    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [June 14, 2002]
    [Pages 985-989]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Commencement Address at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio
    June 14, 2002

        Thank you all very much. I appreciate that very warm welcome.
    President Kirwan, thank you for inviting
    me. Governor Taft, Chairman Patterson, distinguished members of the Ohio State faculty,
    trustees, family members, distinguished guests, and

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    most importantly, members of the mighty class of 2002. Congratulations.
    You've earned a degree at a great American institution, and you have
    every right to be proud.
        I want to congratulate your parents. Many of you have written your
    last tuition check. [Laughter] That must be nice. I'm still writing
    them. [Laughter] You've given so much encouragement and support to your
    children, and their gratitude will only increase over the years. I also
    commend Ohio State's fine faculty, which has done so much to shape the
    minds and hopes of the graduating class.
        One more word of congratulations is in order. Today I had the honor
    of meeting Coach Jim Tressel--most polite of him
    to share with me the really fine experience that the Buckeyes had up in
    Ann Arbor this year.
        And I appreciate so very much the honorary degree you're conferring
    upon me today. I'm delighted that George Steinbrenner is receiving one as well. I guess we're both
    being honored as legends of baseball--[laughter]--legends, at least, in
    our own minds. [Laughter]
        I am now the only person standing between you and your diploma. The
    tradition of commencement addresses is to be brief and forgotten. I
    assure you that this speech will be shorter than it seems.
        Your senior year was special in your life, and the months since last
    September have been extraordinary in our country's history. On a Tuesday
    morning, America went from a feeling of security to one of
    vulnerability, from peace to war, from a time of calm to a great and
    noble cause. We're called to defend liberty against tyranny and terror.
    We've answered that call. We will bring security to our people and
    justice to our enemies.
        In the last 9 months, we've seen the true character of our country.
    We learned of firefighters who wrote their Social Security numbers on
    their arms with felt tip pens, to mark and identify their bodies, and
    then rushed into burning buildings. We learned of the desperate courage
    of passengers on Flight 93, average citizens who led the first counter-
    attack in the war on terror. We watched the searchers, month after
    month, fulfill their grim duty and New Yorkers line the streets to cheer
    them on their way to work each morning. And in these events, we
    relearned something large and important: The achievements that last and
    count in life come through sacrifice and compassion and service.
        Some believe this lesson in service is fading as distance grows from
    the shock of September the 11th, that the good we have witnessed is
    shallow and temporary. Your generation will respond to these skeptics,
    one way or another. You will determine whether our new ethic of
    responsibility is the break of a wave or the rise of a tide. You will
    determine whether we become a culture of selfishness and look inward or
    whether we will embrace a culture of service and look outward.
        Because this decision is in your hands, I'm confident of the
    outcome. Your class and your generation understand the need for personal
    responsibility, so you will make a culture of service a permanent part
    of American life. After all, nearly 70 percent of your class volunteers
    in some form, from Habitat for Humanity to Big Brothers and Big Sisters
    to OhioReads. Ohio State has been a leading source of Peace Corps
    volunteers since 1961. I honor the 29 ROTC members in today's graduating
    class for their spirit of service and idealism.
        I hope each of you--I hope each of you will help build this culture
    of service, for three important reasons: Service is important to your
    neighbors; service is important to your character; and service is
    important to your country.
        First, your idealism is needed in America. In the shadow of our
    Nation's prosperity, too many children grow up without love and
    guidance. Too many women are abandoned and abused. Too many men are

