dropped the baton and allowed think it should never have been allowed. we were allowed the following lyrics, images that undermined traditional black values that stay overseas as a century. we forgot. we just forgot who we are. we forgot who our ancestors stood, to open the doors we were walking through today. today middle-class people from a distant -- as millions of our sisters and brothers struggle along margins and our little ones are dropping out of school, and going to prison built on the backs of our young brothers and sisters, no more. i am here today because i want to speak life into my own heart and to yours. we are abdicating our authority,

relinquishing it to simple people focused on one thing, making more money. making more money. a new world is on the way. a new world is on the way. the holy spirit is bringing it forth and it can only come through us. a new world is on the way. world of equity and justice because what we have allowed read like for fiction that 80% of black fourth graders are reading below grade level in the wealthiest country in the world. when i found that out it was the day i decided to leave. it took a year to plan my exit. that was three years ago. today that number is 86% of black fourth graders reading below grade level. we know that underserved schools which none of view came from because you wouldn't be sitting here today really are the

pipeline. it is on us, our responsibility to do what is so needed. it is unity and a plan. we have to know that any good thing is absolutely possible. but to turn the nation around and live your lives in the exquisite way that the holy spirit by whatever name you may call your god. i called the holy spirit got. some college of law, your way, central intelligence that gave life to you, put an aspect of itself with a new, there is nothing you cannot do. there's nothing you can't do that others got and is dedicated to a higher purpose. when i say a new world is on the way and though police. as trying to kill the world, those who will step forward and say send me like some of the

folks who will you need to do is move to the right there right there. people like tommy dortch who is the founding chairman of the national mentoring, so strongly for essence magazine throughout her entire time, when there are corporations that still don't get that black people -- we overspending on things we have no business buying and we need to spend our dollars on things that create revenue of, that create some economic benefit. we have to wake up. this is a day of awakening to a larger world. two things i want to say. you have to know who you are. study yourself. learn what is unique about you.

learn to love your looks, your nose, your color, everything about you. each one of us is a divine original. we are all looking through these lenses. we retouch all those pictures. we were made by an entity beyond understanding. the god that made every living thing, every four on this planet is unique. every blade of grass is unlike any other. how dare we negate what god made. learn to love yourself. learn to love what god made. what is required to, joy and stability. you have to challenge yourself to see life more deeply. to understand the larger

spiritual cycles that work. things appear to be falling apart but the holy spirit sometimes makes things disintegrate so we can put them back together better again and this is the moment we are at right now. would you give your time and attention to will determine whether you suffer what lies. you are more than you seem. human and divine. made in the image and likeness of the law that created you. that means you too have the power and the responsibility to create. what you think, what you hosting your hard, would you speak, can't understand it. it is beyond our capacity to understand but it is real. if you think you are not enough that is how you behave. if you know you are divinely called at this hour to do

phenomenal work, not looking down on anyone, not thinking you are better than or less than anyone else. will never looking down unless you are reaching down to give someone a hand to lift them up. don't let your education separate you from your community. we are bilingual, multilingual people. we have to know how to speak foreign languages but also go to the neighborhood and speak to our people and advocate how to advocate for our people at the very top. this is who we are. this is what the university produced. you are stepping into it was real -- waterworld out of the warm embrace of your family. that protective shield that the university and your family provided won't be there every

single day. i just want to say that you have to know the world around you is also with you as you heal yourself, you heal your families, you heal the community, you he'll vote community. what people have forgotten that you don't see on the nightly news is this. there is enough. there really is enough on this little planet floating through space, enough land and food and water and sky. what is missing is a good old common sense and law. what i am saying to you, bring what is missing. bring love and critical thinking. a plan of action and driving forward. life is on your side. life is on the side of healing, just as, read generation and

sustaining. the explosive rise in technology has made advances that were unimaginable even a decade ago. dramatic changes affecting every aspect of our lives. these are revolutionary times and i love the way joshua, who writes very often for time magazine, these revolutionary times and anyone who doesn't understand that can bring revolutionary ideas deeply in themselves that they can bring those ideas to fruition. there's a name for those people. we don't want to be that. look who is in the white house. barack obama is in the white house. people in his own family didn't believe it was possible but he did. and he knew that the holy spirit is trying to heal the world that he said send me and let that healing come through me. that is your secret power.

