
have to do your part to keep it going. There are decisions to be made by 
Americans and, in a democracy, citizenship is not a spectator sport.
    But what an exciting world awaits you--from cyberspace to the 
frontiers of artificial intelligence, from mapping our genetic 
structures to exploring other galaxies. With your ability and your 
education, your choices seem limitless. But you will have to choose. And 
you will have to choose not just what you will do but how you will live. 
No one else can make your decisions for you, and they will make all the 
difference--for you, for your country, and for the world. To make the 
right ones, you will need a lot more than knowledge and access to the 
Internet. You will need wisdom and resolve.
    For what it's worth, here is my advice. First, be brave. Dream big 
and chase your dreams. You will have your failures, but you will grow 
from every honest effort. Over three decades ago I sat where you are. I 
can tell you without any doubt that in the years since, my high school 
classmates who chased their dreams and failed are far less disappointed 
than those who left their dreams on the shelf for fear of failure. So 
chase on. Even if you don't get what you think you want, amazing things 
will happen.
    Second, be optimistic and be grateful. Some bad things are going to 
happen to you--to some of you, unfair things, perhaps even tragic 
things. Some of you have faced tragedy already. When these things 
happen, try to remember that each new day is still a gift, full of the 
mystery and magic of life. Try not to waste even one of those days 
trapped by hatred, the desire to get even, self-pity, despair, or 
cynicism. We all give in to them now and then, of course, but you need 
to work at snapping out of it and going on. Hatred and self-pity give 
victory to the very dark forces we deplore. Despair guarantees defeat. 
Cynicism is a cowardly cop-out. And no ever really gets even in life; 
that is God's work.
    No matter how bad it gets, don't forget there's someone who's 
endured more pain than you have. No matter how unfair it gets, remember 
that most of us are far better off than we would be if we only got what 
we deserve. And

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don't stop at admiring a Mandela or a Cardinal Bernardin. Strive to be 
more like them. Keep your spirits up. There is profound truth in the 
proverb, ``A happy heart maketh good medicine, but a broken spirit 
dryeth the bones.''
    Third, be of service to others. Much has been given to you already, 
and a lot more is coming your way. You owe it to yourself to give 
something back, to help to build a society and a world in which more 
people have your chance to live out their dreams, and all people in need 
at least know the touch of a caring hand and the embrace of a kind 
heart. From your service here, many of you already know that it not only 
gives more joy to others, it will bring more joy to you than you can 
even imagine.
    Fourth, be both humble and proud. Be humble because you're human, 
subject to error and frailty, incapable, no matter how intelligent you 
are, of ever knowing the whole truth. Show mercy as well as judgment to 
those with whom you disagree in life. Keep in mind Benjamin Franklin's 
adage that even our enemies are our friends, for they show us our 
faults.
    Be proud because your life is God's unique creation, worthy of its 
journey, graced with a soul the equal of every other person's. Eleanor 
Roosevelt once said that no one can make you feel inferior without your 
permission. Do not give them permission.
    I regret that in our time, the essential role of constructive 
criticism often degenerates into what Deborah Tannen has called ``the 
culture of critique,'' where too many brilliant minds and prodigious 
energies are spent simply putting people down. Do not be put down.
    Thirty-seven years ago, I was a student in Vernon Dokey's eighth 
grade science class. On first impression, Vernon Dokey, to put it 
charitably, was a very physically unattractive man. [Laughter] He knew 
it. He laughed about it. And he used it to teach us a valuable lesson in 
life I still remember. He told us that every morning when he woke up, he 
went to the bathroom and he shaved, and then he looked at himself in the 
mirror and he said, ``Vernon, you're beautiful.'' [Laughter]
    Well, Class of '97, you're beautiful. Go out and live like it. Be 
humble and be proud. Be of service. Be optimistic and grateful. Be 
brave, and dream your dreams.
    God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:07 a.m. in the gymnasium at the school. 
In his remarks, he referred to Ralph Bryant, chairman, board of 
directors, Earl Harrison, head of school, and Bernard Noe, upper school 
principal, Sidwell Friends School.