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    addicted and illiterate, and too many elderly Americans live in
    loneliness. These Americans are not strangers; they are fellow citizens,
    not problems but priorities. They are as much a part of the American
    community as you and I, and they deserve better from this country.
        Government has essential responsibilities: Fighting wars and
    fighting crime; protecting the homeland and enforcing civil rights laws;
    educating the young and providing for the old; giving people tools to
    improve their lives; helping the disabled and those in need. But you
    have responsibilities as well. Some Government needs--some needs
    Government cannot fulfill, the need for kindness and for understanding
    and for love. A person in crisis often needs more than a program or a
    check. He needs a friend, and that friend can be you. We are commanded
    by God and called by our conscience to love others as we want to be
    loved ourselves. Let us answer that call with every day we are given.
        Second, service is important in your own life, in your own
    character. No one can tell you how to live or what cause to serve, but
    everyone needs some cause larger than his or her own profit. Apathy has
    no adventures. Cynicism leaves no monuments. And a person who is not
    responsible for others is a person who is truly alone.
        By sharing the pain of a friend or bearing the hopes of a child or
    defending the liberty of your fellow citizens, you will gain
    satisfaction that cannot be gained in any other way. Service is not a
    chain or a chore. It gives direction to your gifts and purpose to your
    freedom.
        Lyndsey Holben is an OSU sophomore
    majoring in business. When she was in high school, Lyndsey had a friend
    and a classmate who died from an illness, and Lyndsey decided she wanted
    to work with children who suffer from life-threatening diseases. Today,
    Lyndsey is a leader among volunteers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
    Here's what she had to say: ``It's hard enough to put a smile on
    someone's face but especially someone who is hurting. Even if that's all
    you can do, that is something, and there is no better feeling in the
    world.'' Lyndsey and others here today have learned that every life of
    service is a life of significance.
        Third, we serve others because we're Americans, and we want to do
    something for the country we love. Our Nation is the greatest force for
    good in history, and we show our gratitude by doing our duty.
        Patriotism is expressed by flying the flag, but it is more.
    Patriotism means we share a single country. In all our diversity, each
    of us has a bond with every other American. Patriotism is proven in our
    concern for others, a willingness to sacrifice for people we may never
    have met or seen. Patriotism is our obligation to those who have gone
    before us, to those who will follow us, and to those who have died for
    us.
        In March of this year, Army Ranger Marc Anderson died in
    Afghanistan, trying to rescue a Navy SEAL. Marc and five others gave
    their lives in fulfilling the Ranger creed: ``I will never leave a
    fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy.''
        Marc, from Westerville, Ohio, was a remarkable man. Instead of
    pursuing a career that might have made him wealthy, Marc decided to be a
    math teacher in a high school in a tough neighborhood. He was a mentor,
    a tutor, and the best teacher many students ever had. After September
    the 11th, Marc joined the fight against terrorism. ``I'm trained, and
    I'm ready,'' he wrote to his friends. Before Marc left for Afghanistan,
    he arranged for part of his life insurance to pay for one of his former
    students to attend college. Today, that student, Jennifer
    Massing, plans to go to the University of
    Florida to study architecture.
        Marc Anderson considered this country great enough to die for.
    Surely it is great enough to live for. And we live for America by
    serving others. And as we serve others, this challenge can only be
    answered in individual hearts. Service in America is not a

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    matter of coercion; it is a matter of conscience. So today I'm making an
    appeal to your conscience, for the sake of our country.
        America needs more than taxpayers, spectators, and occasional
    voters. America needs full-time citizens. America needs men and women
    who respond to the call of duty, who stand up for the weak, who speak up
    for their beliefs, who sacrifice for a greater good. America needs your
    energy and your leadership and your ambition. And through the gathering
    momentum of millions of acts of kindness and decency, we will change
    America one soul at a time, and we will build a culture of service.
        I have asked all Americans to commit at least 2 years--4,000 hours
    over a lifetime--to the service of our neighbors and our Nation. My
    administration created what we call the USA Freedom Corps to help
    Americans find service opportunities at home and abroad. We're doubling
    the size of the Peace Corps. We'll increase AmeriCorps by 50 percent.
    We've created Citizen Corps to help protect the homeland.
        And today I'm announcing an historic partnership. We are bringing
    together the broadest group of service organizations ever assembled to
    create the USA Freedom Corps Network. The USA Freedom Corps Network
    includes America's Promise, the Points of Light Foundation, the United
    Way, VolunteerMatch, SERVEnet, and many other organizations--will be the
    most comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever
    assembled. This network will enable you to find volunteer opportunities
    within your neighborhoods and communities and in countries around the
    globe.
        One of the main reasons people give for not volunteering is that no
    one has asked them to do so. Another reason: They don't know where to
    start. Well, today I'm asking each of you to serve your country, and
    through the USA Freedom Corps Network, you've got a place to start. All
    that remains is for you to answer the call to service. I hope you do,
    and I believe you will.
        A life of service isn't always easy. It involves sacrifices, and I
    understand many other things will lay claim to your time and to your
    attention. In serving, however, you will give help and hope to others.
    You will--your own life will gain greater purpose and deeper meaning.
    You will show your love and allegiance to the United States, which
    remains what it has always been, a citadel of freedom, a land of mercy,
    the last, best hope of man on Earth.
        And so to the graduates of Ohio State University: Congratulations on
    your achievement. I want to thank you for this honorary degree. I leave
    here a proud member of the class of 2002. I leave here confident that
    you will serve our country and a cause greater than self. May God bless
    you and your families, and may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:17 a.m. in Ohio Stadium, after receiving
    an honorary doctorate in public administration. In his remarks, he
    referred to William E. Kirwan, president, James F. Patterson, chairman
    of the board of trustees, and Jim Tressel, head football coach, Ohio
    State University; Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio; and George Steinbrenner III,
    principal owner, New York Yankees.

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