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Youths can help world, ex-president says

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 2, 2007

CORAL GABLES - Former President Bill Clinton told college students Thursday they were inheriting an unequal, unstable and unsustainable world.

"Half the world's people still live on less than $2 a day, a billion people have no access to clean water, a billion go to bed hungry every night," Clinton told about 7,000 University of Miami students at their spring convocation.

Clinton gave students plenty to think about: global warming, the health care crisis, the Iraq war and student concerns about job outsourcing. But he also outlined a plan for global change and challenged students to form their own answers to the world's problems, even in small ways.

"If you are a mentor to a kid who needs a helping hand ... it all counts," Clinton said. "Part of living in this country is some sort of service."

Though he admitted missing his role of president, Clinton said he's realized he can often get more accomplished now than he could as president, without politics' red tape slowing him down.

Under the William J. Clinton Foundation, he's brokered deals with snack and soda companies to keep them out of school in a fight against childhood obesity and negotiated to get cheaper AIDS drugs into the Bahamas.

"It is never possible to kill, jail or occupy all your adversaries," he said, drawing cheers from students. "We must try to have a world with more partners and few enemies."

When asked what he would do if were president now, Clinton said he would "move to a different course on Iraq. I would essentially do what the Iraq Study Group recommended."

He said he would cut the number of troops in Iraq, but send more to Afghanistan to prevent it from becoming a terrorist breeding ground. A massive effort toward a "clean, green independent energy efficient environment" also topped his list.

He drew several standing ovations and warmly embraced his former secretary of health and human services and UM president, Donna Shalala, who led a question-and-answer session after Clinton's 30-minute speech.

"It empowered me a little that I can actually do something to improve this country," freshman Felipe Yanez said after the speech.

[Last modified March 2, 2007, 00:58:50]