Death race 2000 mr president speech professional#
There is plenty of upside ahead, at what we economists call the “micro” level, the immediate personal and professional spheres that we occupy.īut what about the “macro” level? What about the big picture issues that lately have been so inadequately addressed by our political processes? These may not be at the center of your current plans, but let me suggest that there is plenty of opportunity here, too. But I think we are up to it! You have overcome a lot of challenges as you worked your way through Yale, and so have I. Uncertainty about these matters is a source of anxiety for us all – for you and for me. And just like you I am hoping to find work that is personally and professionally fulfilling, and that makes a difference in the lives of others. Because Yale has encouraged you to think this way, you may also be contemplating how the lives you are starting to create might make a difference to others – to your families and your communities, and how you might be of service, as so many of you have been as students, to causes larger than your own personal fulfillment. You may also be thinking about whether and when to apply to graduate or professional school, and, more generally, how these important near term choices might help you build a life that is personally and professionally fulfilling. You quite properly may be thinking about where you will find an apartment, whether you will find a job, or, if you already have one, whether you will like it. Right now, you may not be thinking first and foremost about these issues. How about ensuring an adequate K-12 education for all Americans? Or repairing our congested highways, deteriorating bridges, substandard airports, and obsolete passenger railroad services? How about supporting scientific advance and the innovation that flows from it? Or resetting our expectations about entitlement benefits? And how about concerted action to mitigate the severe economic and ecological consequences of global warming? And gun control is just one of many critical issues on which this nation appears to be at an impasse. Congress could not manage to restore even the most moderate restrictions on the sale of assault weapons to private citizens. It seems astonishing, but this spring, in the aftermath of a mass murder at an elementary school just twenty-five miles from here, the U.S. We are still suffering from the effects of the most severe recession since the Great Depression, and the American political system – once a global model of effective bipartisan governance – has become so polarized that it is nearly paralyzed. You, and I, are going to need time to figure out what’s next, time to consider where our true passions lie and how we might give them the fullest expression. As for the rest of you who are not so sure, I feel myself, for the first time in twenty years of Baccalaureate Addresses, in true communion. Congratulations! We wish you every success. Some of you know exactly what you want to do in the years ahead – whether it is medicine, the law, the military, starting a company, or – this year in particular – playing professional hockey. These pleasures now give way to a new set of challenges and opportunities as you explore the world that is all before you.
In the course of all this activity, you have come to know yourselves more completely. You have lived four years in an environment of high energy and high achievement – in the classroom and the newsroom, on the stage and the athletic field, in the concert hall and the art studio, in community service and political debate. You have had access to extraordinary research laboratories, libraries, museums, and musical and dramatic performances. You know the words: “Lately it occurs to me, what a long, strange trip it’s been.” It’s been a long trip, but, for us, more wonderful than strange.Įach of you has had the opportunity to learn from teachers who are among the world’s most brilliant scholars, and to grow in the company of some of the most exceptional young adults to be found anywhere – your classmates. I find myself thinking about a Grateful Dead song written in 1970, the year I came to Yale as a graduate student. You leave Yale College after four years I leave the Yale Presidency after twenty.
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