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CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL
President Bush Speaks at Ohio State Commencement
Aired June 14, 2002 - 10:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to show you where our President Bush is spending the day today. He's a Buckeye. He is at Ohio State and he is giving the commencement address. Let's listen in.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The achievements that last and count in life come through sacrifice and compassion and service. Some believe this lesson in service is fading as distance grows from the shock of September the 11th. That the good we have witnessed is shallow and temporary.
Your generation will respond to these skeptics one way or another. You will determine whether our new ethic of responsibility is the break of a wave or the rise of a tide. You will determine whether we become a culture of selfishness and look inward or whether we will embrace a culture of service and look outward. Because this decision is in your hands, I'm confident of the outcome.
Your class and your generation understand the need for personal responsibility so you'll make a culture of service a permanent part of American life. After all, nearly 70 percent of your class volunteers in some form from Habitat for Humanity to Big Brothers and Big Sisters to Ohio Reese (ph).
Ohio State has been a leading source of Peace Corp volunteers since 1961. I honor the 29 ROTC members in today's graduating class for their - for their spirit of service and idealism. I hope each of you - I hope each of you have will help build this culture of service for three important reasons.
Service is important to your neighbors. Service is important to your character. And service is important to your country. First your idealism is needed in America in a shadow of our nation's prosperity. Too many children grow up without love and guidance.
Too many women are abandoned and abused. Too many men are addicted and illiterate. And too many elderly Americans live in loneliness. These Americans are not strangers. They are fellow citizens. Not problems, but priorities.
They're a much a part of the American community as you and I and they deserve better from this country. Government has essential responsibilities fighting war and fighting crime, protecting the homeland and enforcing civil rights laws, educating the young and providing for the old, getting people's tools to improve their lives, helping the disabled and those in need.
But you have responsibilities as well. Some government needs - some needs government cannot - cannot fulfill the need for kindness and for understanding and for love. A person in crisis often needs more than a program or a check. He needs a friend and that friend can be you.
We're commanded by God and called by our conscience to love others as we want to be loved ourselves. Let us answer that call with every day we are given. Second, service is important in your own life, in your own character. No one can tell you how to live or what cause to serve, but everyone needs some cause larger than his or her own profit.
Apathy has no adventures. Cynicism leaves no monuments and a person who is not responsible for others is a person who is truly alone. By sharing the pain of a friend or bearing the hopes of a child, or defending the liberty of your fellow citizens, you will gain satisfaction that cannot be gained in any other way.
Service is not a chain or a chore. It gives direction to your gifts and purpose to your freedom. Lindsay Holman (ph) is an OSU sophomore majoring in business. When she was in high school, Lindsay (ph) had a friend and a classmate who died from an illness and Lindsay (ph) decided when she wanted to work with children who suffer from life-threatening diseases.
Today Lindsay (ph) is a leader among volunteers for the "Make A Wish Foundation". Here's what she had to say. "It's hard enough to put a smile on someone's face, but especially someone who's hurting. Even if that's all you can do that is something, and there's no better feeling in the world.
Lindsay (ph) and others here today have learned that every life of service is a life of significance. Third, we serve others because we're Americans and we want to do something for the country we love. Our nation is the greatest force for good in history and we show our gratitude by doing our duty.
KAGAN: We've been listening to President Bush. He is in Columbus, Ohio today. He's giving the commencement address at Ohio State University, becoming an honorary Buckeye for the day. If you've been listening in, you can see the president is stressing the theme of volunteerism, encouraging these graduates and there are 5,500 getting that honor today to give time to their country through the Peace Corp or through the USA Freedom Corp.
Once again President Bush in Columbus, Ohio today at Ohio State University commencement.
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