Radford University Commencement

Radford University Commencement

Good Morning. Mr. Poole, President Covington, members of the Board of Visitors; members of the faculty; parents, family members and friends; and most importantly, members of the graduating class of 2003:

Congratulations on this great achievement in your lives. I am delighted to be back here at Radford. The last time I had the chance to be here was in April of 2001. Back then, I was just an ambitious candidate for office, and I enjoyed the chance to meet with many of you who were then just sophomores. On that Thursday afternoon, I never thought that I might have the chance to return as Governor to speak to a Radford graduating class - and I'm honored to spend a part of this special day with you.

You graduate at a challenging time in American history. Just think back to all that the world has seen during your time here at Radford. In dramatically different ways, the events of the past four years have tested our nation to its core:

You were freshmen as our economy began to slow down after years of record prosperity. You were sophomores when the nation was divided by an event that many people thought would never happen: the selection of a President by the electoral college and not the popular vote of the people. Even that outcome was in doubt for weeks, as the results of an entire presidential election turned on only a few hundred votes in Florida.

You were juniors when America changed forever. The September 11 terrorist attacks will stand forever as the day when millions of Americans realized that we were no longer isolated and physically secure from evil. We were reminded anew of the price of liberty. And throughout your senior year, America prepared for war. We should not let the relative ease of the war in Iraq obscure the gravity of what happened.

These crises in our national life came at a dizzying pace. They often left too little time for serious reflection. Despite the lack of time for reflection, we still have to make our way in the world - just like all those who came before us.

Throughout history, Americans have confronted a wide range of new challenges. Our resilience in the face of these crises has been at the heart of our national strength. Each succeeding generation of Americans has confronted the unique challenges of their day. And they did so while preserving a strong civil society.

In the same way, the legacy of this University has been to adapt as the times required. When Radford was born in 1913, young women came here to finish their high school educations or to learn the arts of teaching or running a household. Some years after World War I, Virginia faced a shortage of good teachers in our rural school systems - which was most of the state at that time. So Radford adjusted its mission to focus on training teachers.

Shortly after World War II, Radford and Virginia Tech united, in part to expand the educational opportunities available to women. As you might imagine, it wasn't exactly a marriage made in heaven. The union soon dissolved, and Radford's old "finishing school" characteristics fell by the wayside too.

Today, this University is home to leading programs from physics to dance, and from information technology to Appalachian studies. But still today, many of America's best teachers continue to start their careers here at Radford. And like every part of America, Radford is more diverse than ever before - with students from 47 different countries.

In short, the legacy of Radford has been to adapt to the needs of the day - while holding on to what is most important. That's a powerful lesson in an uncertain world.

I'd like to share with you a few other lessons that I wish someone had told me when I graduated from college.

First, find your heroes - and follow their example. It's become a cliché to say that there aren't any more heroes out there. Generations past had Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa. But today, it's hard to find people in public life that we admire. How many times have we been let down by politicians who didn't tell the truth, or athletes who broke the law, or artists who abused themselves and their loved ones?

That's why we need heroes today more than ever, and I believe they're out there - we just may have to look in new places. Sometimes, they're right in front of you.

You all know Chris Skinner. A couple of years back, he was in a terrible car accident. Just 700 yards from his destination, the car he traveling lost control and flipped over. The crash injured his spinal cord. And an athlete was paralyzed from the neck down.

For weeks, he searched his soul. He asked, Why me? And he cried and cussed a lot. Then he decided he was going to make something positive come of all this. Today, Chris is a motivational speaker. He visits with high school and college students and tells them his story about making responsible choices - especially the choice not to drink and drive. That's a story of a hero - someone who uses the lessons of his own life to help others.

Chris' example illustrates lesson number two: Take responsibility for your community. Or to put it another way, you need to give something back.

You know, more than 250 children will be born tomorrow in Virginia. What kind of Virginia will we give them to live in? As I look at this class, I know you have a deep commitment to serving the community.

Since January, the women of Tri-Sigma have written to the Marines of Charlie Company, stationed in the Persian Gulf. This effort provided an important link to home for a group of Americans in a dangerous place. While lots of people talk about supporting the troops, you've found a way to act on it. Last fall, you organized a major commemoration of the September 11 attacks. You paid tribute to the police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical workers who made so many sacrifices on that day. And more than 3,000 people from the campus and the community came to pay their respects at a candlelight vigil - and many thousands more participated in other ways.

Hold onto this commitment to community and public service. It will enrich your lives more than all of the material blessings in the world. And it will make us all stronger.

Third, reclaim the old traditions of treating other people well.

Through all its changes as an institution, Radford has maintained its commitment to training teachers. Holding on to that tradition is part of what makes this a great school. In the same way, part of what makes an uncertain world livable is holding on to the traditions and courtesies that so often seem foreign, or even lost.

Things move so fast today that we too often ignore the way we treat other people. We curse at someone when we're stuck in traffic. Or we don't look people in the eye when we talk. Or we communicate virtually instead of face-to-face. Or we automatically click over to the next call when we hear the call-waiting beep. Or we dismiss the opinions of those with whom we disagree.

I earned my living for a long time partly from cell phones. But there comes a time to hang up the phone and get back to talking to people face to face, one on one. In today's fast-paced world, it's more important than ever to get back to the good manners that our parents taught us. Things like not calling people older than we by their first names unless we're invited to. Or writing a thank you note when someone does something nice for us - and writing it on real paper with a real pen.

Taking the time to extend these personal gestures is a high form of respect, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a world where they disappear.

Finally, call your mother. Call your father. Call your grandparents. This speech and this ceremony will be over soon. When it is, every person graduating should find your family and say, "thank you" and "I love you."

Because most of our 6 billion neighbors around the world will never even be able to dream of going to college, and you didn't make it here on your own. Your parents and your family helped you get here today, and they won't be around forever.

If you all are honest with yourselves, you're probably a bit nervous about what will happen after you leave college. So are your parents. So say it. It'll be good for you to say it and for them to hear it.

Well, that's it. In a few minutes, you'll formally enter the community of educated people. Perhaps you'll remember this speech twenty years - or twenty minutes - from now, or perhaps not. Perhaps you'll remember everything you learned in chemistry class, or perhaps not.

What I think you will remember is the ordinary things. Lunch time and afternoon talks with friends. The late night debates - even the ones at Riley's or BT's (popular bars). The first dates that didn't go so well, and the second ones that did. The book you read not because it was assigned - but because you just happened to discover it in the library.

Commencement is exciting because it takes place at a moment of transition. One chapter is closing, and another begins. But not every day is commencement. Most of life is lived in the time in between - the ordinary time. The time when you get up and go to work, and pay your bills, and wash your car, and walk your dog, and live out the daily rituals of life. Life is a series of Monday mornings and Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday nights. And it's how you live in those ordinary times that make it rich and rewarding.

Now the decision is yours. Plato once said, "the life which is unexamined isn't worth living." But I would argue, Class of 2003, that the reverse is just as true: the un-lived life isn't worth examining."

Go to it. Congratulations.