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  • The President: Hello Rutgers!

  • (applause)

  • R-U rah-rah!

  • (applause)

  • Thank you so much.

  • Thank you.

  • Everybody, please have a seat.

  • Thank you, President Barchi, for that introduction.

  • Let me congratulate my extraordinarily worthy

  • fellow honorary Scarlet Knights, Dr. Burnell

  • and Bill Moyers.

  • Matthew, good job.

  • (applause)

  • If you are interested, we can talk after this.

  • (applause)

  • One of the perks of my job is honorary degrees.

  • (laughter)

  • But I have to tell you, it impresses nobody in my house.

  • (laughter)

  • Now Malia and Sasha just say, "Okay, Dr. Dad, we'll

  • see you later.

  • Can we have some money?"

  • (laughter)

  • To the Board of Governors; to Chairman Brown; to

  • Lieutenant Governor Guadagno; Mayor Cahill;

  • Mayor Wahler, members of Congress, Rutgers

  • administrators, faculty, staff, friends, and family

  • -- thank you for the honor of joining you for the 250th

  • anniversary of this remarkable institution.

  • (applause)

  • But most of all, congratulations

  • to the Class of 2016!

  • (applause)

  • I come here for a simple reason -- to finally settle

  • this pork roll vs.

  • Taylor ham question.

  • (laughter and applause)

  • I'm just kidding.

  • (laughter)

  • There's not much I'm afraid to take on in my final year

  • of office, but I know better than to get in the middle

  • of that debate.

  • (laughter)

  • The truth is, Rutgers, I came here because you asked.

  • (applause)

  • Now, it's true that a lot of schools invite me to their

  • commencement every year.

  • But you are the first to launch a three-year campaign.

  • (laughter)

  • Emails, letters, tweets, YouTube videos.

  • I even got three notes from the grandmother of your

  • student body president.

  • (laughter)

  • And I have to say that really sealed the deal.

  • That was smart, because I have a soft spot for grandmas.

  • (laughter)

  • So I'm here, off Exit 9, on the banks of the Old Raritan --

  • (applause)

  • -- at the site of one of the original

  • nine colonial colleges.

  • (applause)

  • Winners of the first-ever college football game.

  • (applause)

  • One of the newest members of the Big Ten.

  • (applause)

  • Home of what I understand to be a Grease Truck

  • for a Fat Sandwich.

  • (applause)

  • Mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers

  • on your cheesesteaks --

  • (applause)

  • I'm sure Michelle would approve.

  • (laughter)

  • But somehow, you have survived

  • such death-defying acts.

  • (laughter)

  • You also survived the daily jockeying for buses, from

  • Livingston to Busch, to Cook, to Douglass,

  • and back again.

  • (applause)

  • I suspect that a few of you are trying to survive this

  • afternoon, after a late night at Olde Queens.

  • (applause)

  • You know who you are.

  • (laughter)

  • But, however you got here, you made it.

  • You made it.

  • Today, you join a long line of Scarlet Knights whose

  • energy and intellect have lifted this university to

  • heights its founders could not have imagined.

  • Two hundred and fifty years ago, when America was still

  • just an idea, a charter from the Royal Governor -- Ben

  • Franklin's son -- established Queen's College.

  • A few years later, a handful of students gathered in a

  • converted tavern for the first class.

  • And from that first class in a pub, Rutgers has evolved

  • into one of the finest research institutions

  • in America.

  • (applause)

  • This is a place where you 3D-print prosthetic hands

  • for children, and devise rooftop wind arrays that can

  • power entire office buildings with clean,

  • renewable energy.

  • Every day, tens of thousands of students come here, to

  • this intellectual melting pot, where ideas and

  • cultures flow together among what might just be America's

  • most diverse student body.

  • (applause)

  • Here in New Brunswick, you can debate philosophy with a

  • classmate from South Asia in one class, and then strike

  • up a conversation on the EE Bus with a first-generation

  • Latina student from Jersey City, before sitting down

  • for your psych group project with a veteran who's going

  • to school on the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

  • (applause)

  • America converges here.

