    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
    [May 6, 2006]
    [Pages 867-871]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Commencement Address at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater,
    Oklahoma
    May 6, 2006

        Thank you all very much. President Schmidly, thank you. Members of the Oklahoma State faculty and
    administration; Governor; people in the
    statehouse; Members of the United States Congress; distinguished guests;
    parents, friends, family, and, most important, the class of 2006: Thanks
    for the warm welcome to this great State and to this fine campus. I'm
    honored to be here.
        Laura sends her greetings, and she's
    disappointed that she couldn't be here with me. She was even more
    disappointed when she found out I had planned a romantic dinner for
    two--at Eskimo Joe's. She also said she had one question to ask the
    students here today: How orange are you? If you read the papers, you
    know that when some would criticize me, they call me a cowboy. This
    cowboy is proud to be standing here in the midst of a lot of other
    cowboys.
        I want to thank the moms and dads here for the sacrifice and for the
    love you've shown your children. I want to thank the faculty for your
    hard work and dedication. I congratulate the class of 2006. Some of you
    are graduating with honors that involved much sacrifice and achievement.
    Others perhaps spent a little less time in the library. [Laughter] For
    all of you, I bring a message of great hope: There's life after English
    Comp. [Laughter] Someday, you'll appreciate what you've learned here;
    you're going to make your teachers proud. I know the professors who
    taught me English marvel at my way of words. [Laughter]

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        The last few months before graduation are busy ones. Amid all the
    excitement, there's one thing that probably eluded a few of you--you
    haven't had time to find a job. I speak for your parents when I say, now
    is the time to start looking. Some good news for you: The job market for
    college graduates is the best it's been in years. The economy of ours is
    strong, and so you'll have more jobs to choose from than previous
    classes, and your starting salaries will be higher. And the
    opportunities beyond are only limited by the size of your dreams.
        You're privileged to live in the world's freest country at one of
    the most hopeful moments in human history. Soon you'll leave this
    university to take your place in our society. And as you do, you'll
    witness dramatic changes, and these changes will present you with
    opportunities and choices and great challenges.
        Your generation will enjoy unimagined opportunities because of
    education. You know, when this university was founded in 1890, it was
    called the Oklahoma Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical College, one
    of the Nation's land-grant colleges. And the investment has paid off
    many times over. Some of the oldtimers remember that after the Dust Bowl
    hit Oklahoma in the 1930s, this university responded by helping the
    farmers and ranchers with innovative soil conservation techniques. OSU
    is still committed to the land-grant mission of high-quality teaching
    and advanced research and outreach to the communities it serves. But the
    school has moved far beyond its original focus on agriculture, and
    Oklahoma State University is now a comprehensive public university with
    eight degree-granting colleges that offer more than 350 programs to more
    than 21,000 students.
        This fine university has adapted, and to succeed in the 21st
    century, you're going to have to adapt as well. Your degree marks the
    successful end of your undergraduate education, and when you leave this
    university, you're going to enter a dynamic world and an economy that is
    constantly creating new opportunities that will require you to learn new
    skills. I urge you to rise to these challenges. Take charge of your
    future; be open to new ideas; be willing to take risks. Treat the degree
    you receive today as the first step in a lifetime of learning, and your
    lives will be rich in purpose and reward.
        Your generation will face unprecedented choices because of
    technology. When I was in college, we listened to music on 45 rpm
    records as opposed to the iPod. We used manual typewriters instead of
    the personal computer. When we made a mistake while writing a paper, we
    didn't have the luxury of spell check. As a matter of fact, we used
    something that maybe some of you have heard of--it was big and bulky--
    it's called a dictionary. [Laughter] Technology has helped improve
    almost every aspect of your life on campus--except maybe the cafeteria
    food. [Laughter]
        Just as technology is making life better for college students, it's
    making all of us more productive. If you take a job in an office, the
    technology you use will make you more efficient than earlier
    generations. If you decide to open a small business, technology can help
    you lower your costs or reach more customers through the Internet. If
    you're a farmer or a rancher, technology gives you instant access to
    expert advice from specialists who may live thousands of miles away. By
    helping each of us do our jobs better, technology is improving life for
    all of us.
        Some of the most exciting advances in technology you'll see will be
    in the field of energy. When I graduated from school, cars drank
    gasoline. Last month in California, I saw cars powered by hydrogen that
    use no gasoline and emit no pollution. Within your lifetime, advances in
    technology will make our air cleaner and our cars more efficient. The
    gasoline engine will seem as antiquated as the rotary phone and the
    black-and-white TV.
        Technology holds promise for extending and improving our lives
    through dramatic

