Choices and Change Schaumburg High School.doc

choices and change-babara bushbarbara bush, wife of president george bush, spent most of her life raising children and supporting her husbands career. while this was certainly commonplace for women of her generation, particularly for wives of public figures, it has become decreasingly so in recent decades. thus, some controversy surrounded ms bushs speech to the graduating class of wellesley college, an allwomens institution in massachusetts. undaunted by the murmurs that perhaps she was an inappropriate role model for the young wellesley women, barbara bush, with a wry sense of humour, stresses tolerance for diverse life choices and the paramount importance of those human connections with spouses, with children, with friends.thank you president keohane, mrs gorbachev, trustees, faculty, parents, julie porer, christine bicknell and the class of 1990. i am thrilled to be with you today, and very excited, as i know you must all be, that mrs gorbachev could join us.more than ten years ago when i was invited here to talk about our experiences in the peoples republic of china, i was struck by both the natural beauty of your campus and the spirit of this place.wellesley, you see, is not just a place, but an idea, an experiment in excellence in which diversity is not just tolerated, but is embraced.the essence of this spirit was captured in a moving speech about tolerance given last year by the student body president of one of your sister colleges. she related the story by robert fulghum about a young pastor who, finding himself in charge of some very energetic children, hit upon a game called giants, wizards, and dwarfs. you have to decide now, the pastor instructed the children, which you are. a giant, a wizard, or a dwarf? at that, a small girl tugging on his pants leg, asked, but where do the mermaids stand?the pastor told her there are no mermaids. oh yes there are, she said. i am a mermaid.this little girl knew what she was and she was not about to give up on either her identity or the game. she intended to take her place wherever mermaids fit into the scheme of things. where do mermaids stand. all those who are different, those who do not fit the boxes and the pigeonholes? answer that question, wrote fulghum, and you can build a school, a nation, or a whole world on it.as that very wise young woman said. diversity, like anything worth having requires effort. effort to learn about and respect difference, to be compassionate with one another, and to cherish our own identity, and to accept unconditionally the same in all others.you should all be very proud that this is the wellesley spirit. now i know your first choice for today was alice walker, known for the color purple. instead you got me known for the colour of my hair! of course, alice walkers book has a special resonance here. at wellesley, each class is known by a special colour, and for four years the class of 90 has worn the colour purple. today you meet on severance green to say goodbye to all that, to begin a new and very personal journey, a search for your own true colours.in the world that awaits you beyond the shores of lake waban, no one can say what your true colours will be. but this i know: you have a first class education from a first class school. and so you need not, probably cannot, live a paintbynumbers life. decisions are not irrevocable. choices do come back. as you set off from wellesley, i hope that many of you will consider making three very special choices.the first is to believe in something larger than yourself, to get involved in some of the big ideas of your time. i chose literacy because i honestly believe that if more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems plaguing our society.early on i made another choice which i hope you will make as well. whether you are talking about education, career or service, you are talking about life, and life must have joy. its supposed to be fun!one of the reasons i made the most important decision of my life, to marry george bush, is because he made me laugh. its true, sometimes weve laughed through our tears, but that shared laughter has been one of our strongest bonds. find the joy in life, because as ferris bueller said on his day off,life moves pretty fast. ya dont stop and look around once in a while, ya gonna miss it!the third choice that must not be missed is to cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. for several years, youve had impressed upon you the importance to your career of dedication and hard work. this is true, but as important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, or business leader will be, you are a human being first and those human connections with spouses, with children, with friends are the most important investments you will ever make.at the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. you will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.we are in a transitional period right now, fascinating and exhilarating times, learning to adjust to the changes and the choices we, men and women, are facing. i remember what a friend said, on hearing her husband lament to his buddies that he had to babysit. quickly setting him straight, my friend told her husband that when its your own kids, its not called babysitting!maybe we should adjust faster, maybe slower. but whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change: fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens at the white house, but on what happens inside your house.for over 50 years, it was said that the winner of wellesleys annual hoop race would be the first to get married. now they say the winner will be the first to become a ceo. both of these stereotypes show too little tolerance for those who want to know where the mermaids stand. so i offer you today a new legend: the winner of the hoop race will be the first to realize her dream, not societys dream, her own personal dream. and who knows? somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the white house as the presidents spouse. i wish him well!the controversy ends here. but our conversation is only beginning. and a worthwhile conversation it is. so as you leave wellesley today, take with you deep thanks for the courtesy and honour you have shared with mrs gorbachev and me. thank you. god bless you. and may your future be worthy of your dreams.i have a dream-martin luther king, jr.in 1950s america, the equality of man envisioned by the declaration of independence was far from a reality. people of color blacks, hispanics, asians were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. the 1950s were a turbulent time in america, when racial