  • And in so many ways, the history of Rutgers mirrors

  • the evolution of America -- the course by which we

  • became bigger, stronger, and richer and more dynamic, and

  • a more inclusive nation.

  • But America's progress has never been smooth or steady.

  • Progress doesn't travel in a straight line.

  • It zigs and zags in fits and starts.

  • Progress in America has been hard and contentious, and

  • sometimes bloody.

  • It remains uneven and at times, for every two steps

  • forward, it feels like we take one step back.

  • Now, for some of you, this may sound

  • like your college career.

  • (laughter)

  • It sounds like mine, anyway.

  • (laughter)

  • Which makes sense, because measured against the whole

  • of human history, America remains a very young nation

  • -- younger, even, than this university.

  • But progress is bumpy.

  • It always has been.

  • But because of dreamers and innovators and strivers and

  • activists, progress has been this nation's hallmark.

  • I'm fond of quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

  • who said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but

  • it bends towards justice."

  • (applause)

  • It bends towards justice.

  • I believe that.

  • But I also believe that the arc of our nation, the arc

  • of the world does not bend towards justice, or freedom,

  • or equality, or prosperity on its own.

  • It depends on us, on the choices we make,

  • particularly at certain inflection points in

  • history; particularly when big changes are happening

  • and everything seems up for grabs.

  • And, Class of 2016, you are graduating at such an

  • inflection point.

  • Since the start of this new millennium, you've already

  • witnessed horrific terrorist attacks, and war,

  • and a Great Recession.

  • You've seen economic and technological and cultural

  • shifts that are profoundly altering how we work and how

  • we communicate, how we live, how we form families.

  • The pace of change is not subsiding;

  • it is accelerating.

  • And these changes offer not only great opportunity, but

  • also great peril.

  • Fortunately, your generation has everything it takes to

  • lead this country toward a brighter future.

  • I'm confident that you can make the right choices --

  • away from fear and division and paralysis, and toward

  • cooperation and innovation and hope.

  • (applause)

  • Now, partly, I'm confident because, on average, you're

  • smarter and better educated than my generation --

  • although we probably had better penmanship --

  • (laughter)

  • -- and were certainly better spellers.

  • We did not have spell-check back in my day.

  • You're not only better educated, you've been more

  • exposed to the world, more exposed to other cultures.

  • You're more diverse.

  • You're more environmentally conscious.

  • You have a healthy skepticism

  • for conventional wisdom.

  • So you've got the tools to lead us.

  • And precisely because I have so much confidence in you,

  • I'm not going to spend the remainder of my time telling

  • you exactly how you're going to make the world better.

  • You'll figure it out.

  • You'll look at things with fresher eyes, unencumbered

  • by the biases and blind spots and inertia and

  • general crankiness of your parents and grandparents and

  • old heads like me.

  • But I do have a couple of suggestions that you may

  • find useful as you go out there and conquer the world.

  • Point number one: When you hear someone longing for the

  • "good old days," take it with a grain of salt.

  • (laughter and applause)

  • Take it with a grain of salt.

  • We live in a great nation and we are rightly

  • proud of our history.

  • We are beneficiaries of the labor and the grit and the

  • courage of generations who came before.

  • But I guess it's part of human nature, especially in

  • times of change and uncertainty, to want to look

  • backwards and long for some imaginary past when

  • everything worked, and the economy hummed, and all

  • politicians were wise, and every kid was well-mannered,

  • and America pretty much did whatever it wanted

  • around the world.

  • Guess what.

  • It ain't so.

  • (laughter)

  • The "good old days" weren't that great.

  • Yes, there have been some stretches in our history

  • where the economy grew much faster, or when government

  • ran more smoothly.

  • There were moments when, immediately after World War

  • II, for example, or the end of the Cold War, when the

  • world bent more easily to our will.

  • But those are sporadic, those moments, those episodes.

  • In fact, by almost every measure, America is better,

  • and the world is better, than it was 50 years ago, or

  • 30 years ago, or even eight years ago.

