A Commencement Redress

Congratulations!  At last you're here...at the culmination of years of
academic effort...after forming lifelong friendships and relationships...
you've earned your degree and the right to be proud of it.

Enjoy it!  The key to your future success is in your hands.  Use it to
open doors that lead to places where you may never have dreamed
of traveling.  Party tonight and celebrate with family and friends.
You've reached one of the key turning points in life.

But keep perspective.  You've just won your first race on the way to
the Olympics.  There are many races and competitions to go, and you
have to make it to the finals to win the gold.



You've proven you can complete the course work.  You have proven
you have a good memory.  You understand and use language and
mathematics well.  You can follow directions, and you have shown
you can think, organize, plan, and prioritize your time well enough to
succeed in academic work.

In short, you have proven a lot, and you have a right to be proud,
but you haven't won the gold medal yet.

Most likely, though, you still have yet to prove that you can deal with
some of life's more difficult challenges, such as...

1.  Are you brave enough to stand up to life's difficult
     challenges, and persevere when all goes wrong?

2.  Are you wise enough to know when to hold 'em and when to
     fold 'em...or when to go all in or all out?

3.  Are you strong enough to stand up for the honorable thing, even
     when it is not to your personal advantage to do it?

4.  Are you are smart enough to recognize the right thing, when
     it appears in front of you?

5.  Are you generous and unselfish enough to sacrifice some of
     your personal ambitions to benefit your family, your loved ones,
     or the community, if necessary?

6.  Are you resilient in the face of persistent day-to-day frustrations?

7.  Can you listen to others and learn from their perspectives,
     even if they are not as "educated" as you are?







Hundreds of thousands have sat where you sit today, proud of
their achievement, and sure that they, and their generation, will
solve the problems that bedevil our society and the world.  Same
as you, they were trained by professors, who also teach and advise
corporate and governmental leaders, special interest groups, quasi-
governmental organizations, and politicians.

Their solutions have always been pretty much the same.  One, take
money from individuals and businesses so that it can be spent on
government programs.  Two, take more money from individuals
and businesses so they can spend it on expanded or new programs.
Finally, three, put your trust in well-educated bureaucrats to make
the wise decision for you.

The solutions almost never result in a choice to eliminate unnecessary
or inefficient programs, to apply new technology to substantially
eliminate waste and graft, or to spend less in tough times.

The bad news is, the money is running out, and the old solutions
aren't working.  The good news is, you're going to be part of the
generation that will have to find new solutions to old problems.

I know, you've just earned your way into the "well-educated
bureaucrat" (or corporate, or professorial) class.  Am I trying
to tell you that you're the problem?

If you can't come up with better solutions, you WILL become part
of the problem, and the future for your generation looks dark.  If you
CAN come up with better solutions, your future can be bright
and shining.  You control your destiny.  You control the country's
destiny.





Lyndon Johnson started the "War on Poverty" almost fifty years
ago.  After spending billions (trillions?) of dollars on program after
program, have we eliminated poverty?  After years of spending
billions on the "War on Drugs", have we eliminated the drug problem?
Did the "best and brightest" manage Vietnam well?

How about business?  Have all those MBAs done right by Wall
Street...or in Washington?  Did all those well-educated regulators
and Wall Street titans foresee or prevent the mortgage market
meltdown, even though it would seem to be a no-brainer to require
proof that a mortgagee has enough income to pay back a loan?  Has
greed, corruption, or foolishness been eliminated?

All those people who helped create this world that you may think is
all screwed up;  they sat where you sit today and thought they were
going to make the world a better place to live.  Hey, Bernie Madoff
sat where you sit today, as happy and optimistic and proud of his
future as you are of yours today.  Don't do Bernie.

Remember, you're at the beginning of your road, not at the final
destination.  Don't think you know all the answers...hopefully, you
will know to ask the right questions.  Keep your eyes and ears open,
and feed what you see and hear into an open mind.  You can learn
from the most unlikely sources.

Formal education is not learning.  Life experience, simmering within
an engaged mind, over a lifetime, leads to learning and to wisdom.
Question what you've been taught and what you hear.  Believe in
yourself and don't be afraid to speak your truth.

I envy you today.  A page is being turned, and your life is starting
anew today.  You have a new beginning, and you are free to choose
what you make of it.  Live it.  Enjoy it.  Revel in it.

Make this world a better place.