Drawing on the last century of American foreign policy and his experiences in office, former United States President George Bush exhorted the University's 3,500 new graduates to become active members of their communities at last Sunday morningPis commencement ceremony.
"Will you constantly bitch and sit on the sidelines, complaining when things go wrong?" he asked. "Are you going to be selfish and say, 'Why me?' or, 'If it feels good, I'll do it?' Or will you roll up your sleeves and put something back or will you strive to lift someone up?"
He urged the graduates to acknowledge the importance of interpersonal connections. "I was president of the United States of America, and I concluded that what matters is your family and your faith and your friends, and youPive made friends who will last you a lifetime," he said. "Most of all, you've been blessed by the abiding love of parents which have guided you; you've been blessed by the values they've taught you which will sustain you through success and hard times alike."
Before a crowd of about 17,000 in a hazy Wallace Wade Stadium, Bush peppered his review of recent foreign policy with a few predictions and occasional humor.
"It occurred to me that as the graduation speaker this afternoon I should remember to do unto others as I would have done unto me,<= he said during his introduction. And so I've scrapped my speech-45 minutes about the Federal Reserve Board and 30 minutes on the gold standard."
After this lively introduction, Bush applied his considerable diplomatic experience gained during terms as director of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. representative to the United Nationsato discussing the weighty topic of nuclear proliferation. "I do not believe the world needs to worry about nuclear Armageddon," he said, in spite of recent nuclear tests by India.
Bush also supported the Clinton administration's policy of engagement with China. "We must attend to the most important bilateral relationship in the world and I believe that's the U.S.-China relationship, not by blasting China, but by heeding the advice given last week by the Dalai Lama and of that courageous dissenter that stood in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989, both of them saying stay involved in China," he said.
Earlier in the speech, he co-opted a famous Clinton phrase. "To the broke but happy parents assembled here, let me say that Barbara and I feel your pain," he said.
Bush also doled out praise for student speaker Cristina Cardoze, Trinity '98. "I don't believe I ever heard a student give a better address than Cristina did," he said.
In a speech that referred to her childhood in Panama, Cardoze advised fellow graduates that education is the only constant in a life filled with unforeseen events. She recalled her mother's repeated warning, "La vida da muchas vueltas," or, life takes many unexpected turns.
Cardoze urged her classmates to reflect on their tenure at the University and on the true merit of the education they received.
"[An education] is not a weapon or an instrument or something we can occasionally put into our pockets and take with us to a cocktail party," she said. "No. An education is the process of growth and transformation through which we have become who we are today."
In addition to conferring earned degrees, the University granted honorary degrees to Bush, journalists Judy Woodruff and Clay Felker, computer science pioneer Donald Knuth and James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History John Hope Franklin.
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