Education is transformational: it changes lives

I'm honored to be here at Boston College, a place of learning that is respected today not just in America, but throughout all the world. As a student of a Catholic high school, the Sisters of Loretta taught me, I am pleased to be at an institution of higher education with such strong and celebrated Catholic and Jesuit traditions ... I will always remember my undergraduate commencement at the University of Denver. I remember how proud my parents were. I remember the thrill of achieving an important goal. What I don't remember is one word that my commencement speaker said. And chances are that you won't either and I promise not to take it personally ... Instead, all of you in the Class of 2006 will leave Boston College with other, more lasting memories ...

But of all your experiences at Boston College, none is more meaningful, of course, than the education you've received here. You see, education is transformational. It literally changes lives. That is why people work so hard to become educated and that is why education has always been the key to the American Dream, the force that erases arbitrary divisions of race and class and culture and unlocks every person's God-given potential. As John F. Kennedy once said, "All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents."

The American vision of education inspired the founding of Boston College. For thousands of citizens facing discrimination and disadvantage, Boston College has been a sanctuary and a source of empowerment, a place where hardworking, capable people who just needed opportunity and someone who believed in them.

This college's mission resonates with me on a very personal level, for I've learned in my own life that education is the single greatest force for equality in the world. I first learned about the transformational power of education from stories about my paternal grandfather, a real family hero. You see, Granddaddy was a poor sharecropper's son from Ewtah -- that's E-w-t-a-h -- Alabama. And one day, Granddaddy decided he was going to get book learning so he asked, in the parlance of the day, where a colored man could go to school. And he was told that there was this little Presbyterian college just about 50 miles down the road.

So Granddaddy Rice saved up his cotton to pay for his first year's tuition and he went off to Stillman College. But after his first year, he didn't have any more money and they told him he was going to have to leave school. And Granddaddy said to a college administrator, "Well, how are those boys going to school?" And the administrator said, "Well, you see, they have what's called a scholarship. And if you wanted to be a Presbyterian minister, then you could have a scholarship, too." And Granddaddy Rice said, "You know, that's just what I had in mind," and my family has been college educated and Presbyterian ever since. (Laughter and applause.)

Because of all that my grandfather and others of my ancestors endured, including poverty and segregation, they understood that education was a privilege, but also that privilege confers obligations. And so today, I would like to suggest to you what I think are five important responsibilities of educated people.

The first responsibility is one that you have to yourself, the responsibility to find and follow your passion. I don't mean just any old thing that interests you, not just something that you could or might do, but that one unique calling that you can't do without. As an educated person, you have the opportunity to spend your life doing what you love and you should never forget that many do not enjoy such a rare privilege. As you work to find your passion, you should know that sometimes, your passion just finds you.

That's what happened to me. I was supposed to be a concert pianist. I could read music before I could read. And I started college as a music major. But around the end of my sophomore year, I started encountering prodigies, 12-year-olds who could play from sight what it had taken me all year to learn, and I thought, "I'm going to end up playing piano bar or teaching 13-year-olds to murder Beethoven or maybe playing at Nordstrom, but I'm not going to play Carnegie Hall." And I went to my parents and I decided that I had better find something else to do.

I was lost and confused, but one day, a wonderful thing happened. I wandered into a course on international politics taught by a Czech refugee who specialized in Soviet studies, a man who had a daughter by the name of Madeleine Albright. With that one class, I was hooked. I discovered that my passion was Russia and all things Russian. Needless to say, this was not exactly what young black girls from Birmingham were supposed to do in the early 1970s, but it just shows you that your passion may be hard to spot, so keep an open mind and keep searching.

The second responsibility of an educated person is the commitment to reason. Boston College has prepared you with a true education. You haven't been taught what to think, but rather, how to think, how to ask questions, how to reject assumptions, how to seek knowledge; in short, how to exercise reason. This experience will sustain you for the rest of your lives, but no one should assume that a life of reason is easy; to the contrary. It takes a great deal of courage and honesty. For the only way that you will grow intellectually is by examining your opinions, attacking your prejudices constantly and completely with the force of your reason.

