A few thoughts to carry on your journey

By PHILIP GAILEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 4, 2000

No one invited me to deliver a high-school commencement address this year, but if I had been asked, these are some of the platitudes and unoriginal thoughts I would lay on the Class of 2000:

High school graduation marks a major transition in your lives, and your mixed emotions are understandable. Don't fight them; ride them like the surf. Those of you who will soon be going off to college will feel, at least in the beginning, a separation from family and friends. But there will be no separation from the the people you love and care about. They will always be there for you, and all you have to do is hold on to them. Nothing is more important. Stay in touch with old friends and add as many new ones as you can. They will be your greatest treasure in this world, worth more than any dot-com fortune.

Your freedom in college will be a problem. The university will treat you as a young adult, despite the wish of some of you to be treated as children. You will have to assume responsibility for your life. In college, there will be no one around to roll you out of bed to make your first class or force you to study or eat your spinach. You will even have to do your own laundry. If you abuse your personal liberty, yield to the wrong temptations or blow off your studies, there will be consequences. Some of you are about to grow up fast -- and perhaps the hard way.

Keep your mind alive. And I'm not talking about surfing the Internet. A diploma, which should not be confused with an education, will not protect your mind from intellectual atrophy. The Internet is the door to a tidal wave of information. But remember, information and knowledge are not necessarily the same thing. You can have all the facts in the world at your command and still not know the truth. Keep asking questions and challenging answers. Your college experience will cause you to embark on new lines of thought. But that does not mean you should suddenly discard everything you have heretofore believed. Do not try to reconstruct the world in your thinking as a freshman. College will tempt you to think, to learn, to improve, to question. This may disturb some of the beliefs you have grown comfortable with, but that is what education does. Don't be afraid to open your minds. And don't confuse rebellion against conformity with originality.

This may sound a little hokey, but you really should give something back to your community, your state and your country. There is no longer a military draft, so you are not likely to be asked to risk your life in the defense of your country. And it is a great country despite its problems and shortcomings. It has given you an abundance of freedom, opportunity and prosperity. If you don't want to volunteer for military service or the Peace Corps, then volunteer to tutor a disadvantaged child or to help out at a local soup kitchen for the poor.

There is something else you can do for your country -- never assume that our constitutional freedoms are secure. The greatest threat to our liberty comes not from a foreign enemy but from ourselves. It comes from popular opinion, political correctness, ideological zealots and interest-group agendas. Love the Bill of Rights with all your mind and heart and soul. And never compromise the rights it guarantees in order to punish flag burners or offensive speech.

Register to vote and kick a little political butt. Don't let the politicians, their obscene fundraising or the lack of honest political debate keep you from voting or participating fully in the political process. Hold elected officials accountable at the ballot box for their votes and their lies. And don't listen to those who believe government has all of the answers or those who believe it has none of them. Government is an instrument of common purpose, and while it is not always efficient, it should always be compassionate.

You've probably heard of a president named Franklin D. Roosevelt. He said it best in his second acceptance speech in Philadelphia: "Governments can err. Presidents do make mistakes. But the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on a different scale. Better the occasional fault of a government living in the spirit of charity, than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."

For many of you, this November election will be your first opportunity to cast a vote for president. This is a big deal. Remember to get an absentee ballot. And don't be discouraged by the choice you have between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Neither is FDR, but one of them is going to be president, whether you vote or not. Who is president does matter.

Don't let cynicism destroy your faith in humankind or sap your optimism about the future. Don't yield to selfishness, ignorance, prejudice and shabbiness of mind that are careless leaks in the dikes of civilization. When the world changes for the better, go with the flow. When it changes for the worse, cling to your values and convictions.

Ahead of you is a new century, bright and fresh, full of great opportunities and great challenges. Make it our best century yet. And by the way, before you leave for college, do your parents a big favor and clean your room.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.