[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2006)]
[Pages 864-867]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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]
    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 old-timers 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

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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 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

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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 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.

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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 the 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.