This can be unsettling and it can be tempting instead to opt for the false comfort of a life without questions. Unfortunately, that's easier to do than ever. It's possible today to live in an eco-chamber that serves only to reinforce your own high opinion of yourself and what you think. That is a temptation that educated people have a responsibility to reject. There is nothing wrong with holding an opinion and holding it passionately. But at those times when you're absolutely sure that you are right, go find somebody who disagrees. Don't allow yourself the easy course of the constant "amen" to everything that you say. (Applause.)

A commitment to reason leads to your third responsibility as an educated person, which is the rejection of false pride. It is natural, especially among the educated, to want to credit your success to your own intelligence and hard work and good judgment. And it is true, of course, that all of you sitting here today are here because you do, in fact, possess these qualities, but it is also true that merit alone did not see you to this day.

There are many people in this country and in this world who are just as intelligent, just as hard working and just as deserving of success as you are. But for whatever reason, maybe a broken home, maybe poverty, maybe just bad luck, these people did not enjoy all of the opportunities that you have had at Boston College. Don't ever forget that. Never assume that your own sense of entitlement has gotten you what you have or that it will get you what you want. Boston College has summoned all of you to the Jesuit ideals of compassion and charity for those less fortunate. Now commencement marks your opportunity, indeed your obligation, to graduate with wisdom and humility. (Applause.)

The fourth responsibility of the educated person is to be optimistic. Too often, cynicism can be the fellow traveler of learning and I understand why. History is full of much cruelty and suffering and darkness and it can be hard sometimes to believe that a brighter future is indeed dawning. But for all of our past failings, for all of our current problems, more people now enjoy lives of hope and opportunity than ever before in all of human history. This progress has been the concerted effort not of cynics but of visionaries and optimists, of impatient patriots who dealt with our world as it was, but who never ever accepted that they were powerless to change that world for the better.

Here in America our own ideals of freedom and equality have been borne through generations by optimists, by people of reason, to be sure, but just as importantly, by people of faith, people who reject the all-too-common assumption that if you can't see something happening and measure it, then it can't possibly be real.

There was a time when the goal of democracy in America seemed impossible, but because people had faith in democracy's promise, today, it seems that it must have always been inevitable. There was also a day in my own lifetime when the hope of liberty and justice for all seemed impossible. But because individuals kept faith with the ideal of America, it seems that it was always inevitable that today, there has been a decade since we last had a white male Secretary of State. (Applause.)

You have been fortunate to study at a college where reason and faith exist together and reinforce one another. But you're headed into a world where optimists are too often told to keep their ideals to themselves. It is your responsibility as educated people to remain optimistic no matter what, but that's not all. You have an obligation to act on those ideals and this, I believe, is the final responsibility to the educated person; really, the most important responsibility of all, to work to advance human progress.

What do I mean by human progress? I believe that all human beings share certain fundamental aspirations. They want protections for their lives and their liberties. They want to think freely and to worship as they wish. They want opportunities to educate their children, boys and girls, and they want to be ruled by the consent of the governed, not by the coercion of the state. So I would define human progress this way. Progress is humankind's ability to view more and more of our differences, whether of race or religion or culture or gender, not as a license to kill or a cause for repression, but as matters of no moral significance whatsoever.

All too often, difference has been used to divide and to dehumanize. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the Birmingham of Bull Connor and the Ku Klux Klan, a place that was once quite properly described as the most segregated city in America. I know how it feels to hold aspirations when half your neighbors think that you're incapable or uninterested in anything higher. In my professional life, I've listened with disbelief as it was said that men and women in Asia and Africa and Latin America and Russia and in the Middle East today did not share the basic aspirations of all human beings. Somehow, it was thought, these people were just different and by that, it was meant unworthy, unworthy of what we enjoy.

It is your responsibility as educated people to reject these prejudices and to help close the gaps of justice and opportunity that still divide our nation and our world. I know this mission is very close to the heart of Boston College. The Jesuit ideal of service to others has inspired this class to devote thousands of hours of your own time to help those in need. Most of you have spent a summer break on mission service or worked here at home in impoverished American communities, perhaps in New Orleans after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Others ventured beyond our shores to assist the needy in countries like Brazil and Jamaica and Mexico.