a belief in yourself standing for a higher purpose, something more than making money and having a big house. i am here today to tell your doesn't satisfy. anything you see, the custom-made clothes and shoes and cars and big houses we have to have, dust, here today, gone tomorrow. they don't bring oil. what does bring a lasting joy is service. it is what dr. carlton brown said last night. let's start with you. serve you. bring the love every day to yourself. start by amplifying yourself. i don't care what the situations are around you. don't believe the negative evidence. the holy spirit has a plan for

you. no matter how many degrees you have or how smart you are, no matter how much money you have, you will no pain. oprah winfrey and george bush, everybody knows pain. is a natural and important part of life. suffering is a choice. suffering is choosing to remain in that painful place. pain is one thing. it is information. wherever you are hurting is what you have to look at. i remember the doctor telling me i had the precursor to acid reflux. gave me a prescription for prosect. i'm suppose to take this for the rest of my life? what about i was eating dinner at midnight? that was causing the challenge. so it is graduation day and family members and somebody you think is your beloved is not here. that is not your parter. that person is not here with you. learn to understand what is

going on inside of you. you know there is painful stuff. my parents loved me. they did. but i know this. hurt people hurt people. not everybody is helping. i don't say to my daughter we survived me, and my craziness. i'm in my right mind today. but you have to work at that. every day you have to put on your spiritual armour. every day you have to be reminded you are human and divine. every day you have to remember that you must ask, a favorite poet of mine, thirteenth century, you know what he says? every day there's a new arrival and life is like a gas, or. there will always be some drama.

don't let him take root in your house. don't shut the pain. people who shun pain end up drinking and you can live and only book. got ones you to roll up your sleeves and do the work. open the door widely and invite those guests in and ask the question, please remember this. remember you are hurting. ask the question. what have you come to teach me. what have you come to teach me. we think life is of playground. it is not. for ever more, we are learning and learning. so i want to say one thing about the world of work. it is dramatic. no matter where you work, the

distressed level rises high. no matter how hard working we are, it can be a painful place. we see what is happening to our president. sexism and classism are absolutely in place and ready to dan you. even my own essence magazine, it was there. people bring the pain wherever they are. you have to know why you are working where you are working even if you are employed by somebody. you have to have an entrepreneur real pursuit on the side. i would not have been able to leave and not take a salary.

every dime spent is a political decision. it loses its value, you are wasting your money. at this point in time i want to see a invest in real estate, especially if the market is gone. buy things that will protect you and your family at the end of the day. we overspend on things better simple like wealth and power and we are a community that is -- what is the word i would looking for? low wealth. never again will i say we are a poor people. we come from a low of community and working toward becoming a high 12 community. there is a west african proverb that says if you want to go fast, go alone. if you want to go far, go

together. we must have unity, have to have unity. this is the essential lesson for people to learn. in a single decade, china, a country that has an average daily income of $7 per person, amassed $2 trillion in u.s. debt. we know china is a complex communist society that is the impressive but you know what they also have? unity. we don't have to look far. we only look at our heritage. eyewall ask you to jot down the names, isabel wilkinson, it is a must read. if you haven't looked at it the other book is by eugene roberts

and it is disintegration. said just a few more things i want to share with you. you have to heed the call of your heart. you can follow other people's directives. don't watch television and say you want to be like that person. you don't know what my daughter sacrificed. you don't know the days that i wasn't at home. follow your heart and answer your calling. each one of us as a calling. if you don't follow your calling the thing you created, we need you to bring that. you can't bring that if you don't take quiet time. quiet time is the most important time in your life. you are just listening in to that small voice that is always

calling you. trying to encourage you. relationships, choose wisely. take inventory. don't be desperate. when i am coming for your town i won't across the way that want to speak about relationship or sexually because your parents are here and i don't want folks being mad at me but aids is the number-1 killer of black women and we know there are women looking for their college degrees because they're looking for a paycheck and anytime you lay with a woman be ready to be a father and that person will be in your life the rest of your life. take inventory and think critically and not everyone is healthy enough to have a front row seat in your life. not everyone is healthy enough to have a front row seat in your life. there are people you have to love from a distance and some could be family members said

just think critically. nothing will derail your life or your career faster than becoming a parent before you are emotionally or economically prepared. some of you may be parents already. i was a parent before i was economically or mentally prepared and so finally you have to fire the judge. the police. is not expecting perfection from any of us. only that we try. only that we try to -- more than we are today. we are not in competition with anyone. if you are in competition with anyone you will be miserable soul. be in competition with yourself. know the we all have visions.

