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Elizabeth Dole, president of
the American Red Cross and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
and Secretary of Labor,
was the speaker and an honorary degree recipient at Smith
College's 120th commencement on Sunday, May 17. The text
of her speech:
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,
for your warm welcome. Thank you, Dr. Simmons, for your kind
introduction.
What a privilege
to be with you -- a woman for whom I have great respect and
admiration. And that certainly applies to the other women
you honor today. Heartfelt congratulations to the class of
'98! And thank you for the honor of sharing this special
moment with you, your families, friends, and instructors.
Let me say a word to parents,
who have supported and encouraged and loved you, who have
written checks without number and
envisioned this moment for more than 20 years. You must find
this celebration tinged with sadness as you launch your daughter
-- or, in the case of some male graduate students, your son
-- into the world. Let me offer some reassurance about how
significant you will remain in these young lives: To this
day, my own mother is a strong, wise force in my life, a
reckoning star as I have charted my course.
A word as well
to instructors and professors: You have challenged these
graduates with exciting ideas and equipped them with
the tools to make learning an unending process in their lives.
You now move from center stage back to the chorus. But I
know your voices will resonate in important ways for years
to come.
Graduates, this is your day.
How well I remember sitting in cap and gown and regarding
my commencement speaker
as
the last obstacle between me and my diploma. Well, I hope
to make some friends here today, so I will be brief -- and
speak directly from my heart.
With the fine education you
have earned here at Smith, you are well-equipped for a wealth
of opportunities and choices
on the road ahead. Every one of you, I hope and expect, aspires
to be a person of accomplishment and influence. To live a
life marked by meaning. To contribute a chapter, not footnotes.
To find that dream career that "blows your hair back," to
quote Will Hunting. Of course, I have to remind you of the
observation by Lily Tomlin, who said, "When I grew up,
I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have
been more specific."
I can still vividly recall my
first day of class at Harvard Law School. I was one of 24
women
in a class of 550. And
a male student came up to me and demanded to know what I
was doing there. In what can only be described as tones of
moral outrage, he said, "Elizabeth, what are you doing
here? Don't you realize that there are men who would give
their right arm to be in this law school -- men who would
use their legal education?"
That man is now a senior
partner in a very prestigious Washington law firm. And ever
so often I tell this little story around
town. You'd be amazed at the number of my male classmates
in high-powered Washington law firms who've called me to
say, "Tell me I'm not the one. Tell me I didn't say
that, Elizabeth!"
I had so much to prove to myself
and to others back then. In the years since, I've learned
that
accomplishment and
influence are sometimes different than we expect and greater
than we plan. And that they require, in the end, not just
ambition but mission -- a sense of calling beyond the cold
calculus of personal gain and loss.
Like love, you know it
when you find it, because it springs from the heart and excites
your passions. It can even keep
you awake at night.
You may find that passion in
the business and professional world, with its many rewards
and satisfactions.
If that is
your direction, I urge you to take with you what has been
special about your Smith education, and that includes your
participation in the community beyond this lovely campus,
your commitment to service through Smith's wonderful S.O.S.
program, and your involvement in efforts to enrich every
aspect of our society with the gifts of diversity.
You may
find that passion in medicine or law or politics or parenthood.
And let me say there is no more profound achievement
than raising a family of outstanding young citizens, and
our greatest humanitarian achievements have sprung from the
vision of volunteers.
For me, the great joy in life
has come from public service, which has enabled me to touch
thousands
of lives.
When I earned my law degree
in 1965, law firms weren't beating a path to the door of
female graduates, and
Wall Street held
no appeal for me. I lost out on a White House fellowship
that first summer, but another door soon opened, to the White
House Office of Consumer Affairs. I found myself on the ground
floor of the emerging consumer movement, and what began as
a job soon turned into a personal crusade. I discovered my
mission as a servant of the public -- in both government
and the nonprofit sector.
At the Department of Transportation,
I was charged with overseeing America's material resources
-- our highways, airways, railways
-- and public safety was my primary concern. We overhauled
an outdated airline inspection system with a special emphasis
on ensuring safety in an age of deregulation and changed
the climate for automotive safety in America by fighting
for the ultimate protection -- the use of seat belts and
air bags in cars.
At the Department of Labor,
my goal was human resources -- improving the skills of our
workers in
America and encouraging
cooperation between labor and management. My visit to the
coal fields of southwest Virginia and subsequent appointment
of a supermediator led to the settlement of a bitter 11-
month United Mine Workers' strike against the Pittston Coal
Company. Meanwhile, I sent another kind of strike force into
the field to lead a nationwide crackdown on child labor violations.
And to help break the glass ceiling impeding women and minorities
from senior management opportunities, the Labor Department
investigated and publicized both success stories and areas
in which the private sector needed to do more.
As President
of the Red Cross, my focus is on inner resources -- inspiring
people to volunteer, to give of their financial
resources and their blood, since we are the largest supplier
of blood in America. It has given me a unique vantage point
from which to view the world at its very best and its very
worst. I have seen the evil humans can inflict on one another
in the dim eyes of starving children in Somalia and in the
paralyzing grief of parents in Oklahoma City. I have seen
the monstrous destruction unleashed by nature in the rubble
of neighborhoods laid waste by Hurricane Andrew. I have felt
the hopelessness and despair of families who have lost everything
to a tornado's 260-mile-an-hour winds and terrifying violence.
