Yale 2010 Baccalaureate, Clinton and Bush's Yale Speeches
We finished our son’s Yale 309th commencement and came back home on Monday exhausted. The procedure is so complicated that the first thing for me to do now is to introduce the three speeches: Yale president Richard Levin’s 2010 Baccalaureate, Bill Clinton’s speech on this year’s Class Day, as well as both English and Chinese(adopted from the web) speech transcripts of George W. Bush at 2001Yale commencement in his first year as the US President. It was an exception for him as he indicated since there was usually no commencement speech at Yale, all of the guest speakers gave their lectures on the Class Day which was the day before the real commencement. In difference to the Class Day speaker, the commencement speaker also receives the honorary degree from Yale.
There was a survey in asking people if they still remembered what the guest commencement speaker said twenty years ago, most of them failed to remember anything. Bill Clinton’s speech probably belongs to one of them to be forgotten. If you read Bush’s transcripts, you would be surprised to find that Bush’s speech was indeed humor and memorable. As everyone knew that he was a C student (average GPA2.0), so he said this in a self-deprecating way upfront in his address "To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students I say, you,too, can be President of the United States. [Laughter] “. One year after 2004 presidential election, The Boston Globe found out that Democratic candidate John Kerry was also a C student at Yale in which he had a worse grade in his freshman, quite a contrast reality since the media portrayed him as the intellectual candidate(one article included).
Bush was a C student but he managed to be graduated from Yale,however, his vice president Dick Cheney, as a cowboy from Wyoming who had not been prepared for the vigor of the Ivy League and may spend too many hours on the bars surrounding New Haven, was eventually be kicked out by Yale. So Bush said “A Yale degree is worth a lot, as I often remind Dick Cheney—[laughter]—who studied here but left a little early. So now we know: If you graduate from Yale, you become President; if you drop out, you get to be Vice President. [Laughter] “. Bush also mentioned his classmate Richard Brodhead who late became an English professor and Yale college dean, and now the president of Duke University. He was a controversial figure in his role on handling famous Duke Lacrosse team rape scandal which resulted in great damage on Duke’s reputation and dragged Duke’s ranking from 4th place to now around10th place in the US News and World Reports.
Yale 2010Baccalaureate, Clinton and Bush's Yale Speeches
人人都可能当总统——布什在耶鲁大学的演讲
我很荣幸能在这个场合发表演讲。
我知道，耶鲁向来不邀请毕业典礼演讲人，但近几年来却有例外。虽然破了例，但条件却更加严格――演讲人必须同时具备两种身份：耶鲁校友、美国总统。我很骄傲在３３年前领取到第一个耶鲁大学的学位。此次，我又荣获耶鲁荣誉学位感到光荣。
今天是诸位学友毕业的日子，在这里我首先要恭喜家长们：恭喜你们的子女修完学业顺利毕业，这是你们辛勤栽培后享受收获的日子，也是你们钱包解放的大好日子！最重要的是，我要恭喜耶鲁毕业生们：对于那些表现杰出的同学，我要说，你真棒！对于那些丙等生，我要说，你们将来也可以当美国总统！
耶鲁学位价值不菲。我时常这么提醒切尼(现任美国副总统),他在早年也短暂就读于此.所以,我想提醒正就读于耶鲁的莘莘学子，如果你们从耶鲁顺利毕业，你们也许可以当上总统；如果你们中途辍学，那么你们只能当副总统了。
这是我毕业以来第二次回到这里。不过，一些人，一些事至今让我念念不忘。举例来说，我记得我的老同学狄克.布洛德翰，如今他是伟大学校的杰出校长，他读书时的聪明与刻苦至今让我记忆犹新。那时，我们经常泡在校图书馆那个有着大皮沙发的阅读室里。我们有个默契：他不大声朗读课文，我睡觉不打呼噜。
后来，随着学术探索的领域不同，我们选修的课程也各不相同，狄克主修英语，我主修历史。有趣的是，我选修过15世纪的日本俳句——每首诗只有17个音节，我想其意义只有禅学大师才能明了。我记得一位学科顾问对我选修如此专精的课程表示担忧，他说我应该选修英语。现在，我仍然时常听到这类建议。我在其他场合演讲时，在语言表达上曾被人误解过，我的批评者不明白：我不是说错了字，我是在复诵古代俳句的完美格式与声韵呢。
我很感激耶鲁大学给我们提供了这么好的读书环境。读书期间，我坚持“用功读书，努力玩乐”的思想，虽然不是很出色地完成了学业，但结交了许多让我终生受益的朋友。也许有的同学会认为，大学只是人生受教育的重要部分，殊不知，“大学生活”这四个字的内涵十分深厚，它既包含丰富的学科知识和学术氛围，也蕴涵着许多支撑人生成败的观念，还有那丰富多彩的生活以及读多值得结交的朋友┄┄