node group of people will live through what we live through. every time i hear the black national anthem it brings me to tears. lift our hearts. we have forgotten and i am asking you to remember. so we have issues. cut yourself and one another some slack. don't be so critical. i love the way -- you know what he said. we wouldn't ask why the rose room from the concrete had damage. on the contrary we would celebrate the tenacity. we love the willed to reach for the sun. he said i am that road. these are my damage petals. if you lived with me you would see mine. but god is so good because we

can repair and grow. i am saying to you the graduating class of 2011 stand strong every day. even when your heart is breaking, even when it -- someone who disregarded un disrespects you your relationship is with you and with god. you cannot determine how other people stand or behavior or how they treat you. you could get out of the way but you have to stand strong, square your shoulders, head hi and reach for the sun. reach for the son, my beloved sisters and daughters, reach for the sun. god bless you. go far.

and change the world. [applause] >> in a moment more commencement speeches on c-span2. political cartoonist mark fiore. then supreme court justice sonia sotomayor at the university of south carolina followed by a booktv with robert hurst, author revenue edition of the autobiography of mark twain. >> on today's washington journal national economics correspondent kevin hall on unemployment figures. and auto industry bailout with justin died. and a look at the student loan application process with the national association of student financial aid administrators. washington journal begins at 7:00 eastern time on c-span. >> you are watching c-span2 with

politics and public affairs featuring live coverage of the u.s. senate. watch key public policy events and the latest nonfiction authors on booktv. you can get our scandal that our web site at you can join in the conversation and social media sites. >> this year's commencement ceremony at colorado college. you would hear from the commencement speaker mark fiore, pulitzer prize-winning political cartoonist. fiore is the first internet animator to win a prize for editorial cartooning. is animated cartoons are at the san francisco chronicle. his commencement address, just over 20 minutes. ♪ >> thank you very much for that

kind introduction. thank you, president celeste, thank you to that jenna lee group of trustees out there somewhere. thank you, parents. and thank you, students. i am talking to you guys mostly. thank you for asking me to come here to be with you on this amazing day that you are going to remember forever as everybody will keep telling you. thank you for having me. the reason it is such an amazing thing and huge honor for me to be here as you just heard, 20 years ago i was right here with you guys. i was graduating back when we faced that way. but i was right there in the fs. i was right over there. the main difference between when

i graduated then and when you are graduating now is instead of a left of center political cartoonist who specializes in animation, you would have dick cheney speaking to you which is a little bit ironic for a political cartoonist have him as a commencement speaker and it is a blessing. it was dick cheney speaking to me at graduation and i don't remember exactly what he said but it was probably something along the lines of what do you want me to say? go forth and ruled world or something like that. i don't exactly remember and our don't know if because i am speaking here now today if i will go on to become secretary of defense or if i will be a

comically evil place president who god's gift to cartoonists everywhere. but i do know one thing. if dick cheney had spent more time on this campus playing frisbee on this very quod like i did that there definitely wouldn't have been a bogus run up to work based on wm ds that didn't exist. but i digress. i am not here to talk about politicians and bash political figures, as much fun as that is. that is what i get to do every week, fortunately. what i really here to talk about is the path of my life and how it relates to the path of your life. and the incredible influence colorado college at on me. it was the most formative four years of my life to date.

