memorable. you are entitled to get a sense of the subtle skills and i mean this quite seriously, that go into this kind of platform work. your president thoughtfully advised me before we started, the first time i mention your name, i will not be presenting you, don't get up. and i appreciate that. because i restrained myself from standing up and looking silly while he continued to talk about me. i'm serious. that's a good lesson to learn about the importance of detail. i also want to acknowledge my appreciation for the great education lasell provides. we have a serious problem of excessive inequality in this country. in a capitalist system like ours which i support, you're going to have inequality. inequality helps make the system go. but you can get too much inequality. you can be socially and economically unnecessary and in the long term, the way to get rid of it is to provide an affordable education for young people from various backgrounds so they will get the kind of

jobs that they can continue to work in and earn some money. lasell is one of those that does that. so that gratitude i have allows me to overcome my slight resentment at lasell. i do live in the buildings right next door so i of course drive up and down woodland a lot, and the damage your speed bumps have done to the axle of my escort, it's a 1968 -- 1998 escort, it wasn't built for those speed bumps and i try to remember to slow down but sometimes at 11:30 i forget. but i forgive you your speed bumps. i want to talk briefly because this is the day for you and particularly the mothers, what should be more appropriate for a mother than to celebrate a commencement on mother's day and it's a happy coincidence or maybe not such a coincidence. congratulations to the people who picked this day. but let me talk to you briefly about a major issue that people

now graduating are going to decide because we are coming i hope to an end of an era, and it is the era in which the united states of america, out of good motives and on the whole with good results, took on the job of defending the rest of the world against evil and disruption. when we took that job on in 1945, and 1946, it was necessary because at the end of world war ii, most of the decent nations in the world were exhausted, bankrupted, impoverished by world war ii. the only nation that had any kind of real strength was the soviet union, also impoverished by world war ii but with an impressive system that allowed its brutal leaders to mobilize whatever resources they had into a powerful military force. so russia threatened central and western europe and the united states in a bipartisan basis stepped in and said no, we will protect the world and over the

ensuing period as the nazi threat was succeeded by the communist threat, america became the defender of the free world. now, that was carried to excess in some cases but on the whole, we played a very important role. today, that role is no longer either necessary, nor affordable for the united states. let me be clear. i want america -- i want america to continue to be the strongest nation in the world. some of my liberal friends say well, that's xenophobic. why do you want to be the strongest nation in the world? who else could be. i'll be honest with you, if denmark could be the strongest nation in the world, i would be pretty relaxed. they're nice people. but the only contender is china. makes me very nervous. better us than china. but we don't have to have the degree of protection for everybody else that we had 70 years ago.

it's time for us to say to western europe you're on your own. you don't need us anymore. there's nobody threatening you and if there was, you're strong enough to protect yourself. we no longer have to have the arsenal we once had to defeat the soviet union in a war because there ain't no more soviet union, there is a much weaker country called russia. we have not significantly scaled back and again, we need to be able to protect people. we should be present in the middle east. we have to worry about lunatics, maligned lunatics with nuclear weapons in north korea or iran and we try to stop it. but we have not sufficiently scaled back. here's the problem. the nazis are gone. we helped defeat them. the communists are gone. we outlasted them. we pressured them. now we have the terrorists. you have the terrorists are terrible people, vicious murderers and i want us to go after them but let us not elevate them to the level of the threat of the soviet union or the nazis. they do not threaten our existence. they threaten the lives of some of us.

we need to fight them. but the kind of weaponry and mobilization you need to defeat those people is not the same as you needed to fight a thermonuclear war. i wish nuclear submarines would defeat terrorism because we have them, they don't. we would win. it's a subtler but less expensive effort and we have made the mistake of thinking that. again, you look, there's a debate in america about raising the retirement age for social security. well, the retirement age in western europe is significantly below the american retirement age. you know why they can afford that? because they spend as a percentage of their gross domestic product far less than half of what we spend on the military. we defend them so they can retire earlier. now, i don't begrudge them early retirement but i don't want people, and people say well, why can't you work until 70, 72. take a woman who at the age of 19 started waiting tables and has been carrying those trays

and those dishes and breathing in the steam and emptying the slops for 48 years. if you want to tell her at 67 that after 48 years of carrying dishes, she can't retire, you do it. i won't. especially not -- [ applause ] especially not if it's to subsidize the germans, the french, the italians, et cetera, and not having to put up their own military. this is an important debate. there are people who think america should be the strongest nation in the world because that's our unique mission. well, shouldn't we be grateful that other nations let us do this. i think sometimes the most popular book in the world is tom sawyer. everybody else has figured out that they can get america to paint their fence and act like they're doing us a favor. let them paint their own fences, if they can afford it. there are not nations that need us. there's another mistake we make in this regard. it's in today's "new york times" front page, you probably haven't had a chance to read it yet.

