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CNN Live Event/Special
President Bush Returns to Alma Mater For Commencement Ceremony
Aired May 21, 2001 - 12:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head to New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University -- President George W. Bush addressing the commencement ceremony there after becoming the third Bush to receive a doctors of letters degree, honorary.
Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... 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 honorams (ph). I am 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.
(SPEAKING IN SPANISH)
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students...
(LAUGHTER)
... I say you, too, can be president of the United States.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE) A Yale degree is worth a lot, as I often remind Dick Cheney...
(LAUGHTER)
... who studied here, but left a little early.
(LAUGHTER)
So now we know, if you graduate from Yale, you become president. If you drop out, you get to be vice president.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
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 if you speak out 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.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
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 Broadhead, the accomplished dean of this great university.
(APPLAUSE)
I remember him as a young scholar, a bright lad, 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. 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. For example, I took a class that studied Japanese haiku. Haiku, for the uninitiated, is a 15th century form of poetry, each poem only having 17 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.
But my critics don't realize I don't make verbal gaffes. I'm speaking in the perfect forms and rhythms of ancient haiku.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
I did take English here, and I took a class called "The History and Practice of American Oratory," taught by Roland G. Osterweis (ph).
(APPLAUSE)
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 year, 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 that I was here. But now that I have a second chance, I thank the professors of Yale University.
(APPLAUSE)
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 sure what that was, but I do think that I'm a better man because of Yale. All universities at their best teach that degrees and honors are far from the full measure of life, nor is that measure taken in wealth or in titles. What matters most are the standards you live by, the consideration you show others and the way you use the gifts you were 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 and 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'll 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 have 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 be 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.
(APPLAUSE)
O'BRIEN: President George W. Bush, the third generation Bush to receive the honorary degree doctor of laws from Yale University, the third generation to have that as his alma mater, the first to receive that distinction as a sitting president, addressing the "C" students in the crowd you see there, telling them, "You, too, can become president," and also telling them to study hard and play hard, among other things.
A little while ago, just before that speech began, the president of Yale University, Richard Levin, gave Mr. Bush the official degree with a proclamation. Let's listen in.
Actually, I think we missed those remarks. But, nevertheless, it was perhaps what you might expect given the circumstances.
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