This experience, I imagine, has taught you that progress never unfolds passively or inevitably. No, the promise of human progress is always carried forward by men and women who serve a cause greater than themselves ...

Read on. (Secretary Rice's Commencement Address at Boston College, Massachusetts, USA on 22 May 2006).

Women's Rights: the unfolding of moral progress

When we talk about respect for women, we are referring to a moral truth. Women are free by nature, equal in dignity and entitled the same rights, the same protections and the same opportunities as men. This is a standard that, quite frankly, we in the United States have fallen short of in our history. It took our country 130 years before we interpreted the phrase "All men are created equal," flexibly enough to let ladies vote.

We Americans are, to be sure, an imperfect people, but we are fortunate to be guided by ideals that summon us to become even nobler and indeed to pursue our perfect union. Those same ideals lead America into the world to combat the dehumanization of women in all its forums, especially the international evil of human trafficking, a modern form of slavery for millions of women.

I know it sounds impossible, slavery in the 21st century, but it's very real. And the stories of young girls preyed upon and smuggled as freight, beaten and bought and sold for sex are stories that are tragic enough to break even the hardest of hearts. And under President Bush's leadership, the United States is leading a new abolitionist movement to eradicate human trafficking worldwide. (Applause.)

In a few weeks, I'm going to release our annual Department of State Report on Human Trafficking and that report probes even the darkest places, calling to account any country, friend or foe, that is not doing enough to combat human trafficking. Though many complain, the power of shame has stirred many to action and sparked unprecedented reforms. Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling and we will never subjugate it to the narrow demands of the day. This call of conscience also leads us to help the survivors of the genocide in Darfur, many of whom are women. I have visited Darfur. I have spoken with the women in the Abu Shouk refugee camp. They've told me their personal stories of rape, of beatings and of other unspeakable horrors that no human being should have to endure. Many of these women are widows charged with raising their children by themselves, and it is the fate of Darfur's children that moves us most because no boy or girl should live a life in a refugee camp.

The United States is doing more than any nation to help the mothers of Darfur build lives of hope for their children. We provide nearly all the food that now sustains the people of Darfur and we are offering care and counseling to many women who have survived violence and rape. The signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement last week now offers a hope for peace.

Yesterday in New York -- I think it was yesterday -- (laughter) -- I addressed the Security Council and urged them to get UN peacekeepers into Darfur to help implement this agreement. We have a momentous opportunity to bring real peace to the men and women of Darfur and we will not let this pass.

Whether it is assistance to women in Darfur or the fight against human trafficking, the United States champions respect for women because it is morally right. But we also recognize that respect for women is a prerequisite for success of countries in the modern world. In the dynamic 21st century no society can expect to flourish with half its people sitting on the sidelines, with no opportunity to develop their talents, to contribute to their economy or to play an equal part in the lives of their nations.

Last year a group of Kuwaiti suffragettes sent me a T-shirt and it makes that point very well. It says, "Half a democracy is not a democracy." That was the slogan that the women of Kuwait used to demand and to win their right to vote. (Applause.)

In all my travels as Secretary, I've had the opportunity to meet women around the world who are leading in fields of human endeavor. Two that I've met recently are literally leading their nations, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the new President of Liberia, the first woman head of state in African history. I was honored to attend both of their inaugurations this year. They are empowering their countries, not just the women of their countries.

And tonight, I would like to talk about some names that perhaps you do not know as well, who are also empowering their countries. In Mexico, I met with women entrepreneurs who are transforming their businesses with US-backed loans. One of these women is a seamstress, named Maria Theresa Rojas.

In years, Maria Theresa could not find a bank to loan her money. She wanted to do more than stitch school uniforms. All that recently changed. As a part of a U.S.-led effort to triple the amount of credit available to small and medium-size businesses, Maria Theresa finally got the loan she needed. And she's investing in new technology and expanding her business and making nicer clothing for profit. This will create jobs in the Mexican economy and make life better for Maria and her family and her village.

