DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton urged University of New Hampshire graduates on Saturday to focus on helping others as they take their first adult steps into a troubled world.
The pop of a thousand umbrellas opening preceded Pomp and Circumstance, with light rain falling as the 2,650 graduates lined up for the outdoor ceremony. The sky remained dark but the showers stopped by the time the former presidents took the stage.
The former political rivals have worked together in recent years, raising millions of dollars for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
“I can’t tell you the selfish pleasure I get out of working with President Clinton,” Bush said. “It’s a very selfish feeling in my heart to be out there doing something to help others.”
Bush, who joked about all the “broke but happy parents” in the audience, told graduates that they don’t have to run for office to become leaders.
“All you have to do is care, roll up your sleeves and claim one of society’s problems as your own,” he said.
He also contrasted the education the new graduates received with the teachings of radical Muslim schools overseas, saying one of the greatest struggles the nation faces is the “battle for young minds around the entire world.”
“On one side we’ve got civilized institutions like this one – the University of New Hampshire – who encourage critical thinking in their students, teach them to embrace the world around them and celebrate diversity,” Bush said. “On the other side, however, there’s tens of thousands of madrassas (Muslim colleges) operating in countries like Pakistan and others, many of whom preach a virulent strain of the Quran and encourage open hatred of the United States.”
Clinton told students that while they are graduating in a “culturally diverse and creative time,” they also face a world marred by “inequality, insecurity, and – because of climate change and resource depletion – unsustainability.”
“I believe that you are going to be given a great opportunity to change this world of division and divisiveness because it’s also a world full of decency and hope.”
Though neither former president touched on hot-button political issues such as Iraq, Clinton sounded a bit like his wife and presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, when he described watching people in an African village greet each other by saying “I see you.”
“You think of how many people we never see, or we never see whole or in full because they’re part of the other, or they’re just invisible,” he said. “Someone is going to have to come in here and clean up after us. Will they be seen?”
In her speeches, Sen. Clinton frequently laments that too many working class families have become “invisible” to the Bush administration and promises that they won’t be invisible when she’s elected.
The former president also made a lighthearted reference to his wife’s campaign in thanking J. Bonnie Newman, the university’s interim president.
“Thank you Madame President Newman,” he said. “I like the sound of that. I’ve decided that women should run everything, and George and I can play more golf.”
More than 17,000 people attended the commencement, most braving the rain and others watching on screens set up inside. Jeffrey Salloway, chair of the faculty senate, bid graduates farewell by reminding them of advice they heard as children. When parents say “Be careful crossing the street,” they really mean, ‘I love you,’ he said.
“And so we have just one more message. When this ceremony ends, in just a few minutes or so, there’s going to be a lot of traffic out there on Main Street,” he said. “On behalf of the UNH faculty, please be careful crossing the street.”
AP-ES-05-19-07 1315EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