No one can undo such grievous
and unearned pain. But Red Cross volunteers have made it
their mission to bring compassion
and caring to disaster victims. These remarkable people go
wherever and whenever they are needed, providing emotional
and practical support. And I can assure you, every one of
them is grateful for the opportunity to serve.
Red Cross
volunteers have taught me lessons about the durability of
human hope and faith amid irrational suffering. I've seen
great hearts in tired bodies, driven past exhaustion to bring
comfort to strangers.
The many humanitarian services
of the American Red Cross include meeting the needs of victims
of
60,000 disasters
each year, training 11 million people a year in lifesaving
health and safety courses, collecting, testing and distributing
one-half of America's blood supply, and transmitting 4,000
emergency messages daily between members of our Armed Forces
and their families. But the Red Cross has another mission
that we share with 170 Red Cross and Red Crescent societies
worldwide: humanitarian assistance to the victims of war.
Indeed, it is this enduring commitment that has inspired
the Red Cross to declare its own war, on landmines.
Modern
combat is no longer a contest between uniformed armies on
remote battlefields. More than 225 armed conflicts have
occurred since the end of World War II. Combatants in many
of these clashes have worn street clothes and waged guerrilla
and terrorist warfare in the midst of populated areas, placing
civilians on the front lines and turning children into casualties.
And perhaps most tragic of all are those killed or mutilated
by weapons long after hostilities have ended. This is the
deadly legacy of land mines.
It is a tragic fact that today
there are more than 120 million land mines strewn in trees
and pastures, fields and villages
in 70 countries, awaiting the unwary touch of a farmer, a
traveler, a child attracted by the glint of metal. If this
were taking place in Alabama not Afghanistan, in California
not Cambodia, or in Michigan not Mozambique -- if, on the
back roads of America, a false step could cost a leg, a life,
a child -- our campaign would not be an admirable cause,
it would be a national crisis. The detachment that comes
from mileage and time zones is understandable, but it is
not justifiable. Because the value of life does not diminish
with distance, and the cry of a child is no less wrenching
because it is faint.
The Red Cross is committed to
providing help for victims of land mines today, and hope
for a world
free of land mines,
tomorrow. We do not presume to advise the United States government
on military matters; ours is a humanitarian perspective.
These deadly weapons must be eliminated as soon as possible,
using every venue possible.
The American Red Cross operates
a prosthetics and rehabilitation center in Cambodia, a nation
where one of every 236 persons
is an amputee and one of every 54 is disabled. One of them,
a woman who lost both legs to a land mine, has for years
crawled on the ground, pulling herself along with her arms.
Fortunately, she was recently taken to our center. Within
hours, workers manufactured a wheelchair exactly to her specifications.
As she was placed in the first wheelchair she had ever seen,
tears of joy filled her eyes. "This is the first time," she
said, "that I will be able to see my children at their
own level, without looking up."
This was a cause that
deeply touched Diana, Princess of Wales. In her far too-brief
life, she found her mission: to alert
the world to the landmine crisis. During her visit to the
American Red Cross in Washington last June, her final public
appearance on behalf of the campaign to ban landmines,
she told me about her trip to minefields in Angola, one of
the
most heavily mined countries in the world. Hardly a role
designed for a princess but instead a responsibility undertaken
by a committed and compassionate woman. The influence and
accomplishments I have come to respect are united by a
single trait of will and character -- a sense
of mission. . . finding a cause or calling that summons
us to selflessness. Something that consumes us, heart and
soul.
Something that causes us to contribute, not just to the
wealth of our nation, but to its meaning.
Let me add an observation
that may smooth the way a little. Personal integrity --
our moral compass -- counts far more
than any line on a resume. The late Barbara Jordan, Nancy
Landon Kassenbaum and Madeleine Albright are three women
who've succeeded in a world of public policy and politics.
And agree with their positions or not, one of the hallmarks
of their service is their total and complete commitment
to integrity -- the one area over which each of us has
100 percent
control.
And finally, successful women
make a commitment to those who follow. Never take for granted
the struggle
and sacrifice
of the courageous women who were trail blazers. I could
depend in my career on the help of women who gained
a foothold on
the executive ladder and then reached a hand down.
And there is still a need for such networking! What was harder
for
me will be easier for you. And as you accept the responsibility
that is passed on to you, it will be easier still for
your daughters.
Here at Smith, you have grounded
your life in knowledge and, more importantly, love of learning.
You have forged
the bonds
of friendship that round out your soul. On whatever
path you now choose, I urge you to commit to a mission
that
stirs your soul. To be truly absorbed releases us
from
the limitations
of ego. It melts the ice of apathy and cynicism.
It gives purpose to our freedom and direction to our gifts,
turning
life into an honorable adventure and a source of
joy.
And, I strongly believe, it brings fulfillment to
our lives.
It leads to the most satisfying exhaustion you have
ever known.
I have found it in government service. I feel it
every day at the Red Cross. And I want it for you.
I wish
you godspeed on your exciting journey. |