大家常说，“耶鲁人”，我从不确定那是什么意思。但是我想，这一定是含着无限肯定与景仰的褒义词。是的，因为耶鲁，因为有了在耶鲁深造的经历，你、我、他变成了一个个更加优秀的人！你们离开耶鲁后，我希望你们牢记“我的知识源自耶鲁”，并以你们自己的方式、自己的时间、自己的奋斗来体现对母校的热爱，听从时代的召唤，用信心与行动予以积极响应。
你们每个人都有独特的天赋，你们拥有的这些天赋就是你们参与竞争、实现人生价值的资本，好好利用它们，与人分享它们，将它们转化为推进时代前进的动力吧！人生是要让我们去生活、而不是用来浪费的，只要肯争上游，人人都可当总统！
这次我不仅回到母校，也是回到我的出生地，我就是在几条街之外出生的。在那时，耶鲁与无知的我仿佛要隔了一个世界之遥，而现在，她是我过去的一部分。对我而言，耶鲁是我知识的源泉，力量的源泉，令我极度骄傲的源泉。我希望，将来你们以另外一种身份回到耶鲁时，能有与我一样的感受并说出相同的话。我希望你们不要等太久，我也坚信耶鲁邀请你回校演讲的日子也不会等太久。
Commencement Address at Yale University in New Haven,Connecticut
May 21, 2001, By George W. Bush
President Levin, thank you very much. Dean Brodhead; fellows of the Yale Corporation; fellow Yale parents, families, and graduates.
It's a special privilege to receive this honorary degree. I was proud 33 years ago to receive my first Yale degree; I'm even prouder that, in your eyes, I've earned this one.
I congratulate my fellow honorees. I'm pleased to share this honor with such a distinguished group. I'm particularly pleased to be here with my friend the former President of Mexico. Sen˜ or President e, usted es un verd adero lider y un gran amigo.
I congratulate all the parents who are here. It's a glorious day when your child graduates from college. It's a great day for you;it's a great day for your wallet. [Laughter]
Most important, congratulations to the class of 2001. To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students I say, you, too, can be President of the United States. [Laughter] A Yale degree is worth a lot, as I often remind Dick Cheney—[laughter]—who studied here but left a little early. So now we know: If you graduate from Yale, you become President; if you drop out, you get to be Vice President.[Laughter]
I appreciate so very much the chance to say a few words on this occasion. I know Yale has a tradition of having no commencement speaker. I also know that you've carved out a single exception.Most people think that to speak at Yale's commencement, you have to be President. But over the years, the specifications have become far more demanding. Now you have to be a Yale graduate; you have to be President; and you have had to have lost the Yale vote to Ralph Nader.
This is my first time back here in quite a while. I'm sure that each of you will make your own journey back at least a few times in your life. If you're like me, you won't remember everything you did here. [Laughter] That can be a good thing. [Laughter] But there will be some people and some moments you will never forget.
Take, for example, my old classmate Dick Brodhead, the accomplished dean of this great university. I remember him as a young scholar, a bright lad—[laughter]— a hard worker. We both put a lot of time in at the Sterling Library, in the reading room where they have those big leather couches. [Laughter] We had a mutual understanding. Dick wouldn't read aloud, and I wouldn't snore. [Laughter]
Our course selections were different, as we followed our own path to academic discovery. Dick was an English major and loved the classics. I loved history and pursued a diversified course of study. I like to think of it as the academic road less traveled.[Laughter]
For example, I took a class that studied Japanese haiku. Haiku, for the uninitiated, is a 15th-century form of poetry, each poem having17 syllables. Haiku is fully understood only by the Zen masters. As I recall, one of my academic advisers was worried about my selection of such a specialized course. He said I should focus on English. [Laughter] I still hear that quite often. [Laughter] But my critics don't realize, I don't make verbal gaffes; I'm speaking in the perfect forms and rhythms of ancient haiku.