  • (applause)

  • And by the way, I'm not -- set aside 150 years ago,

  • pre-Civil War -- there's a whole bunch of stuff there

  • we could talk about.

  • Set aside life in the '50s, when women and people of

  • color were systematically excluded from big chunks

  • of American life.

  • Since I graduated, in 1983 -- which isn't that long ago --

  • (laughter)

  • -- I'm just saying.

  • Since I graduated, crime rates, teenage pregnancy,

  • the share of Americans living in poverty

  • -- they're all down.

  • The share of Americans with college educations

  • have gone way up.

  • Our life expectancy has, as well.

  • Blacks and Latinos have risen up the ranks in

  • business and politics.

  • (applause)

  • More women are in the workforce.

  • (applause)

  • They're earning more money -- although it's long past

  • time that we passed laws to make sure that women are

  • getting the same pay for the same work as men.

  • (applause)

  • Meanwhile, in the eight years since most of you

  • started high school, we're also better off.

  • You and your fellow graduates are entering the

  • job market with better prospects than

  • any time since 2007.

  • Twenty million more Americans know the financial

  • security of health insurance.

  • We're less dependent on foreign oil.

  • We've doubled the production of clean energy.

  • We have cut the high school dropout rate.

  • We've cut the deficit by two-thirds.

  • Marriage equality is the law of the land.

  • (applause)

  • And just as America is better, the world is better

  • than when I graduated.

  • Since I graduated, an Iron Curtain fell,

  • apartheid ended.

  • There's more democracy.

  • We virtually eliminated certain diseases like polio.

  • We've cut extreme poverty drastically.

  • We've cut infant mortality by an enormous amount.

  • (applause)

  • Now, I say all these things not to make you complacent.

  • We've got a bunch of big problems to solve.

  • But I say it to point out that change has been a

  • constant in our history.

  • And the reason America is better is because we didn't

  • look backwards we didn't fear the future.

  • We seized the future and made it our own.

  • And that's exactly why it's always been young people

  • like you that have brought about big change -- because

  • you don't fear the future.

  • That leads me to my second point: The world is more

  • interconnected than ever before, and it's becoming

  • more connected every day.

  • Building walls won't change that.

  • (applause)

  • Look, as President, my first responsibility is always the

  • security and prosperity of the United States.

  • And as citizens, we all rightly put our country first.

  • But if the past two decades have taught us anything,

  • it's that the biggest challenges we face cannot

  • be solved in isolation.

  • (applause)

  • When overseas states start falling apart, they become

  • breeding grounds for terrorists and ideologies of

  • nihilism and despair that ultimately can reach our shores.

  • When developing countries don't have functioning

  • health systems, epidemics like Zika or Ebola can

  • spread and threaten Americans, too.

  • And a wall won't stop that.

  • (applause)

  • If we want to close loopholes that allow large

  • corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying

  • their fair share of taxes, we've got to have the

  • cooperation of other countries in a global

  • financial system to help enforce financial laws.

  • The point is, to help ourselves we've got

  • to help others --

  • (applause)

  • -- not pull up the drawbridge and try to keep

  • the world out.

  • (applause)

  • And engagement does not just mean deploying our military.

  • There are times where we must take military action to

  • protect ourselves and our allies, and we are in awe of

  • and we are grateful for the men and women who make up

  • the finest fighting force the world has ever known.

  • (applause)

  • But I worry if we think that the entire burden of our

  • engagement with the world is up to the 1 percent who

  • serve in our military, and the rest of us can just sit

  • back and do nothing.

  • They can't shoulder the entire burden.

  • And engagement means using all the levers of our

  • national power, and rallying the world to take on our

  • shared challenges.

  • You look at something like trade, for example.

  • We live in an age of global supply chains, and cargo

  • ships that crisscross oceans, and online commerce

  • that can render borders obsolete.

  • And a lot of folks have legitimate concerns with the

  • way globalization has progressed -- that's one of

  • the changes that's been taking place -- jobs shipped

  • overseas, trade deals that sometimes put workers and

  • businesses at a disadvantage.

