Snowe Delivers Keynote Address at the Lisbon High School 2007 Graduation
Snowe Delivers Keynote Address at the Lisbon High School 2007 Graduation
U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) today delivered the keynote address at the 2007 Lisbon High School graduation ceremony at the Lewiston Armory.
Excerpts of the speech as prepared for delivery:
"Few occasions are cause for greater pride and warmer memories than a high school graduation, so I am grateful to you for inviting me here today, and I am honored to join in these special moments with you - congratulations to you all.
Graduation speakers, in pursuit of sound advice and lofty ideals to present to captive graduating seniors, are always trying to find the good things that no one has ever said before. Usually, when that challenge is considered at graduation time, it's from the perspective of "now, what are you going to do with the rest of your life"?
Most of you would respond to the "now what?" question by saying that you're going to attend a four-year college, or one of Maine's superior community colleges, become a full-time member of America's work force, or join the United States Armed Forces. But I would offer that, in the long run, there is an additional perspective that you may want to take. Instead of trying to map out your entire future, let me suggest focusing foremost on what kind of person you want to be, and how you will actually choose to live. Because I can tell you firsthand, there is no perfect plan...no straight course through life.
But no matter what challenges may come your way, I have found in my own life that by maintaining your values and integrity...setting high expectations and goals...and believing in yourself ...you can not only survive...but thrive. And that's all the more true as you are entering a world that will surround you with challenges from the demands of a changing economy and workforce, to today's accelerated speed of existence that far outpaces the time in which I received my high school diploma.
The real question is, in this whirlwind of change that will be often exciting and sometimes overwhelming, how will you stay grounded in what is truly important? And this is where I give you the good news - that while we are members of much different generations, there are certain constants that transcend age, and one of them is that the greatest limits that will be placed on your lives are the ones which you place on yourself.
As someone who grew up right here in Lewiston-Auburn, I well recall when I was sitting at my own high school graduation from Edward Little just across the river, it certainly never occurred to me to think that I'd ever be a United States Senator. You see, my parents, hardworking people - my father, an immigrant, my mother, a first generation American - had died before I was 10, and my aunt and uncle took me into their family, which already included five children. My uncle was a barber, and my aunt worked just a few blocks from here in the old Continental Mill - on the third shift to be precise. So we weren't exactly overburdened with a lot of money.
But early on in my life, I realized that I had two choices - either allow myself to become overwhelmed by adversities, or learn something from them. And it certainly didn't hurt that I had been surrounded by the twin pillars of family and faith growing up...the kind of setting that instills confidence and hope - and from that, a belief in oneself - that was only strengthened by a first-rate education such as you have received right here at Lisbon High. As such, I never accepted from others nor restricted myself to the idea that there were things that I couldn't do if I so chose. So, by placing no restrictions on your horizons, a broad range of possibilities exists for each and every one of you.
I also hope that, in thinking about how you will live your life, you will consider that the mark of the truly successful individual will be to work and live within a system of beliefs and strongly-held values that have long-graced our country...values of community and fairness, of honesty and hard work. A place where your paycheck only measures your income, not your worth as a person.
It's been said that "only by holding fast to unchanging principles in changing times will you do justice to yourself, your family, and your community." By sticking with these principles, you won't be making your life's decisions in a vacuum...you'll have the backdrop of a strong moral and ethical framework to guide you. And that foundation couldn't be more vital given the frenzied pace of life and the constant bombardment of information that have become hallmarks of your generation.
Consider that a relatively short time ago in human history - about 300 years or so - it was still possible for one individual to know virtually everything. Well, no one could do that today. The reality is, you are already immersed in a world with instant access to more information from infinite sources and greater and more astounding technologies than at any time in the history of humankind.
In fact, incredibly, while it took two centuries to fill the shelves of the Library of Congress with more than 57 million manuscripts, 29 million books and periodicals, and 12 million photographs - in 2007 the world generates nearly one-hundred times that amount of information digitally...every day. And YouTube alone consumes as much bandwidth today as the entire Internet consumed in 2000 - just seven years ago.