from this podium standing here, i can see over to polymer all where i took science classes and learned about things like just and unjust wars or where are took socially the best sociology classes or geology and learned about these mountains right behind us. i can look over there to slocum and see -- first year. now i am going for the chief applause line. one wes in the house? i knew there were some out there. right there is where i met some of my best friends that are friends for life within the first week of school. i can look beyond shows and kind of see a little corner of

jackson house which is where i first met with my initial academic adviser and he sat down on the grass with myself and the other advisees and gave us what i think is probably the most clever alerts advice you can give. it is really a liberal arts in a nut shell. he said just have fun. that was his advice. and he doesn't mean it -- that didn't take it that way. that doesn't mean no work. that means have fun in whatever you do. have fun socially and with friends but also have fun intellectually and academically. that is what helped shape me and let me on this strange and weird path of a career in life that i have known. i am not here to talk about my life and take you down memory

lane and that kind of thing or even talk about the time when cutler quad was still with students because we were out there all afternoon and into the evening watching a new band no one had heard of called fish play into the night as the sun set over pikes peak. it is about you, not my memories even though i have amazing memories from this place. when i was here sitting over there in the fs i had that feeling many of you are probably feeling right now. that feeling that i am graduating. this is great, that is huge. i also had this feeling of i am graduating? the fear of the real world and since i anacortes i have to describe it this way. your eyes are like deer in the headlights and you have sweat on your head. it was very much like that for

me. before we talk about the real world and what might be coming next let's talk about your accomplishments and what you have done right here. look around you left and right behind and in front. look at the friends you have and the friends you have made in these four years. friends that will stick with you for the rest of your life a lot of cases. look in these buildings. even though they are ugly -- that won anyway -- behind those windows and behind those windows and over in these buildings you studied here. you made it. you succeeded. sometimes you fail. but overall you succeeded. you look back at the mountains. that all of the mountains and you see conditions. a lot of the to classes up there and at least you ran around and learned what it is like to be in

the mountains. and look behind you and on the side. look at the friends and families that are here for you and that are still here for you. they cared enough. they love you and supported you and sacrificed and even though there may have been some bumps along the way they are still here for you. that is a huge accomplishment. so it is all over, all around you. it paid off. your graduating. you did it. when you look around, take a second to soak this in. you know what you are looking at right now. you are looking at the real world. that is a good thing. since i basically was where you are and i am one of you i know that is true. there is no phony disconnect between the supposed cc bubble and the real world. the best part is that doesn't

have to exist. the reason that is is because the things you learned here, the intellectual life, the friendships, the feeling of community, you still have that. you have those wonderful things about colorado college and you take those with you. it took me a certain amount of research and some years to figure that out. i am not talking about chipping off a chunk of paul or even though it is really nice stone. i am not talking about that. i am talking about taking things from your liberal arts education and from the creativity and the intellectual side of your life here, take that with you wherever you go. people's thaw. i have heard it and you guys have heard it. people talk about liberal arts education and say what you going to do with that? or even better, english major?

good luck. in my years after college, after this college, what i realized is the most important thing you take with you as a graduate work excruciatingly close to being a graduate one of the things you take with you is adaptability. what better way to teach adaptability than in a school that lets you digest an entire year's worth of material in a free-1/2 weeks. again and again and again. it is such a perfect preparation for life. as you already know and i am sure people have been telling you with sick satisfaction, the days of job stability and gold watches at retirement are long gone. that is less of important pandit voice. we are in the worst economy since the dinosaurs were the big

bank or the great depression or something like that. which means it is a perfect time for creatures like us. we are the little small furry creatures, not the dinosaurs. we are the ones that are adaptable and can figure things out on the fly. one of the most important things is this adaptability. take that with you. one thing that is harder to take with you is the box break. but don't despair. in my strange and wonderful job are somehow have developed a block break within my weekly schedule. for 20 years, under 20 years my cartoon deadline has fallen on when they because it is so

ingrained in my head. it is amazing. hundred this when they come about? it was from here? it can be possible. as you know, nothing beats the feeling of a block break except the feeling you are having right now. i am not talking about the hangovers. as far as the adaptability, in my strange and fun job i have had to adapt all alone. i left colorado college with the intense laser beam focus of getting a job at a newspaper as they're staffed political cartoonist which is a crazy weird thing to try to go for and it is a long shot in even the best of times. that didn't happen so instead