  • But the answer isn't to stop trading with other

  • countries.

  • In this global economy, that's not even possible.

  • The answer is to do trade the right way, by

  • negotiating with other countries so that they raise

  • their labor standards and their environmental

  • standards; and we make sure they don't impose unfair

  • tariffs on American goods or steal American

  • intellectual property.

  • That's how we make sure that international rules are

  • consistent with our values -- including human rights.

  • And ultimately, that's how we help raise wages

  • here in America.

  • That's how we help our workers compete

  • on a level playing field.

  • Building walls won't do that.

  • (applause)

  • It won't boost our economy, and it won't enhance our

  • security either.

  • Isolating or disparaging Muslims, suggesting that

  • they should be treated differently when it comes to

  • entering this country --

  • (applause)

  • -- that is not just a betrayal of our values --

  • (applause)

  • -- that's not just a betrayal of who we are, it

  • would alienate the very communities at home and

  • abroad who are our most important partners in the

  • fight against violent extremism.

  • Suggesting that we can build an endless wall along our

  • borders, and blame our challenges on immigrants --

  • that doesn't just run counter to our history as

  • the world's melting pot; it contradicts the evidence

  • that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism

  • has always been spurred by our ability to attract

  • strivers from every corner of the globe.

  • That's how we became America.

  • Why would we want to stop it now?

  • (applause)

  • Audience Member: Four more years!

  • The President: Can't do it.

  • (laughter)

  • Which brings me to my third point: Facts, evidence,

  • reason, logic, an understanding of science --

  • these are good things.

  • (applause)

  • These are qualities you want in people making policy.

  • These are qualities you want to continue to cultivate in

  • yourselves as citizens.

  • (applause)

  • That might seem obvious.

  • (laughter)

  • That's why we honor Bill Moyers or Dr. Burnell.

  • We traditionally have valued those things.

  • But if you were listening to today's political debate,

  • you might wonder where this strain of

  • anti-intellectualism came from.

  • (applause)

  • So, Class of 2016, let me be as clear as I can be.

  • In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue.

  • (applause)

  • It's not cool to not know what you're talking about.

  • (applause)

  • That's not keeping it real, or telling it like it is.

  • (laughter)

  • That's not challenging political correctness.

  • That's just not knowing what you're talking about.

  • (applause)

  • And yet, we've become confused about this.

  • Look, our nation's Founders -- Franklin, Madison,

  • Hamilton, Jefferson -- they were

  • born of the Enlightenment.

  • They sought to escape superstition, and

  • sectarianism, and tribalism, and no-nothingness.

  • (applause)

  • They believed in rational thought and experimentation,

  • and the capacity of informed citizens to master

  • our own fates.

  • That is embedded in our constitutional design.

  • That spirit informed our inventors and our explorers,

  • the Edisons and the Wright Brothers, and the George

  • Washington Carvers and the Grace Hoppers, and the

  • Norman Borlaugs and the Steve Jobses.

  • That's what built this country.

  • And today, in every phone in one of your pockets --

  • (laughter)

  • -- we have access to more information than at any time

  • in human history, at a touch of a button.

  • But, ironically, the flood of information hasn't made

  • us more discerning of the truth.

  • In some ways, it's just made us more confident

  • in our ignorance.

  • (applause)

  • We assume whatever is on the web must be true.

  • We search for sites that just reinforce

  • our own predispositions.

  • Opinions masquerade as facts.

  • The wildest conspiracy theories are taken for gospel.

  • Now, understand, I am sure you've learned during your

  • years of college -- and if not, you will learn soon --

  • that there are a whole lot of folks who are book smart

  • and have no common sense.

  • (applause)

  • That's the truth.

  • You'll meet them if you haven't already.

  • (laughter)

  • So the fact that they've got a fancy degree -- you got to

  • talk to them to see whether they know

  • what they're talking about.

  • (laughter)

  • Qualities like kindness and compassion, honesty, hard

  • work -- they often matter more than

  • technical skills or know-how.

