Commencement address at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents,  June 17, 2002  

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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 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 counterattack 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 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.