May 20, 2001 Remarks Of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Class Day, Yale University New Haven, CT As Delivered Thank you, thank you, so very much. Thank you, Nick, for the introduction. Thank you, Jennifer, for getting this off to such a good start. Thank you to all the members of the faculty, and Corporation, to the parents and the grandparents…the wearers of hats…the instigators of Class Day. The graduates of 2001. It is such an honor and pleasure for me to be back at Yale, especially on the occasion of the 300th anniversary. I have had so many memories of my time here, and as Nick was speaking I thought about how I ended up at Yale Law School. And it tells a little bit about how much progress we've made. I was trying to decide whether to go to Yale Law School or Harvard Law School. And a young man that I knew who was attending Harvard Law School invited me to come to a cocktail reception to meet some of the faculty at Harvard. And this was in the spring of 1969, before you were born. And I was introduced to a professor who looked as though he just stepped out of the set of Paper Chase and he had a look of a law school professor to my eyes and my friend said to professor so and so, this is Hillary Rodham. She's trying to make up her mind between us and our nearest competitor. And he looked down at me and he said, first of all we don't have a nearest competitor, and secondly we don't need any more women. So I decided that Yale was by far the more hospitable place. And when I arrived at Yale in 1969 it was the first year that women had been admitted to the College. Some of the students who I had known at Wellesley actually transferred to Yale and they were on the front lines of integrating Yale. And it was a wonderful adventure for me to look at from the distance of the law school. Because I had known that when I had graduated from high school, I and others of my gender could not have applied to Yale. We might have had A averages but we lacked a Y chromosome. And that was all that mattered in those days. And I look out at this class and not only do I see my past but I see the diversity, and the variety, and enthusiasm, and the promise, not only of this class and of this great university but of this nation and our world. In fact, the University informed me that 50-point-7 percent of this class are women. But, for the life of me, I can't figure out: who is the point 7? But you know the traditions that go with Class Day are ones that I missed. We did not get to wear funny hats for the law school in those days. And so I thought seriously about maybe joining in today, maybe wearing something on top of my head, you know, like a baseball cap, for example. But, the truth is, hats do a real number on your hair. And, I have to say that in all the years since I've been at Yale, the most important thing that I have to say today-is that hair matters. This is a life lesson my family did not teach me, Wellesley and Yale failed to instill on me: the importance of your hair. Your hair will send very important messages to those around you. It will tell people who you are and what you stand for. What hopes and dreams you have for the world…and especially what hopes and dreams you have for your hair. Likewise, your shoes. But really, more your hair. So, to sum up. Pay attention to your hair. Because everyone else will. You know I've come back to Yale often, since leaving in 1973. I've come back for reunions and speeches. I've come back for the pizza. I've had many reasons to be here. And every time, I come on to this absolutely beautiful campus, I think about what a different time it was when I started back in 1969. I remember the makeshift camp for protesters in the middle of the law school quad that was instigated by professor Charles Reich. Now, with all the dorm renovations you've endured, you might have spent some time in makeshift "swing space" camps yourselves. But that was a statement, a statement that was meant to raise our consciousness and make us politically active. And it was something that may have served that purpose, but was really such a part of the context of those times that I'm sure some of my classmates hardly even noticed. Because we were in the midst of so much turbulence. I remember the spring of 1970 when somebody set the International Law Library on fire. Now, I'm sure that there's a cottage industry of folks who claim that was me. But actually I joined the bucket brigade of students to save the books and it was an odd feeling to be in one of the greatest institutions in our country saving books from people who were so frustrated and so angry and so outraged that they would were following the traditions of fascists and others of oppressive political beliefs and burned books. Well, we've come many years and, in some cases, a long way since those days. But the motivation behind some of the protests and the frustration that haunted and bothered some of my classmates is still out there. Maybe it is out there in cyberspace. Maybe it is just percolating in the atmosphere. I've spent enough time on college campuses and speaking with young people that I know that beneath the surface of prosperity and progress and all the advances we made, there are questions begging for answers and really begging for you to help us address. Being back at Yale, also reminds me of a certain student I first met here. That classmate of mine is in Ireland today, probably finishing up another round of golf. He wanted me to send you his warmest regards and best wishes. I also think about how Bill and I spent time in 1970 helping elect a young Yale graduate to the Connecticut state senate, a fellow by the name Joe Lieberman, who as I recall, not only was he elected, he actually got to serve and he is still fulfilling his public service in Washington. But, what I think most about when I think of Yale is not just the politically charged atmosphere and not even just the superb legal education that I received. It was at Yale that I began work that has been at the core of what I have cared about ever since. I began working with New Haven legal services representing children. And I studied child development, abuse and neglect at the Yale New Haven Hospital and the Child Study Center. I was lucky enough to receive a civil rights internship