  • (applause)

  • But when our leaders express a disdain for facts, when

  • they're not held accountable for repeating falsehoods and

  • just making stuff up, while actual experts are dismissed

  • as elitists, then we've got a problem.

  • (applause)

  • You know, it's interesting that if we get sick, we

  • actually want to make sure the doctors have gone to

  • medical school, they know what they're talking about.

  • (applause)

  • If we get on a plane, we say we really want a pilot to be

  • able to pilot the plane.

  • (laughter)

  • And yet, in our public lives, we certainly think,

  • "I don't want somebody who's done it before."

  • (laughter and applause)

  • The rejection of facts, the rejection of reason and

  • science -- that is the path to decline.

  • It calls to mind the words of Carl Sagan, who graduated

  • high school here in New Jersey --

  • (applause)

  • -- he said: "We can judge our progress by the courage

  • of our questions and the depths of our answers, our

  • willingness to embrace what is true rather than what

  • feels good."

  • The debate around climate change is a

  • perfect example of this.

  • Now, I recognize it doesn't feel like the planet is

  • warmer right now.

  • (laughter)

  • I understand.

  • There was hail when I landed in Newark.

  • (laughter)

  • But think about the climate change issue.

  • Every day, there are officials in high office

  • with responsibilities who mock the overwhelming

  • consensus of the world's scientists that human

  • activities and the release of carbon dioxide and

  • methane and other substances are altering our climate in

  • profound and dangerous ways.

  • A while back, you may have seen a United States senator

  • trotted out a snowball during a floor speech in the

  • middle of winter as "proof" that the world

  • was not warming.

  • (laughter)

  • I mean, listen, climate change is not something

  • subject to political spin.

  • There is evidence.

  • There are facts.

  • We can see it happening right now.

  • (applause)

  • If we don't act, if we don't follow through on the

  • progress we made in Paris, the progress we've been

  • making here at home, your generation will feel the

  • brunt of this catastrophe.

  • So it's up to you to insist upon and shape

  • an informed debate.

  • Imagine if Benjamin Franklin had seen that senator with

  • the snowball, what he would think.

  • Imagine if your 5th grade science teacher had seen that.

  • (laughter)

  • He'd get a D.

  • (laughter)

  • And he's a senator!

  • (laughter)

  • Look, I'm not suggesting that cold analysis and hard

  • data are ultimately more important in life than

  • passion, or faith, or love, or loyalty.

  • I am suggesting that those highest expressions of our

  • humanity can only flourish when our economy functions

  • well, and proposed budgets add up, and our environment

  • is protected.

  • And to accomplish those things, to make collective

  • decisions on behalf of a common good,

  • we have to use our heads.

  • We have to agree that facts and evidence matter.

  • And we got to hold our leaders and ourselves

  • accountable to know what the heck they're talking about.

  • (applause)

  • All right.

  • I only have two more points.

  • I know it's getting cold and you guys have to graduate.

  • (laughter)

  • Point four: Have faith in democracy.

  • Look, I know it's not always pretty.

  • Really, I know.

  • (laughter)

  • I've been living it.

  • But it's how, bit by bit, generation by generation, we

  • have made progress in this nation.

  • That's how we banned child labor.

  • That's how we cleaned up our air and our water.

  • That's how we passed programs like Social

  • Security and Medicare that lifted millions of seniors

  • out of poverty.

  • (applause)

  • None of these changes happened overnight.

  • They didn't happen because some charismatic leader got

  • everybody suddenly to agree on everything.

  • It didn't happen because some massive political

  • revolution occurred.

  • It actually happened over the course of years of

  • advocacy, and organizing, and alliance-building, and

  • deal-making, and the changing of public opinion.

  • It happened because ordinary Americans who cared

  • participated in the political process.

  • Audience Member: Because of you!

  • (applause)

  • The President: Well, that's nice.

  • I mean, I helped, but --

  • (applause)

  • Look, if you want to change this country for the better,

  • you better start participating.