what i did was started self syndicating my own part in. selling it myself to newspapers all over the country and along the way what i decided to do was experiment with animation and i thought maybe i could animate these things and try that. and low and behold i get a job as a staff cartoonist that a newspaper, my dream job and did for a while but it was an awful time for the industry and the business for that particular paper so i left that and went back to political animation and i have been doing that ever since. i don't want to give you the phony impression that it was all this beautiful upward trajectory to creating my purple mountain majesties liberal arts curtains. it wasn't like that. had to figure out a way to

support my curtaining addiction and in order to do that i had to get a regular job. there was nothing wrong with that but it helped me build up my cartoon career and other first was that a a hardware store. the next one was my first job in the world of the media. in this media job, my job was to move pallets of magazines around a warehouse all day long but they were magazines you may have heard of. they were famous magazines. everything from better homes and gardens to penthouse to hustler to once i probably shouldn't mention. but that job didn't last long. i didn't stay very long because it was not all that rewarding. i went on to the next blob which was making color copies in

boulder. that might sound like a dolt job and boring as hell and you get tired quickly. the place where i worked it was almost like a little shop of liberal arts in large part because the owners encourage people who work there to pursue their outside interests and to explore and experiment with other things. that was the first place where i ended up standing in my cartoons and the first place i heard of this thing called the internet. which really kind of dates day. you never know where these side have will lead you so don't be too quick to jump into a career bought for thank you should be in a career box. go easy on yourself. you have heard the brilliant quote by insanely intelligent others about journeys and roads and paths so i will spare you

those now but it really is the journey that makes you who you are. to give you an example from my world of cartooning let the talk about the creative process. people always ask cartoonists how do you get your ideas or how do you come up with that stuff? people ask the same of poets and writers and other creative types as well. the best way for me to describe how are come up with that is to describe how i definitely don't come up with that stuff. a surefire path to killing a car to an idea or letting your creativity collapse into dust, the way to kill that is to spend the entire time change to a desk focusing on reading and research. now he is bashing reading and research but that is not the case. the majority of my job is still

spend on the journalistic side of the endeavour, doing reading and research and figuring out what is true and what is false and rolling that into a hopefully humorous yet enough to kiss people off club of opinions. so that is still part of it but the crucial part is what you do to provide that spark that build those ideas. it can be anything. it could be as simple as a walk down the street to a park. it could be a trip to borneo to see flying squirrel or a hike in the mountains or seeing a homeless person on the street and going fishing or tripping over a curb. any number of things that make up living life can help build that spark and build ideas and it is not just for me. it works for my curtains and my life but it is the same thing for novelists, ceos businesses.

the same thing. you need the outside creative spark. everything along the way even though it may not seem like it is essential to finding your way. what is the way? that is the fun part. figuring out the way. what is your path? right now it might seem a little nerve wracking but if you just go out and live life it will happen. living life might entail going to bed school. living life might entail spending time a ski town. whatever you do it is going to help you find your way. now that we have talked about living life and all that, let's talk about desperate. one of the most fun parts of my job is hearing from readers and viewers who sometimes like and sometimes not so much like my work.

to give you an example here is a person who sent me a comment, quote, is stupid childish curtain demonizing the tea party protesters, mark fiore needs to be killed along with his family. and for good measure the guy says the only good socialist is a dead socialist. fortunately not everybody who writes me and communicates with me has woken up on the wrong side of the bad. i think that person had issues but they probably think i have issues but what really grabs me are people who communicate with me and make me truly grateful for the people who are out there. here's another example someone send me. back in 2003 i was studying in denmark and was inspired by one of your cartoons criticizing the u.s. involvement in iraq for as is our lack of involvement in

sudan. i was so inspired focus my thesis on constructivism and humanitarian intervention. seven years later i continue to be inspired by the cause and spent years working with refugees. i am studying in west africa in the peace corps and love your cartoons. thanks for the information. i read that not to build myself up for the cartoons or whatever. the reason i read that is because these are the people that inspired me. they make me ask and should make you want to ask who am i and what mark and i going to leave on this world? how will people know you are here? and not to be more bid on such a beautiful happy day but i like to think of it in terms of after we are all dead and gone, how will they know we are here and what will they think of those? did you leave the world a brilliant invention? 11 family?