with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund, where I went to work after I graduated. Those experiences fueled in me a passion to work for the benefit of children, particularly the most vulnerable. Now, looking back, there is no way that I could have predicted what path my life would have taken. I didn't sit around the law school, saying, well, you know, I think I'll graduate and then I'll go to work at the Children's Defense Fund, and then the impeachment inquiry, and when Nixon retired or resigns, I'll go to Arkansas. I didn't think like that. I was taking each day at a time. But, I've been very fortunate because I've always had an idea in my mind about what I thought was important and what gave my life meaning and purpose. A set of values and beliefs that have helped me navigate the shoals, the sometimes very treacherous sea, to illuminate my own true desires, despite what others say about what I should care about and believe in. A passion to succeed at what I thought was important and children have always provided that lone star, that guiding light. Because I have that absolute conviction that every child, especially in this, the most blessed of nations that has ever existed on the face of the earth, that every child deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential. But you know that belief and conviction -- it may make for a personal mission statement, but standing alone, not translated into action, it means very little to anyone else, particularly to those for whom you have those concerns. When I was thinking about running for the United States Senate -- which was such an enormous decision to make, one I never could have dreamed that I would have been making when I was here on this campus -- I visited a school in New York City and I met a young woman, who was a star athlete. I was there because of Billy Jean King promoting an HBO special about women in sports called "Dare to Compete." It was about Title IX and how we finally, thanks to government action, provided opportunities to girls and women in sports. And although I played not very well at intramural sports, I have always been a strong supporter of women in sports. And I was introduced by this young woman, and as I went to shake her hand she obviously had been reading the newspapers about people saying I should or shouldn't run for the Senate. And I was congratulating her on the speech she had just made and she held onto my hand and she said, "Dare to compete, Mrs.Clinton. Dare to compete." I took that to heart because it is hard to compete sometimes, especially in public ways, when your failures are there for everyone to see and you don't know what is going to happen from one day to the next. And yet so much of life, whether we like to accept it or not, is competing with ourselves to be the best we can be, being involved in classes or professions or just life, where we know we are competing with others. I took her advice and I did compete because I chose to do so. And the biggest choices that you'll face in your life will be yours alone to make. I'm sure you'll receive good advice. You've got a great education to go back and reflect about what is right for you, but you eventually will have to choose and I hope that you will dare to compete. And by that I don't mean the kind of cutthroat competition that is too often characterized by what is driving America today. I mean that sort of small voice inside you that says to you, you can do it, you can take this risk, you can take this next step. And it doesn't mean that once having made that choice you will always succeed. In fact, you won't. There are setbacks and you will experience difficult disappointments. You will be slowed down and sometimes the breath will just be knocked out of you. But if you carry with you the values and beliefs that you can make a difference in your own life, first and foremost, and then in the lives of others. You can get back up, you can keep going. But it is also important, as I have found, not to take yourself too seriously, because after all, every one of use here today, none of us is deserving of full credit. I think every day of the blessings my birth gave me without any doing of my own. I chose neither my family nor my country, but they as much as anything I've ever done, determined my course. You compare my or your circumstances with those of the majority of people who've ever lived or who are living right now, they too often are born knowing too well what their futures will be. They lack the freedom to choose their life's path. They're imprisoned by circumstances of poverty and ignorance, bigotry, disease, hunger, oppression and war. So, dare to compete, yes, but maybe even more difficult, dare to care. Dare to care about people who need our help to succeed and fulfill their own lives. There are so many out there and sometimes all it takes is the simplest of gestures or helping hands and many of you understand that already. I know that the numbers of graduates in the last 20 years have worked in community organizations, have tutored, have committed themselves to religious activities. You have been there trying to serve because you have believed both that it was the right thing to do and because it gave something back to you. You have dared to care. Well, dare to care to fight for equal justice for all, for equal pay for women, against hate crimes and bigotry. Dare to care about public schools without qualified teachers or adequate resources. Dare to care about protecting our environment. Dare to care about the 10 million children in our country who lack health insurance. Dare to care about the one and a half million children who have a parent in jail. The seven million people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. And thank you for caring enough to demand that our nation do more to help those that are suffering throughout this world with HIV/AIDS, to prevent this pandemic from spreading even further. And I'll also add, dare enough to care about our political process. You know, as I go and speak with students I'm impressed so much, not only in formal settings, on campuses, but with my daughter and her friends, about how much you care, about how willing you are to volunteer and serve. You may have missed the last wave of the dot.com revolution, but you've understood that the dot.community