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1、Commencement Address by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA Susan E. RiceU.S. Permanent Representativeto the United NationsU.S. Mission to the United NationsPalo Alto, CA June 13, 2010AS DELIVEREDGood morning, Stanford!
2、 Thank you very much, President Hennessy, for that very warm introduction. It is wonderful to be back at Stanford. Having gotten around a bit over the last few years, I am more convinced than everthat this is the best university on the face of the planet.Its particularly gratifying to be back in thi
3、s stadium, which is a rather special place for me. It happens to be the spot where my husband and I had our first romantic moment. It was just as the Band was playing “Alright Now.” (But my kids are in the audience, so Im not going to give you any more detail.)Stanford has had an enormous impact on
4、my life. Not only is it where I met my husband, but its where I met the people, took the courses, and championed the causes that ultimately led me to make my career in international affairs. Stanford also taught me focus and discipline. Once youve learned to study in a bathing suit on the grass with
5、 muscled men throwing frisbees over your head, you can accomplish almost anything.Let me join President Hennessy and start by recognizing the parents here today. For many families, your kids have been living far away from home. I grew up in Washington, DC, and I think my mother got over my decision
6、to go to Stanford about three weeks ago. I still understand your pride in your children has no bounds. You have made great sacrifices to enable your kids to get such a tremendous education. So this is your day too. Parents, grandparents, family and friends, thank you for all youve done.Now, graduate
7、s: first and foremost, congratulations. I suspect youre feeling pretty good about yourselves right now. I remember feeling pretty good about myself too when I was sitting in your seats. In fact, I might have been feeling a little too goodjudging from how much I remember about my commencement speech.
8、Hold on to this jubilant moment and cherish your memories of this extraordinary place. Nurture the friendships you have made here. The warmth and security of Stanford can sustain you as you face an economy still climbing out of a deep hole and enter a world changing at a furious pace.Imagine the wor
9、ld and what it will be like when one of you comes back a quarter century from now to deliver the commencement address. In 1986, when I graduated, the Soviet Union was bristling with 45,000 nuclear weapons, and the Berlin Wall was impenetrable. Nelson Mandela was clocking his 23rd year in prison in a
10、partheid South Africa. Osama bin Laden was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda didnt exist. Almost nobody had heard of global warming. Japan was the daunting economic powerhouse, and Chinas share of global GDP was 2 percent. There were some 30 fewer countries in the world, and 2 billio
11、n fewer people on the planet.Weve seen amazing technological advances. In 1986, only 0.2 percent of the U.S. population had a cell phone, which were bricks about 10 inches long. IBM announced its first laptop, which weighed 12 pounds. Twenty-four-hour cable news was in its infancy.The face of Americ
12、a has changed too. In 1986, 8 percent of the U.S. population was Hispanic; today, its about 15 percent. The number of African Americans serving in Congress has doubled, and the number of women and Latinos has tripled. And, if on my graduation day, someone had told me that I would live to see the fir
13、st African American president, much less serve in his cabinet, I would have asked them what they were smoking.So much change has transpired just in my adult lifetime, and you will see so much more in yours. But it doesnt just happen. Progress is the product of human energy. Things get better because
14、 we make them better; and things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities. Never trust that the abstract forces of history will end a war, or that luck will cure a disease, or that prayers alone will save a child.If you want change, you have to make it.
15、 If we want progress, we have to drive it.Technology and trade helped transform a bipolar world into the deeply interconnected global community of the 21st century. Yet the planet is still divided by fundamental inequalities. Some of us live in peace, freedom, and comfort while billions are condemne
16、d to conflict, poverty, and repression. These massive disparities erode our common security and corrode our common humanity.We cannot afford to live in contempt of each others welfare. Its not just wrong. Its dangerous. When a country is wracked by war or weakened by want, its people suffer first. But poor and fragile states can incubate threats that spread far beyond their bordersterrorism, pandemic disea