barriers began to come down due to supreme court decisions, like brown v. board of education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.martin luther king, jr., a baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950s and the 1960s. in 1963, king and his staff focused on birmingham, alabama. they marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. the bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.thrust into the national spotlight in birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, king helped organize a massive march on washington, dc, on august 28, 1963. his partners in the march on washington for jobs and freedom included other religious leaders, labor leaders, and black organizers. the assembled masses marched down the washington mall from the washington monument to the lincoln memorial, heard songs from bob dylan and joan baez, and heard speeches by actor charlton heston, naacp president roy wilkins, and future u.s. representative from georgia john lewis.kings appearance was the last of the event; the closing speech was carried live on major television networks. on the steps of the lincoln memorial, king evoked the name of lincoln in his i have a dream speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 civil rights act. the next year, king was awarded the nobel peace prize.the following is the exact text of the spoken speech, transcribed from recordings.i am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.five score years ago, a great american, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation. this momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. it came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.but one hundred years later, the negro still is not free. one hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. one hundred years later, the negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. one hundred years later, the negro is still languishing in the corners of american society and finds himself an exile in his own land. so we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.in a sense we have come to our nations capital to cash a check. when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and the declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every american was to fall heir. this note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.it is obvious today that america has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. instead of honoring this sacred obligation, america has given the negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. but we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. we refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. so we have come to cash this check a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. we have also come to this hallowed spot to remind america of the fierce urgency of now. this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of gods children.it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. this sweltering summer of the negros legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. those who hope that the negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. there will be neither rest nor tranquility in america until the negro is granted his citizenship rights. the whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.but there is something that i must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. in the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.we must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. the marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. we cannot walk alone.as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. we cannot turn back. there are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? we can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. we can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. we cannot be satisfied as long as the negros basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. we can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating for whites only. we cannot be satisfied as long as a negro in mississippi cannot vote and a negro in new york believes he has nothing for which to vote. no, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.i am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. you have been the veterans of creative suffering. continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.go back to mississippi, go back to alabama, go back to south carolina, go back to georgia, go back to louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. let us not wallow in the valley of despair.i say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, i still have a dream. it is a dream deeply rooted in the american dream.i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.i have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.i have a dream that one day even the state of mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.i have a dream today.i have a dream that one day, down in alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.i have a dream today.i have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.this is our hope. this is the faith that i go back to the south with. with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. with this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. with this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.this will be the day when all of gods children will be able to sing with a new meaning, my country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee i sing. land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.and if america is to be a great nation this must become true. so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of new hampshire. let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of new york. let freedom ring from the heightening alleghenies of pennsylvania!let freedom ring from the snowcapped rockies of colorado!let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of california!but not only that; let freedom ring from stone mountain of georgia!let freedom ring from lookout mountain of tennessee!let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of mississippi. from every mountainside, let freedom ring.and when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of gods children, black men and white men, jews and gentiles, protestants and catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, free at last! free at last! thank god almighty, we are free at last!a whisper of aids-mary fisheraugust 19, 1992 - houston, texas. less than three months ago, at platform hearings in salt lake city, i asked the