revolution is there for you every single day. And you've been willing to be part of remaking lives in our community. And yet, there is a real resistance, a turning away from the political process. I hope that some of you will be public servants and will even run for office yourself, not to win a position to make an impression on your friends at your 20th reunion, but because you understand how important it is for each of us as citizens to make a commitment to our democracy. Your generation, the first one born after the social upheavals of the 60's and 70's, in the midst of the technological advances of the 80's and 90's, are inheriting an economy, a society and a government that has yet to understand fully, or even come to grips with, our rapidly changing world. And so bring your values and experiences and insights into politics. Dare to help make, not just a difference in politics, but create a different politics. Some have called you the generation of choice. You've been raised with multiple choice tests, multiple channels, multiple websites and multiple lifestyles. You've grown up choosing among alternatives that were either not imagined, created or available to people in prior generations. You've been invested with far more personal power to customize your life, to make more free choices about how to live than was ever thought possible. And I think as I look at all the surveys and research that is done, your choices reflect not only freedom, but personal responsibility. The social indicators, not the headlines, the social indicators tell a positive story: drug use and cheating and arrests being down…teen pregnancy and suicides, drunk driving deaths being down. Community service and religious involvement being up. But if you look at the area of voting among 18 to 29 year olds, the numbers tell a far more troubling tale. Many of you I know believe that service and community volunteerism is a better way of solving the issues facing our country than political engagement, because you believe -- choose one of the following multiples or choose them all -- government either can't understand or won't make the right choices because of political pressures, inefficiency, incompetence or big money influence. Well, I admit there is enough truth in that critique to justify feeling disconnected and alienated. But at bottom, that's a personal cop-out and a national peril. Political conditions maximize the conditions for individual opportunity and responsibility as well as community. Americorps and the Peace Corps exist because of political decisions. Our air, water, land and food will be clean and safe because of political choices. Our ability to cure disease or log onto the Internet have been advanced because of politically determined investments. Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo ended because of political leadership. Your parents and grandparents traveled here by means of government built and subsidized transportation systems. Many used GI Bills or government loans, as I did, to attend college. Now, I could, as you might guess, go on and on, but the point is to remind us all that government is us and each generation has to stake its claim. And, as stakeholders, you will have to decide whether or not to make the choice to participate. It is hard and it is messy, bringing change in a democracy, particularly now. There's so much about our modern times that conspire to lower our sights, to weaken our vision - as individuals and communities and even nations. It is not the vast conspiracy you may have heard about; rather it's a silent conspiracy of cynicism and indifference and alienation that we see every day, in our popular culture and in our prodigious consumerism. But as many have said before and as Vaclav Havel has said so memorably, "It cannot suffice just to invent new machines, new regulations and new institutions. It is necessary to understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this Earth and of our deeds." And I think we are called on to reject, in this time of blessings that we enjoy, those who will tear us apart and tear us down and instead to liberate our God-given spirit, by being willing to dare to dream of a better world. During my campaign, when times were tough and days were long I used to think about the example of Harriet Tubman, a heroic New Yorker, a 19th century Moses, who risked her life to bring hundreds of slaves to freedom. She would say to those who she gathered up in the South where she kept going back year after year from the safety of Auburn, New York, that no matter what happens, they had to keep going. If they heard shouts behind them, they had to keep going. If they heard gunfire or dogs, they had to keep going to freedom. Well, those aren't the risks we face. It is more the silence and apathy and indifference that dogs our heels. Thirty-two years ago, I spoke at my own graduation from Wellesley, where I did call on my fellow classmates to reject the notion of limitations on our ability to effect change and instead to embrace the idea that the goal of education should be human liberation and the freedom to practice with all the skill of our being the art of making possible. For after all, our fate is to be free. To choose competition over apathy, caring over indifference, vision over myopia, and love over hate. Just as this is a special time in your lives, it is for me as well because my daughter will be graduating in four weeks, graduating also from a wonderful place with a great education and beginning a new life. And as I think about all the parents and grandparents who are out there, I have a sense of what their feeling. Their hearts are leaping with joy, but it's hard to keep the tears in check because the presence of our children at a time and place such as this is really a fulfillment of our own American dreams. Well, I applaud you and all of your love, commitment and hard work, just as I applaud your daughters and sons for theirs. And I leave these graduates with the same message I hope to leave with my graduate. Dare to compete. Dare to care. Dare to dream. Dare to love. Practice the art of making possible. And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going. And please, be careful about what you put on your head. Because it just might mess up your hair. Thank you and God bless you all.