Twenty-four hours a day, virtually anywhere, you can get news...you can listen to music...you can watch videos...you can text-message and email and download podcasts. We had record players, you have Ipods. We had rotary phones connected by wires if you can believe it - you have cell phones that can do just about everything other than pumping gas and washing dishes. We had diaries - you have MySpace, and Facebook.
Today, we are barraged with images and information around the clock, seven days a week, over satellite, cable, computers, blackberries, smartphones, DVD's, blogs, over our HDTV's from CSPAN, Fox News, CNN, MTV, ESPN, MSNBC. We live in an age of staggering immediacy. Yet, even as instantaneous as this glut of information is, the answers to our most compelling challenges as a nation and a world cannot simply be "Googled."
Just think about it - we are in the midst of a technological revolution that may well eclipse even the Industrial Revolution. So how is it that - with all of our stunning and innovative breakthroughs - we still face the perilous confrontations of a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the global war on terrorism? How is it that students right here in America still choose to end the lives of classmates in their own schools - as we saw with the unspeakable and incomprehensible loss of 32 lives at Virginia Tech? How is it that we have come so far with our machines, but we still have so far to go when it comes to each other?
The fact is, CNN can broadcast what's happening live in a battle zone...or stream footage of a campus tragedy from someone's cell phone video...but it's up to us to help stop such horrific events from ever reoccurring. Technology can show us the deplorable inhumanity of the more than 200,000 ethnic killings in the African region of Darfur - that's over five times the population of Lewiston - but it is up to us to help end the suffering. It can deliver us images of the decay in our own inner-cities - as we saw most explicitly in New Orleans in the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - but it is up to us to rebuild that devastated region.
These pressing issues and many more should hopefully sound an alarm that will be heard above the noise of daily life. That what's required is more involvement, not less - and that you not be satisfied, in the words the poet Robert Frost, "to go with the drift of things, but rather to be engaged in the world around you - a full participant in the world in which you live..."
Certainly, an excellent example is how it's all the more critical in this high tech world to ensure we take care of our planet. Because it matters that polar ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising...it matters when polar bears and other species begin to disappear. Here in America, while we represent about five percent of the world's population, we contribute at least 20 percent of the planet's manmade greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Of course, you alone can't solve this problem. But all of you together, doing your part - whether it's reducing household trash 25 percent which would cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1,000 pounds a year...or using more energy efficient appliances which could reduce harmful emissions by 175 million tons...or of course, through recycling here in Maine, which has been at the forefront of environmental leadership - doing all of this together you can make a difference
As the fabled Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi once said, be the change you wish to see in the world. And in that light, we could no better than to look to the shining example of one of our own - a young woman from Yarmouth, Maine, named Hanley Denning.
Sadly, Hanley lost her life in a tragic car accident earlier this year - yet her young life will always stand in testament to the ability and - I would say - imperative of one individual to make a difference. Just 26 years of age, she took it upon herself not just to get involved, but to take action - founding an organization called Safe Passage to provide children who live in the Guatemala City garbage dump with opportunity and hope through education, nutrition, and health care.
Today, remarkably, Safe Passage serves as many as 600 boys and girls - and Hanley's life is a poignant reminder that, while we can transmit messages and images in nanoseconds around the world, technology alone could not substitute for what she was doing, on the ground, on the front lines of the world's forgotten children. Technology can telegraph and make clear what we must do, but Hanley actually did it ...and she changed the world. That's why more than one thousand people gathered in Portland for a memorial to a person who inspired not only her country, but one that wasn't even her own.
Thankfully, Hanley's incredible deeds are preserved on film, online, and in the media. In fact, a documentary about Safe Passage entitled - A Recycled Life - was nominated for an Oscar this year. But it remains up to us to advance the message of Hanley's legacy...that it is only through our active participation in our communities - and our determined commitment to contribute to the common good of the world around us - that we truly succeed as citizens and as people.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once said that "The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." Your graduation today signals to one and all that you are already headed in the right direction - and that you are more than well-equipped with the knowledge, skill, and character to chart and steer this next leg of your journey.
As you leave here, I hope you will seize the limitless potential inside yourselves and act upon it - and, let me add, I hope you take your hard-won "license to achieve" and choose to do so right here in Maine - because we need you. So Good luck to all of you...God Bless...and congratulations to the Lisbon High School graduating Class of 2007.
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