  • I'll give you an example on a lot of people's minds

  • right now -- and that's the growing inequality

  • in our economy.

  • Over much of the last century, we've unleashed the

  • strongest economic engine the world has ever seen, but

  • over the past few decades, our economy has become more

  • and more unequal.

  • The top 10 percent of earners now take in half of

  • all income in the U.S.

  • In the past, it used to be a top CEO made 20 or 30 times

  • the income of the average worker.

  • Today, it's 300 times more.

  • And wages aren't rising fast enough for millions of

  • hardworking families.

  • Now, if we want to reverse those trends, there are a

  • bunch of policies that would make a real difference.

  • We can raise the minimum wage.

  • (applause)

  • We can modernize our infrastructure.

  • We can invest in early childhood education.

  • We can make college more affordable.

  • (applause)

  • We can close tax loopholes on hedge fund managers and

  • take that money and give tax breaks to help families with

  • child care or retirement.

  • And if we did these things, then we'd help to restore

  • the sense that hard work is rewarded and we could build

  • an economy that truly works for everybody.

  • (applause)

  • Now, the reason some of these things have not

  • happened, even though the majority of people approve

  • of them, is really simple.

  • It's not because I wasn't proposing them.

  • It wasn't because the facts and the evidence showed they

  • wouldn't work.

  • It was because a huge chunk of Americans, especially

  • young people, do not vote.

  • In 2014, voter turnout was the lowest since World War II.

  • Fewer than one in five young people showed up to vote

  • -- 2014.

  • And the four who stayed home determined the course of

  • this country just as much as the single one who voted.

  • Because apathy has consequences.

  • It determines who our Congress is.

  • It determines what policies they prioritize.

  • It even, for example, determines whether a really

  • highly qualified Supreme Court nominee receives the

  • courtesy of a hearing and a vote

  • in the United States Senate.

  • (applause)

  • And, yes, big money in politics is a huge problem.

  • We've got to reduce its influence.

  • Yes, special interests and lobbyists have

  • disproportionate access to the corridors of power.

  • But, contrary to what we hear sometimes from both the

  • left as well as the right, the system isn't as rigged

  • as you think, and it certainly is not as hopeless

  • as you think.

  • Politicians care about being elected, and they especially

  • care about being reelected.

  • And if you vote and you elect a majority that

  • represents your views, you will get what you want.

  • And if you opt out, or stop paying attention, you won't.

  • It's that simple.

  • (applause)

  • It's not that complicated.

  • Now, one of the reasons that people don't vote is because

  • they don't see the changes they were looking

  • for right away.

  • Well, guess what -- none of the great strides in our

  • history happened right away.

  • It took Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP decades

  • to win Brown v. Board of Education;

  • and then another decade after that to

  • secure the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

  • (applause)

  • And it took more time after that for it

  • to start working.

  • It took a proud daughter of New Jersey, Alice Paul,

  • years of organizing marches and hunger strikes and

  • protests, and drafting hundreds of pieces of

  • legislation, and writing letters and giving speeches,

  • and working with congressional leaders before

  • she and other suffragettes finally helped win women the

  • right to vote.

  • (applause)

  • Each stage along the way required compromise.

  • Sometimes you took half a loaf.

  • You forged allies.

  • Sometimes you lost on an issue, and then you came

  • back to fight another day.

  • That's how democracy works.

  • So you've got to be committed to participating

  • not just if you get immediate gratification, but

  • you got to be a citizen full-time, all the time.

  • And if participation means voting, and it means

  • compromise, and organizing and advocacy, it also means

  • listening to those who don't agree with you.

  • I know a couple years ago, folks on this campus got

  • upset that Condoleezza Rice was supposed to speak

  • at a commencement.

  • Now, I don't think it's a secret that I disagree with

  • many of the foreign policies of Dr. Rice

  • and the previous administration.

  • But the notion that this community or the country

  • would be better served by not hearing from a former

  • Secretary of State, or shutting out what she had to

  • say -- I believe that's misguided.