or wilderness preserve? a great body of work or an outdoor education can for kids? or life-saving medical breakthrough? or did you leave behind oil spills, mcmansions and mountaintop mining? the choices are not always that obvious between good and evil when i feel is good and evil but now is the time to start making those choicess and pay more attention to the direction you steer your life. you are in charge. is not about accumulating the most stuff. it is about leaving your mark and deciding what that mark is going to be. it is about growing and learning because that never stops. it is not just something that happens here. it happens all the time. and you are in trouble when it does stop. so you keep doing this. leaving your mark, making a difference, making life matter,

it is never too early to think about what you want to leave behind. you have it all here in this place. but fortunately you also have it in your head and in your heart. thank you. [applause] >> next supreme court justice sonia sotomayor. the high court's third female justice receive an honorary law degree and delivered the keynote address at the university of south carolina's at commencement ceremony last month. she spoke to a crowd of 11,000 in the colonial life arena in colombia, south carolina. her speech is 15 minutes. [applause]

>> are you excited, graduates? i am. thank you for this honorary degree. i am deeply touched and grateful to be a part of your class this year. everyone's in a while there are special moments in my life when i pinch myself just to make sure i am not dreaming. just before i came out i pinch myself. this is my very first trip to colombia, south carolina. i hope not my last. you may be among the largest audiences i have ever addressed. this is a bit of some. i know there are many parents, grandparents, and send uncles who are pinching yourself right now.

you dreamed about the baby you saw born growing up and graduating from college but i bet you really couldn't imagine what it would feel like to be here today on the day that reality, up with your dreams. maybe some of you in the class of 2011 and cures of too. when you started college or graduate school and often during your years of study. it may have seemed your graduation would never come. today you probably are thinking of the time has flown by too fast. trust me, class of 2,011, yes, you are awake and very soon you will be graduates of this prestigious university. i am so deeply honored to share this special day with you. looking out icy faces filled with the joy and pride of accomplishment. accomplishment born of years of

study, hard work and sacrifice and faces filled with hope for future that is made brighter by your efforts. i hope to commend what you have accomplished and to affirmed the optimism you feel. to accomplish my goals of an inspired by the coming mother's they to del two story about two remarkable mothers. the first is about my mother. the other is about beatrice burton. the mother of the first south carolinian that i ever met. she raised her children in new york city. vernon ray surge children in south carolina and born in georgia. those of you who grew up here in

the palmetto state might expect to have little in common with the migrants from puerto rico who raised two children in the south bronx but when you look past the surface my mother's story is filled with an uncanny resemblances to her story and resemblances i am absolutely sure to the lives of many of you in this auditorium. in my mother's story i believe the 0 would see her own and all of you will recognize the values that have guided you to this most significant and proud moment in all of your lives. my mother was born in puerto rico in 1927. although she grew up in a home filled with poverty and illness. my mom was able to find happiness in one saying. learning in school. at the end of the school day my mother would ride home to spend an hour among the trees behind

her house. there she would line up her towering friends in her imagination and use a stick as a pointer to teach the trees the lesson she had learned that day. at 17 and during world war ii my mom found a way out of her poverty while contributing for her country. she joined the army. just like many others including senator lindsey graham with whom i shared a stage at the law school and just like vernon's dad and i am sure the family members of many of you. she became a member of the woman's army corps and was stationed in new york. my mom that my dad, a mary and chose to stay in new york. that was a factory worker and my mom went to work in a private small hospital in the south bronx which would become her home for the next parity 5

years. the hospital's boss encouraged her to get a practical nursing degree which she did. regrettably my dad died at the age of 42 when i was 9 and my brother was 6. my mom was left alone and with two very young children. in most of my childhood my mother worked six day the week. she struggled to put my brother and me through college, through catholic school because she believed that was the best education she could afford for us. education was always paramount for my mother and threw her sacrifice we learned the value of education as well. when my brother and i were in high school my mom decided to pursue her own dream and went to college so she could earn more money to support us. so my mother at age 45 went back to school. who is the 72-year-old graduate in this audience? please have the courage to stand