I did take English here, and I took a class called "The History and Practice of American Oratory," taught by Rollin G. Osterwies. And President Levin, I want to give credit where credit is due. I want the entire world to know this: Everything I know about the spoken word, I learned right here at Yale. [Laughter]
As a student, I tried to keep a low profile. It worked. Last year the New York Times interviewed John Morton Blum because the record showed I had taken one of his courses. Casting his mind's eye over the parade of young faces down through the years, Professor Blum said, and I quote, "I don't have the foggiest recollection of him."[Laughter]
But I remember Professor Blum. And I still recall his dedication and high standards of learning. In my time there were many great professors at Yale, and there still are. They're the ones who keep Yale going after the commencements, after we have all gone our separate ways. I'm not sure I remembered to thank them the last time I was here, but now that I have a second chance, I thank the professors of Yale University.
That's how I've come to feel about the Yale experience, grateful. I studied hard, I played hard, and I made a lot of life long friends.What stays with you from college is the part of your education you hardly ever notice at the time. It's the expectations and examples around you, the ideals you believe in, and the friends you make.
In my time, they spoke of the "Yale man." I was really never surewhat that was, but I do think that I'm a better man because ofYale. All universities, at their best, teach that degrees andhonors are far from the full measure of life. Nor is that measuretaken in wealth or in titles. What matters most are the standardsyou live by, the consideration you show others, and the way you usethe gifts you are given.
Now you leave Yale behind, carrying the written proof of your success here, at a college older than America. When I left here, I didn't have much in the way of a life plan. I knew some people who thought they did, but it turned out that we were all in for ups and downs, most of them unexpected. Life takes its own turns, makes its own demands, writes its own story, and along the way, we start to realize we are not the author. We begin to understand that life is ours to live but not to waste and that the greatest rewards are found in the commitments we make with our whole hearts—to the people we love and to the causes that earn our sacrifice. I hope that each of you will know these rewards. I hope you will find them in your own way and your own time.
For some, that might mean some time in public service. And if you hear that calling, I hope you answer. Each of you has unique gifts,and you were given them for a reason. Use them and share them.Public service is one way, an honorable way, to mark your life with meaning.
Today I visit not only my alma mater but the city of my birth. My life began just a few blocks from here, but I was raised in west Texas. From there, Yale always seemed a world away, maybe a part of my future. Now it's a part of my past, and Yale, for me, is a source of great pride.
I hope that there will come a time for you to return to Yale to say that and to feel as I do. And I hope you won't wait as long.
Congratulations, and God bless.
Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student
His 4-year average on par with Bush's
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | June 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- During last year's presidential campaign, John F.Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.
But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.
The grade transcript, which Kerry has always declined to release,was included in his Navy record. During the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's naval records, but he refused to waive privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to send the documents to the Globe.
Kerry appeared to be responding to critics who suspected that there might be damaging information in the file about his activities in Vietnam. The military and medical records, however, appear identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.
The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71. Hescored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in anotherpolitical science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77,came in French class.
Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his freshman year, he received one D in his sophomore year. He did not fail any courses.
''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said yesterday in a written response to questions, noting that he has previously acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on his studies.
Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education at some of the world's most elite prep schools, ranging from Fessenden School in Massachusetts to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire.
It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry received a high honor at Yale despite his mediocre grades: He was chosen to deliver his senior class oration, a testament to his reputation as a public speaker.He delivered a speech questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in which he would soon see combat.
Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81 in his senior year. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student at Naval Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law school, and become a prosecutor,lieutenant governor, US senator, and presidential candidate.
In his Navy application, Kerry made clear that he spent much of his college time on extracurricular activities, including the Yale Political Union, the Debating Association, soccer, hockey, fencing,and membership in the elite Skull and Bones Society. Asked to describe non school training that qualified him for the Navy, Kerry wrote: ''A great deal of sailing -- ocean and otherwise, including some navigation. Scuba diving. Rifle. Beginning of life saving." He said his special interests were ''filming," writing, and politics,noting that the latter subject occupied 15 hours per week.
Gaddis Smith, a retired Yale history professor who taught both Kerry and Bush, said in a telephone interview that he vividly remembers Kerry as a student during the 1964-1965 school year, when Kerry would have been a junior. However, Smith said he doesn't have a specific memory about Bush.