In Afghanistan, I met the young players of a girls' soccer team. It was quite a striking contrast from the Afghanistan that just four years ago -- in which four years ago the Taliban turned soccer stadiums given to them by the international community into killing fields and condemned women to death for learning to read.

You know, when they want to suppress people, they always go after the right to read. Slaves were not allowed to read, because if you can read, you know what your horizons are. And so that women in Afghanistan are now being taught to read openly and supported by their government is an amazing fact and shows that Afghanistan is progressing. (Applause.)

Finally, in Iraq, I had the opportunity at the end of last year to meet women political leaders who are active in a group called Ahd al-Iraq, or fittingly, Iraq's future. These women have seized freedom's opportunities and created the first issue-based organization in Iraqi history. They are working to ensure equal rights and equal opportunity for all Iraqis, men and women. The Iraqi people understand the role that women can and must play in their country's future. Iraq's democratic constitution which Iraqis freely wrote and ratified last year, accords women respect and equal rights. The challenge now for the Iraqi people is to build institutions that can protect those rights and make their new democracy effective. At this crucial time in Iraq's history, it is important that there are also courageous Iraqi women who raise their voices for tolerance and for moderation. And I want to thank the International Women's Forum for helping them do that. (Applause.)

When I meet women like Maria Theresa or Afghan soccer girls or the women of Ahd al-Iraq, or for that matter when I see Kuwaiti women gain the right to vote or when a country like Morocco sets an example for its entire region by passing landmark reforms of family law, as it did recently, granting women basic legal rights like the ability to divorce and inherit property.

When I see these kinds of events and meet these kinds of women, I believe we are witnessing something very extraordinary indeed: the unfolding of moral progress. We must not be reluctant to speak of moral progress. I would do so in this way. Progress is humankind's ability to view more and more of our differences, whether of race or religion or ethnicity or agenda, not as a license to kill or as a cause for repression, but as a source of strength. Progress never unfolds in a determined way or on its own accord. It requires human agency, always and everywhere dedicated individuals who are committed to helping others, men and women alike, to secure the basic human rights that define our common human nature.

And it requires something else. It requires optimism and it requires a sense of historical perspective. I know that there are times when we view on our television screens the violence in Iraq or in Afghanistan, or when we read the reports of the trafficking in women or of the camps in Darfur, that it must seem that this world is making no progress at all. But when I have those moments, I think back on other historical times when it must have seemed quite impossible to imagine human progress.

I spent my summer reading the biographies of America's Founding Fathers. They, of course, were quite fortunate, most of them, to have founding mothers alongside them, but of course the biographies have been written mostly of Jefferson and Adams and Hamilton and Washington. And when you read those biographies, you think that there was no earthly reason that the United States of America should ever have come into being. From Washington's failure after failure after failure as a military commander; to the tremendous rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton that led Jefferson, thinking Washington too influenced by Hamilton, to spread rumors that Washington was indeed senile -- (laughter); to the fact that our Founding Fathers, trying to create a perfect union for We the People, couldn't quite find a way to deal with slavery. And so instead, they left my ancestors to be three-fifths of a man.

But some hundred plus years later, I stand before you as a descendent of those people who were three-fifths of a man and I ask, "Would anybody have thought it possible?" (Applause.) Now, perhaps in some number of years, we will think it just inevitable. Time and time again, historical events -- our own Civil War, World War II, the end of Communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the freedom of Eastern Europe -- seemed like impossible dreams. A day when France and Germany would never fight again seemed like an impossible dream. A democratic Japan, a democratic Korea, seemed like impossible dreams. And now, we take them for granted; we think of them as inevitable.

I do believe that with enough moral courage, with enough optimism and with enough human agency by people like those who make up the International Women's Forum that there will come a day when we will look back on Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and troubled spots of the world, and we will ask, "Who could have ever doubted that liberal democracy would take hold there?" Indeed, what sometimes today might seem impossible will seem quite inevitable.

Read on. (Secretary Rice's remarks at the Independent Women's Forum ipon receiving Woman of Valor award, The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, Washington, DC, USA on 10 May 2006).