Kennedy Discusses The Importance Of Public Service And The Educational Experience

Press Release

KENNEDY DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senator Edward M. Kennedy today discussed the significance of public service at the Prize Day Awards Ceremony for Hillside School where 29 students will graduate on Saturday.

"You don't have to be a public official or make a headline to make things change," said Senator Kennedy. "The world awaits your contribution in whatever field you choose - and nothing you decide to do will ever limit the opportunities you will constantly have to improve the world around you."

The Hillside School is a private, independent boarding school located in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The Prize Day Awards Ceremony recognizes academic and extra-curricular achievements by graduating Hillside students. David Beecher, Headmaster of the Hillside School, hosts the event.

Remarks of Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Hillside School Prize Day Award Ceremony
Marlborough, MA
Friday, June 1, 2007

(As Prepared for Delivery)

I congratulate the graduating class - 29 students from seven different states and Bermuda, Korea, and Haiti. I know all of you have worked hard to reach this special milestone in your lives, and it's impressive to see your great affection and appreciation for the School. Your 100 percent pledge to donate your allowances to future graduating classes shows your real love for this community, and your hope that others will be able to share in the same special opportunity you've had because of Hillside.

Today is a fitting tribute to your own hard work and also to the love and the many sacrifices of your family has made to bring you to this auspicious threshold for your future. I know they're very proud of your accomplishments and the new horizons and opportunities awaiting you. .

The strong tradition of learning at Hillside goes far beyond the courses themselves and includes the way the faculty, staff, house-parents and advisors give you the chance to grow, to learn from your mistakes, to find out who you are and choose the direction you'll follow in life in the years ahead. As Buckminster Fuller once said,

"If I ran a school, I'd give the average grade to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I'd give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them."

You've been challenged here at Hillside, but inspired as well, and the benefits will be immense.

You'll be getting lots of advice in the months and years ahead about how to decide what direction to take. One of the best pieces of advice comes from Mark Twain. He said, "Why not go out on a limb? That's where all the fruit is."

I hope your dreams will include things to improve the world around you, because the world needs your talents, your energy, and your generosity of spirit.

It's true that each person can make a difference. Mahatma Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Winston Churchill put it this way: "This is the age of youth. You're part of the generation that has yet to divide the world."

E.B. White put the choices you will face beautifully. "It's hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world, and when to respond to its challenge. If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise every morning torn between the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy it. This makes it hard to plan the day."

You didn't make the world you live in, but you have the chance to change it and leave it better than you found it.

Our nation and society have many challenges to meet. There's the great challenge of the war in Iraq and protecting our national security. There's also the ongoing work of removing bigotry, prejudice and discrimination permanently, completely, and absolutely from our society.

We have a moral obligation to help each of our fellow citizens achieve all they're capable of, and to remove the stubborn obstacles that still prevent so many Americans from obtaining the American dream.

There's still poverty in America, especially among children. It's not in the news every day, but it's our hidden shame and we need all the talent we can bring to end it.

More fundamentally, our democracy needs an active and engaged citizenry it if the nation is to continue strong. We need committed individuals to be constantly asking how we solve some of our greatest problems.

Active citizens ask those questions every day. They don't tolerate bigotry in any shape or form - not in race, or gender, or religion, or disability, or sexual orientation. They don't accept gun violence. They care about nuclear arms control, about ending terrorism and the conditions that breed it. They care about Iraq and why we're there. They care about AIDS in Africa and genocide in Darfur, about human rights violations anywhere on earth. They care about justice. And by taking action, they inspire others to be active too. Together you have the power to build a better and fairer nation, and a better and fairer world as well. You can be like the embattled farmers at Concord Bridge, and fire a shot heard 'round the world.

Change is never easy. What you propose may be unpopular at first. But as Andrew Jackson said one person with courage makes a majority.

Often, it is young men and women like you lead the way. In some of the most difficult periods in our recent history, it was America's youth who were the keepers of the conscience of our country, who inspired the rest of us and led the nation forward.

The soldiers on the beaches of Normandy 52 years ago next Wednesday were little older than you, and they changed the course of history.

Ruby Bridges was six years old when she walked, undaunted by hostile crowds, to integrate a school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Countless others joined Martin Luther King on the freedom marches and sit-ins at lunch counters, and they transformed America.

Young men and women like you first saw the truth about the war in Vietnam and persuaded America to change course.

As my brother, Robert Kennedy, told the students at the University of Capetown in South Africa in 1966: "Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Those words are truer today than ever.

You don't have to be a public official or make a headline to make things change. In our country today and in nations throughout the world, young Americans are doing many worthwhile things. Young physicians are bringing health care to people and places that never had a doctor. Young teachers are bringing knowledge, opportunity, and hope to children who never had a chance. Young men and women are taking on the challenges of saving the environment, and ending the age-old evils of poverty, injustice, and discrimination. They're answering the call to service in the Peace Corps, planting crops where there was only dust before and bringing hope where there was only despair.

I chose government as my way to work for change. Your teachers chose education as their way to improve the world. But the world awaits your contribution in whatever field you choose - and nothing you decide to do will ever limit the opportunities you will constantly have to improve the world around you.

Let me close with a story. An old man walking along a beach at dawn saw a young woman picking up starfish and throwing them out to sea. "Why are you doing that," the old man asked. The young woman explained that the starfish had been stranded on the beach by the tide, and would soon die in the morning sun.

"But the beach goes on for miles," the old man said, "and there are so many starfish. How can your action make any difference?"

The young woman looked at the starfish in her hand, and then threw it to safety in the sea. "It makes a difference to this one," she said.

In that spirit, I congratulate each you on your achievements - and I commend each of you for the differences I know you will make for many years to come.

Thank you all very much.

Source