Based on what Smith recalls teaching that year, Kerry scored a 71and 79 in two of Smith's courses. When Smith was told those scores,he responded: ''Uh, oh. I thought he was good student. Those aren't very good grades." To put the grades in perspective, Smith said that he had a well-earned reputation for being tough, and noted that such grades would probably be about 10 points higher in a similar class today because of the impact of what he called ''grade inflation."
Bush went to Yale from 1964 to 1968; his highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy, according to The New Yorker article. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy.Bush has said he was a C student.
Like Kerry, Bush reportedly suffered through a difficult freshman year and then pulled his grades up.
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com
Baccalaureate Address: Reclaiming Politics
President Richard C. Levin
May 23, 2010
Yale University
What a journey you have had! Four years of exploring a place so rich with treasure: courses taught by some of the world’s most brilliant and creative scholars and scientists, a library with few peers, museums that expose you to the full variety of nature and human cultures, musical and theatrical performances of the highest quality, vigorous intercollegiate and intramural athletic programs,and classmates whose excellence never ceases to astonish – and all this set within the imposing and inspiring architecture of a campus that is itself a museum. You have had the chance to interact with classmates from 50 states and 50 nations, and the great majority of you have taken advantage of Yale’s abundant international programs to spend a semester or a summer abroad.
In the classroom, you were encouraged to engage thoroughly and rigorously in thinking independently about the subjects you studied. You were challenged to develop the powers of critical reasoning fundamental to success in any life endeavor. Outside the classroom, as you worked productively in the hundreds of organizations you joined or founded, you exercised the skills of teamwork and leadership. In your overseas experiences, you deepened your capacity for understanding those whose values and cultures differ from your own – preparing you for citizenship in a globally interconnected world. You may not recognize this in yourselves, but you are ready for what is next.
Understandably, you may be uncertain and a bit anxious about what lies ahead. But, if history is to be trusted, you will find many paths open to you. Because of the talent you possessed before you came here, as well as the intellectual and personal growth you have experienced here, you will find, with high likelihood, success in your chosen endeavors. And we expect you to stay connected. The vibrant life of this university is greatly enriched by the deep commitment and active participation of its graduates – think of all the master’s teas and guest lectures and college seminars offered by our alumni. And keep in mind that when you thanked your parents a few moments ago, you might also have been thanking the generations of Yale graduates whose gifts past and present supported half the total cost of your education.
Perhaps I am overconfident about your prospects for personal fulfillment and professional success, but I don’t think so. If you will concede my point for the sake of argument, let’s ask the next question, one so deeply rooted in Yale’s mission and tradition that for most of you, fortunately, it has become ingrained. And that question is: how can I serve? How can I contribute to the well being of those around me, much as we all have done in building communities within the residential colleges and volunteering in so many valuable roles in the city of New Haven? Now is an important time to be asking this question. Let me suggest why, and then let me suggest an answer.
Aristotle tells us that we are by nature political animals. But one wonders whether he would recognize the species that we have become.Eighteen months ago, the United States elected a new president who was prepared to address, intelligently and collaboratively, the most pressing problems confronting the nation – education, healthcare, climate change, and improving America’s image in the rest of the world. Late in the election campaign, the financial crisis intervened, and economic recovery and financial sector reform were added to this ambitious agenda.
What has happened since does not inspire great confidence in the capacity of our system to deal intelligently with important problems. We legislated a stimulus package that was less effective than it should have been, and far less effective than the corresponding measures undertaken in China. Fifteen months later,unemployment in the United States is still 9.9%. After months of stalemate, Congress enacted a health care bill that extends care to millions of uncovered individuals and families, but takes only the most tentative steps toward containing the escalating costs that will create an unsustainable burden of public debt within the next decade or two. We failed to address climate change in time to achieve a meaningful global agreement in Copenhagen. And, although financial sector reform now seems to be a possibility, the debate has been replete with misunderstanding of what actually went wrong and a misplaced desire for revenge.
Why is this happening? Let me make two observations, and then trace their implications for how you might conduct yourselves as citizens and participants in political life. First, contemporary political discussion is too often dominated by oversimplified ideologies with superficial appeal to voters. And, second, political actors in the United States give too much weight to the interests of groups with the resources to influence their re-election, and too little attention to the costs and benefits of their actions on the wider public.