up because i know what it took for you to do what you did. because i lived it with my own mama. i reviewed that classmate as an inspiration to all of you. it takes a dream come true and really hard work to make it happen. i congratulate that graduate. [applause] with an example like my mom and of you have to wonder what my brother and i had no choice but to do well in school. it is always because of the encouragement family and friends that all of us are inspired to do well in some way. that is true whether you grew up in a housing project in the south bronx or 81 traffic lights tell in south carolina like my friend vernon. i know that for effect because

of the second story i want to share with you today, the story of near and her son vernon who is an accomplished author and professor of history in south carolina. when i met him i was a college student and he was a graduate student working on his dissertation. it seemed to me at the time that vernon and i came from different worlds. he told me about activities he had done to help his family get by when he was a kid like running beagles and growing peanuts and boiling them for sale. i told him about the things i had done to help my family like selling clothes in a dress shop, working in a bakery beat a gofer in a business office. he talked to me about hunting and fishing, i talked about my hobbies, playing handball against the side of buildings

and watching the yankees. this university and i share a very deep bond. we both have a mutual love of the greatest american pastime, baseball. we have a deep admiration and love for bobby richardson, the new york yankees second baseman who i understand started the university's national baseball program. the gamecocks for winning the 2010 n.c.a.a. baseball national world series and yea to your football team. congratulations. [applause] when i first met vernon it seemed there were very few similarities between his world and mine but as i spend more time with him i learned that was not the case at all.

although he has some intriguing and beautiful southern drawl and ike is they have a heavy new york accent and although we came from such different backgrounds we nonetheless share many common values. for example we both shared an appreciation for the value of hard work. like my mom third and's mother was a young widow. vernon's dad died at six and just like my mom worked tirelessly to feed and educate her children. she was an insurance agent for hours and days at a time in her family. she worked most of her career like my mom with one company. just like my mom vernon's mother instilled in him the value of hard work and like my mother taught me, vernon's mother taught him to dedicate himself not only to supporting his

family but also contributing to his community by public service. we both learned from mothers who were our heroines to this day to love and cherish our families and to love our god, to support our country by being active plead original participating citizens and to be giving people to our neighbors and we learned that it matters less what you choose to do than what you do with whatever you choose that you do it with all your heart. vernon and my mom both shared an unyielding passion for education. when i met vernon he was need deep in his dissertation about reconstruction in the edge field district in south carolina and often carried around text books documenting the history of the five counties of that area.

i in turn was working on my undergraduate thesis on the legacy of the first elected governor of puerto rico. today the education as our mothers worked so hard to give us have taken us to places we could never have imagined. once a boy from the town of 96 in rural south carolina, vernon is now the director of the university institutes the delay professor and a historian. a girl from a public housing project in the bronx, i am today's supreme court justice and i often have to pinch myself about that. i suspect the story of my mother and vernon's, stories of hard work, sacrifice and the desire for better future is not dissimilar to that of many of your families in the audience. like my mom and vernon's many of your families have made enormous sacrifices for you to make it to this point today. even those of you who grew up in

more fortunate circumstances that i have have come to this point in your lives by the values you learned from your families and loved ones. everything we value, education, hard work, generosity, service on behalf of others, we learned from our loved ones. the challenges are greater today than those vernon and i faced when we graduated. the debts you have incurred are also much larger. i hope however that you do not measure the benefit of your education by how fast you get a first job or how much money you make or the public importance of your position. i hope instead that you measure the value of your education buyout it improves the quality of your lives and the lives of

those you ascribe to benefit. any student of life can learn holy with reflection. i hope that in the coming days and years each of you will think back on your years at this wonderful university and marvel at the immense value of that education. you will understand the value of having shared great sacrifices with your families and loved ones and appreciating their guidance and support. value is in the friends sitting next to you today who will cheer you on throughout europe lives. the value is in learning including from the many esteemed professors who are here to applaud you today about the generosity of sharing knowledge with others and the risk rewards of continuing to learn throughout europe lives. the value is in the challenges you have certainly met and

overcome while on this, challenges that i know have taught you to broaden your perspective and to be relentless in striving to improve yourself. being with you here today i see living proof of the values my mother taught me, the values that vernon was taught by his mother and values i know your families and friends have caught you. i hope your family recognizes these values in yourself. if you let them be your guide your life will be rich with personal and professional rewards. and you will enrich those around you. i hope for all of you and your family and friends, much julius