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    breakthroughs in the field of medicine. In recent times, we've gone from
    x rays to MRIs, from eyeglasses to laser eye surgery, from major
    operations that would keep you in the hospital for weeks to miracle
    drugs that can prevent the need for the operation in the first place. In
    the decades ahead, you're going to witness incredible changes in health
    care that will even be more revolutionary.
        These advances in technology will transform lives, and they will
    present you with profound dilemmas. Science offers the prospect of
    eventual cures for terrible diseases and temptations to manipulate life
    and violate human dignity. With the Internet, you can communicate
    instantly with someone halfway across the world and isolate yourself
    from your family and your neighbors. Your generation will have to
    resolve these dilemmas. My advice is, harness the promise of technology
    without becoming slaves to technology. My advice is, ensure that science
    serves the cause of humanity and not the other way around.
        Your generation will confront the challenges of a world that is now
    at our doorsteps. When Oklahoma was settled in the late 19th century,
    this was America's frontier. Now the whole world is within your reach.
    You can e-mail friends in Central America, or you can fly nonstop across
    the Atlantic or Pacific, or you use your Bank of Oklahoma card and
    withdraw money from an ATM in Australia.
        At the same time, we're seeing the rise of new competitors like
    China and India, and this competition creates uncertainty. Some look at
    the changes taking place all around us, and they worry about the future.
    Their reaction is to wall America off from the world and to retreat into
    protectionism. This is a sure path to stagnation and decline. I ask you
    to reject this kind of pessimism.
        We should welcome competition. We should welcome competition,
    because it makes our country stronger and more prosperous. Today, the
    citizens of Oklahoma export wheat to Mexico or pork to Japan or liquid
    pumps to Russia. For your generation, even more opportunities will come
    from overseas. Government must help, but it is up to you to take
    advantage of what you have learned here and meet the future with
    confidence in your ability to compete and succeed.
        A country that shuts itself off from competition will be a country
    that isolates itself from the duties and opportunities of our world. One
    of the greatest opportunities of this young century is the advance of
    human freedom. The advance of liberty is the story of our time, and
    we're seeing new chapters written before our eyes. Freedom is taking
    root in places where liberty was once unimaginable. Just 25 years ago,
    there were only 45 democracies on the face of the Earth. Today, there
    are 122 democracies, and more people now live in liberty than ever
    before. The advance of liberty gives us hope in the future because free
    societies are peaceful societies. As freedom spreads, the threat of
    tyranny and terror will recede, and the rise of democracy will bring
    peace to the world and security to the United States of America.
        No, this changing world presents you with a lot of exciting
    opportunities. Yet a changing world also needs the anchor of old-
    fashioned values and virtues, like courage and compassion. These are the
    virtues that sustain our democracy and make self-government possible.
    These virtues are what we will need to build a more hopeful future. And
    these virtues are present in the Oklahoma State class of 2006.
        We see these virtues in an extraordinary young woman named Melissa
    Unwin. Melissa has been studying in your
    College of Education. Back in 2001, she was diagnosed with cancer, and
    the doctors doubted she would ever finish college. If you know anything
    about educators, you know that when they tell you--when somebody tells
    them something is impossible, they're going to work harder to prove you
    wrong. And

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    that's just what Melissa has done. The degree that Melissa has earned
    today is an example of courage in the face of adversity, and she
    represents a spirit necessary for your generation to succeed.
        We see the spirit of compassion in the members of the class of 2006
    who've stepped forward to serve their community. As part of your ``Into
    the Streets'' volunteer effort this past fall, one fraternity helped
    build a playground at the local homeless shelter. They probably realized
    it was better to help somebody else than go to the bar. [Laughter] Other
    members of your class traveled down the gulf coast after Hurricane
    Katrina to help clean up debris and deliver comfort and relief. They
    didn't have to do that, but they felt the calling to go help somebody in
    need.
        I met seniors who have volunteered in a wide variety of ways, upon
    my landing. They build houses for the underprivileged and visit nursing
    homes and tutor fellow students. One of these volunteers says this about
    her service: ``I feel I've been very fortunate, and any way I can help
    other people to have a house to live in, to have food on the table, or
    even a clean yard, means I'm making a difference.''
        We see the spirit of service in the members of the class of 2006
    who've stepped forward to defend our freedom. In this graduating class,
    there are 27 new lieutenants who are receiving their Army and Air Force
    commissions along with their OSU degrees. They're carrying on the proud
    tradition of service in uniform exemplified by an OSU graduate named
    Luke James. After earning his commission at OSU in 2002, Luke had the
    world at his feet; he had a wife and infant
    son that he adored. Yet Luke had chosen a life
    of service, and in 2004, Second Lieutenant Luke James, graduate of OSU,
    was deployed to Iraq as a member of the Army's 82d Airborne. Shortly
    after arriving in that country, Luke was killed while leading his troops
    on patrol. He was awarded the Bronze Star. He's buried at Arlington
    National Cemetery.
        On the anniversary of her son's death, Luke's mom went to visit her son's grave. And afterward, a young
    soldier came up to her and thanked her for the way she had raised her
    son. He said that Lieutenant James had saved his life. Luke's mom says
    this of her son's service: ``All of Luke's life, he was very dedicated
    to the concept of freedom. While no soldier wants war, he understood the
    necessity of war, that it can ensure the freedoms we enjoy in America.''
    Luke James is part of a generation who are every bit as selfless and
    dedicated to liberty as any that has ever come before. And the future of
    the United States of America is better because of the character of young
    Americans like Luke James.
        In this time of technological change and global competition,
    ultimately the character of America will be determined by your
    willingness to serve a cause larger than yourselves. The day will come
    when you'll be asked, what have you done to build a better America than
    the one you found? I'm confident that you will answer the call to
    service. I'm confident that your lives will be more fulfilling and your
    country more hopeful. And I'm confident that you'll look back and say,
    ``Job well done.''
        Congratulations to you all. May God bless you, the class of 2006,
    and may God bless the United States of America.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:10 a.m. in Boone Picket Stadium. In his
    remarks, he referred to David J. Schmidly, president, Oklahoma State
    University; Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma; and Arleen James, mother of 2d
    Lt. Luke S. James, USA, who was killed in Iraq on January 27, 2004.

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