In The Federalist (No. 10), James Madison addresses the second of these observations, in the context of the fledgling republic established by the U.S. Constitution. He notes that the tendency to pursue self-interest can never be entirely suppressed, but it can be mitigated by the proper design of political institutions. In contrast to a direct democracy where individuals would tend to vote their own interests, a republican form of government, Madison argues, will have a greater tendency to select representatives who attend to the broader interests of the whole. And, he further argues, representatives in a large republic constituted of a wide range of divergent interests will find it easier to rise above parochialism than those in a smaller republic comprised of a small number of competing factions.
The protections that our form of government offers against ideology and faction have attenuated greatly since Madison’s time, for at least two reasons. First, mass communication increases the opportunity to sway voters by appeal to simple formulations. Of course, the rise of mass communication could be a tool for raising the level of discourse through more effective education of the electorate. But it interacts with the second attenuating factor:that the money required to win elections through the media has created a dependence on funding from special interest groups. And it is these interest groups who distort reasoned dialogue by sponsoring oversimplified messages.
It is easy to see how these developments have thwarted recent efforts to shape responsible public policy. For example, the interest groups opposing health care reform defeated efforts to contain costs by labeling them “death panels,” and they defeated the creation of a new public vehicle for providing health insurance by insisting that we must “keep government out of the health care business,” when in fact Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration already pay nearly 40 per cent of the nation’s health care bill. I am not taking sides here, only pointing to the fact that intelligent debate on these subjects was crowded out by ideological distortion.
How can we create a national and global dialogue that transcends such oversimplification and parochialism? Let me suggest that we need each of you to raise the level of debate. You came here to develop your powers of critical thinking, to separate what makes sense from what is superficial, misleading, and seductive. Whether you have studied literature, philosophy, history, politics,economics, biology, physics, chemistry, or engineering, you have been challenged to think deeply, to identify the inconsistent and illogical, and to reason your way to intelligent conclusions. You can apply these powers of critical discernment not simply to fulfill personal aspirations, but to make a contribution to public life.
Every signal you have received in this nurturing community has been unwavering in its message that the growth of your competencies is not to benefit you alone. You have learned in your residential colleges that building a successful community has required you to respect and value one another, and, when appropriate, to moderate your own desires for the benefit of the whole. And so it should be in your lives after Yale. If you are to help to solve this nation’s problems – or work across national boundaries to address global problems such as climate, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation –you will need to draw upon both these fruits of a Yale education:the capacity to reason and the ethical imperative to think beyond your own self-interest.
I know that many of you are taking advantage of these first years after graduation to take up public service, and I hope that even more of you will consider this path. There are plenty of jobs in the public sector for enterprising recent graduates; many are short-term but others may lead to careers. Many of you have signed up to be teachers. Others will enter business or the professions.But whatever choice you make, you can help to strengthen the nation and the world – by treating political choices not as triggers for an ideological reflex and not as opportunities to maximize self-interest. To combat reflexive ideologies, you must use the powers of reason that you have developed here to sift through the issues to reach thoughtful, intelligent conclusions. To combat parochialism, you must draw upon the ethical imperative that Yale has imbued in you – an imperative that begins with the golden rule.Whether you serve in government directly or simply exercise your responsibilities as a citizen and voter, recognize that we will all be best served if we take account not merely of our own self-interest, but the broader interests of humanity. To move beyond ideology and faction, we need to raise the level ofpolitical discourse. You, as the emerging leaders of your generation, must rise to this challenge.
In first paragraph of The Federalist (No. 1), writing about the infant republic whose constitution he was endeavoring to defend,Alexander Hamilton asserts:
It has frequently been remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies … are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice …
There is much in America’s history of the past two and a quarter centuries that would incline us to conclude that Hamilton’s question has been answered in the affirmative. Our institutions of representative government have proven themselves to be durable; the rule of law has prevailed, and the scope of personal liberty has expanded far beyond what the founders envisioned. But today, in the face of oversimplified ideology and the dominance of narrow interests, we must wonder again whether Hamilton’s question is still open.
Women and men of the Yale College class of 2010: It falls to you,the superbly educated leaders of your generation, to rise above ideology and faction, to bring to bear your intelligence and powers of critical thinking to elevate public discourse, to participate as citizens and to answer the call to service. Only with your commitment can we be certain that our future will be decided by“reflection and choice” in the broad best interest of humanity. You can do it. Yes you can.
Posted 星期六, 05/29/2010 - 21:41 at www.tongjiyiren.com