  • (applause)

  • I don't think that's how democracy works best, when

  • we're not even willing to listen to each other.

  • (applause)

  • I believe that's misguided.

  • If you disagree with somebody, bring them in --

  • (applause)

  • -- and ask them tough questions.

  • Hold their feet to the fire.

  • Make them defend their positions.

  • (applause)

  • If somebody has got a bad or offensive idea,

  • prove it wrong.

  • Engage it.

  • Debate it.

  • Stand up for what you believe in.

  • (applause)

  • Don't be scared to take somebody on.

  • Don't feel like you got to shut your ears off because

  • you're too fragile and somebody might

  • offend your sensibilities.

  • Go at them if they're not making any sense.

  • Use your logic and reason and words.

  • And by doing so, you'll strengthen your own

  • position, and you'll hone your arguments.

  • And maybe you'll learn something and realize you

  • don't know everything.

  • And you may have a new understanding not only about

  • what your opponents believe but maybe what you believe.

  • Either way, you win.

  • And more importantly, our democracy wins.

  • (applause)

  • So, anyway, all right.

  • That's it, Class of 2016 --

  • (laughter)

  • -- a few suggestions on how you can change the world.

  • Except maybe I've got one last suggestion.

  • (applause)

  • Just one.

  • And that is, gear yourself for the long haul.

  • Whatever path you choose -- business, nonprofits,

  • government, education, health care, the arts --

  • whatever it is, you're going to have some setbacks.

  • You will deal occasionally with foolish people.

  • You will be frustrated.

  • You'll have a boss that's not great.

  • You won't always get everything you want -- at

  • least not as fast as you want it.

  • So you have to stick with it.

  • You have to be persistent.

  • And success, however small, however incomplete, success

  • is still success.

  • I always tell my daughters, you know, better is good.

  • It may not be perfect, it may not be great, but it's good.

  • That's how progress happens -- in societies

  • and in our own lives.

  • So don't lose hope if sometimes you hit a roadblock.

  • Don't lose hope in the face of naysayers.

  • And certainly don't let resistance make you cynical.

  • Cynicism is so easy, and cynics don't accomplish much.

  • As a friend of mine who happens to be from

  • New Jersey, a guy named Bruce Springsteen, once sang --

  • (applause)

  • -- "they spend their lives waiting for a moment that

  • just don't come."

  • Don't let that be you.

  • Don't waste your time waiting.

  • If you doubt you can make a difference, look at the

  • impact some of your fellow graduates are already making.

  • Look at what Matthew is doing.

  • Look at somebody like Yasmin Ramadan, who began

  • organizing anti-bullying assemblies when she was 10

  • years old to help kids handle bias and

  • discrimination, and here at Rutgers, helped found the

  • Muslim Public Relations Council to work with

  • administrators and police to promote inclusion.

  • (applause)

  • Look at somebody like Madison Little, who grew up

  • dealing with some health issues, and started

  • wondering what his care would have been like if he

  • lived someplace else, and so, here at Rutgers, he took

  • charge of a student nonprofit and worked with

  • folks in Australia and Cambodia and Uganda to

  • address the AIDS epidemic.

  • "Our generation has so much energy to adapt and impact

  • the world," he said.

  • "My peers give me a lot of hope that we'll overcome

  • the obstacles we face in society."

  • That's you!

  • Is it any wonder that I am optimistic?

  • Throughout our history, a new generation of Americans

  • has reached up and bent the arc of history in the

  • direction of more freedom, and more opportunity, and

  • more justice.

  • And, Class of 2016, it is your turn now --

  • (applause)

  • -- to shape our nation's destiny, as well as your own.

  • So get to work.

  • Make sure the next 250 years are better than the last.

  • (applause)

  • Good luck.

  • God bless you.

  • God bless this country we love.

  • Thank you.

  • (applause)

The President: Hello Rutgers!

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B1 中級 美國腔

奧巴馬總統在羅格斯大學畢業典禮上發表講話 (President Obama Delivers the Rutgers University Commencement Address)

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    CHRISTY 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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