Thank you, Patricia Scott, for that gracious and kind introduction. Honored guests, distinguished faculty, family members and graduates of the Class of 1997: It is a great honor to speak at a college named after one of the most impressive women of the 20th century - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor once said that "You gain strength, courage, and confidence in every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." After many long years of work, today brings you face to face with such a fear; a fear encountered by generations of college graduates - the commencement speech. The thing is, a commencement speaker is like the body at an Irish wake. They need you to have the party, but nobody expects you to say very much.

In all seriousness, the life of Eleanor Roosevelt serves as an enduring symbol as you begin the first steps on the journey to adulthood. One of my predecessors as U.N. Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, said of Eleanor Roosevelt that she was "one of God's noblest, strongest creations." From the fight against racial discrimination to her efforts on behalf of women - and her struggles for social justice - Eleanor was a passionate advocate for those who lacked the voice and the means to be heard.

But Eleanor Roosevelt was also, in a very real sense, a citizen of the world. Her struggles against discrimination and injustice in America never stopped her from being "First Lady to the World." She helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which remains a shining beacon to oppressed people across the globe. And, at a time when many Americans were nervous about international involvement, Eleanor Roosevelt rallied Americans in the belief that their future, their interests, and their values also lay in the lands beyond their shores.

And those beliefs are as relevant today as they were yesterday because there remain those who seem to have learned nothing from America's vital engagement of the past 50 years. They argue now - as they did then - that the time has come for America to pull up the drawbridge, turn off the lights, and take our leave of the international arena - as if the world's problems will disappear as long as we simply stop caring. They argue that the one-tenth of one percent of the Federal budget spent to maintain our involvement in the U.N. is too much. They declare that America's best days are behind it, or that the world you are inheriting will be less prosperous, more violent, and worse off than the one you were born into.

Well, I'm here to tell you, the facts tell a much different story. Today the United States is perched on the cusp of a new and brighter era of endless possibilities for the future. But for that destiny to become a reality, every one of you must help lead the way - as Eleanor Roosevelt led the way 50 years ago. Of course, today the international situation is far more complicated, but the opportunities are far greater. Technological advances are making the world smaller and at the same time more interdependent. And with the globalization of international commerce, the falling of trade barriers, and the revolution of democratic governance, we are all "world citizens" with a direct stake in international events.

Due to the College's Making of the Modern World curriculum and its strong focus on global issues, you will be better equipped to compete and prosper in this new, rapidly changing international environment. I salute Eleanor Roosevelt College for its foresight in educating a generation of students who are world-wise and internationally aware, because today, economic decisions half way across the globe affect jobs and families herein the United States. National borders provide scant protection from the flow of deadly drugs, criminal enterprises, or international terrorists. Environmental degradation in far away places can affect the health and property of Americans in their own communities. Humanitarian tragedies and natural disasters threaten our values and beliefs as a nation and a people.

As you enter this world, at your very fingertips exist opportunities that were unimaginable to the generation that came of age after World War II. Before the end of the Cold War, American and Russian children went to bed each night with enough nuclear missiles pointed at them to destroy the world hundreds of times over. Today that threat is gone. Countries that just a few years ago were our military enemies are now our economic partners. Trade agreements, not spheres of influence; emerging democracy, not MX missiles are the terms we use to communicate in modern diplomacy. New technologies such as fax machines, desk-top computers, and the Internet are part of the natural fabric of your lives and are placing your generation squarely on the cutting edge. For my generation, the blinking 12:00 on our VCR remains an engineering enigma.

These possibilities for the future are due in no small part to the courage of those who came before us. George Marshall, whose simple plan for European reconstruction rebuilt a war-torn and ravaged continent. President Harry Truman, who rallied a country exhausted from four years of war behind an internationalist agenda that kept the peace for 50 years and contained the global threat of communism. And of course, this college's namesake, who helped enshrine an international code of conduct for the recognition and veneration of human rights.

But, as we remember Eleanor and her legacy, we must not forget a simple immutable fact about her life - she was a woman operating in a man's world. Today, women and minorities in positions of power are so commonplace that we forget that 50 years ago such events were unheard of. Eleanor Roosevelt showed that women could not only be interdependent and free-thinking, but play a powerful and influential role in American culture and politics. Because of women like her, and men like Jackie Robinson and Cesar Chavez, opportunities are now available to Americans of all ethnic, religious, and racial groups.

Regrettably, foreign affairs remains one field where the promise of diversity is unfulfilled. While today we have the first female Secretary of State, foreign affairs for the most part remains the preserve of white men. Minorities in international relations are often just that - minorities. Opportunities are opening up for all Americans - male or female, Black or White, Latino or Asian, young or old - and I urge you to seize them. Our foreign policy needs diversity so that different views on America's national interest will be heard. When minorities participate in foreign affairs, it gives context to places that were once shapeless masses on our wall maps. It forces us to extend our vision to regions and peoples we once took for granted.

Today some of the fastest growing economics and most vibrant emerging democracies are in the developing world. And as we cultivate new markets, particularly in Asia and Latin America, those with an internationalist view will and must play an expanded role. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, "Most people in the world today are yellow, brown, black, non-Christian, poor, female, young, and don't speak English." Take advantage of these opportunities available to you because, today more than ever, international cooperation is an integral part of our lives.

Of course, I didn't just come to talk to you about how good things are going to be in the future. That's up to you. I also came to talk about the obligations and responsibilities that lie ahead. And I don't just mean those monthly student loan payments.

On the not-too-distant horizon lies a dangerous and foreboding challenge. It's a challenge that faces every generation of Americans as they make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The challenge of indifference, inaction, and isolation toward a world that looks to America for international leadership. Throughout our history, there were those who sought to turn our backs on the world - assuming that the problems beyond our shores were not our concern. But, as we've seen through history, international problems that we believe are somebody else's inevitably become our own.

So I ask you today, when the history of the late 20^th Century is written, will yours be the generation that accepted the mantle of leadership, ensuring the triumph of peace and democracy across the globe and helping to empower millions, regardless of their race, gender, or ethnicity?

Or will yours be the generation that sacrificed the inheritance of freedom and stood by complacently as the seeds of renewed world conflict were sown? Will you be the generation that laid the foundation for greater prosperity and open economies around the world? Or will yours be the generation that built walls around America, shut itself off, and, like Nero, fiddled as the world outside slipped into chaos?

The choice is yours. But, if you are to accept this challenge - and any student about to graduate from a college named after Eleanor Roosevelt certainly should - I urge you to remember a simple fact. Our involvement in the world must be about more than open markets. It must be about more than naked self-interest. It must be about remaining true to the values and beliefs that define us as a nation. When President Clinton describes America as the world's "indispensable nation," it is not just because of our military prowess or our economic might - it is because for millions of people across the globe who strive for a better life, we are the shining city on a hill.

Adlai Stevenson once said of America, "We cannot be any stronger than our foreign policy - for all the bombs and guns we may heap in our arsenals - than we are in the spirit which rules inside our country. Foreign policy, like a river, cannot rise above its source."

Our democratic ideals, our inalienable rights, our cultural and spiritual freedoms and, yes, even our excesses, represent an ideal to which millions aspire and sometimes die seeking to emulate. Through the more than 200 years of our democracy, we have, with steely determination, remained true to these ideals and aspirations that are so firmly anchored in our national culture. Your challenge is how to maintain those values into the next millennium.

When she died, President Kennedy said of Eleanor Roosevelt: "Her memory and spirit will long endure among those who labor for great causes around the world." Whatever challenges you undertake, whatever careers you embrace, I implore you to emulate these simple words and always "labor for great causes."

Thank you.