we have a superb military. the volunteer military worked. i am enormously grateful to the young people. it's a tough business. i will tell you, i voted against the war in iraq, for the war in afghanistan. during my tenure in congress, any time someone from the district i represent has been killed in a war, i go to the funeral and they are the worst days of my life because particularly with regard to afghanistan, a young person died in a war i voted for and i hate that. it reminds me war is always terrible. it may be sometimes necessary, so i'm very careful about when to vote for it. i would vote again for the war in afghanistan. i didn't vote for the war in iraq in the first place and i feel vindicated but you got to be careful. these are wonderful young people and they do what a military can do. they can stop bad things from happening but the best military in the world can't make good things happening in a society outside of their own society. we can't make people in afghanistan democratic or not

corrupt. we can't make people in iraq get along who have deep-rooted ethnic hostilities and we have too often allowed the american military to be used to be the builder of democracy. it can be there to stop things and there's a great article in the "new york times" today, we had already spent over $500 million to help train the iraqi police and the iraqis finally said will you please get out of here, you don't know what you're doing. apparently one of the things we did was to send over police officers who said one way you can tell if someone is going to be a suicide bomber is if he starts to drink heavily and has drawn down his bank account. well, the most orthodox fanatical islamist, obviously not the majority of muslims but the most don't have bank accounts and don't drink. so you got to have some other guy in mind. these are people who don't believe in interest. literally, you can't pay interest and you don't drink.

we are wasting money and by the way, iraq isn't menaced by any outside element. what do we need to train their police for? they can train their own police. we can't be everywhere in the world. i will close with this. you are going to be told you got to cut back medicare and medicaid. one plan by the way was to say okay, medicare will be there if you're 55 or over, but for those of you under 55, there won't be medicare. they didn't mention you will continue to pay under that plan the medicare tax. you will be taxed but you won't get the benefit when you get there. take something that will be very relevant, i'm sure is very relevant to many of you, interest on student loans. we are now fighting about how to pay to keep it from doubling, from going back up to 7% something from 3.5%. people said well, we have to raise taxes, we have to cut out the prevention fund in medicare. no. let's get out of afghanistan about a year earlier and then we

can bring down your interest rate and we're not doing any good there. [ applause ] i don't want to take any more -- i should have said when i give a commencement speech people say what's it going to be about. it's going to be about seven or eight minutes, don't worry about it. but i urge you, prepare yourselves. your generation has the opportunity to scale back america's military commitments to what is necessary for our defense, for what is appropriate for democracy that wants to help others, but takes into account that the cold war is over, that our weak allies are no longer weak, that america no longer has to abrogate to itself the role of being the single great power and let everybody else shelter under our umbrella. let them buy a few umbrellas on their own and by the way, it's not raining that hard anyway in most of their areas.

that's the way that we can reduce our deficit which we should do without substantially reducing the quality of our lives and in particular, to close where i began, without underfunding places like this, places like community colleges. first rate educational institutions that give a wide range of american young people the skills they will need so they can make a decent living. we can afford that if we appropriately scale our expenses internationally. thank you. [ applause ] >> chairman turner is joining me at the podium. when barney franks speaks, you can always count on words of wisdom. thank you. representative barney frank, as

a national legislative and political leader for more than 40 years, you served the citizens of massachusetts with distinction. as a stalwart advocate for social justice, you have spoken for those who do not have a voice. you have served the commonwealth as a member of congress and a member of the state legislature and you have worked across the aisle to pass some of our country's most important pieces of legislation. as an exemplary leader who has worked hard for what you believe, you have shown throughout your career that one can embrace a lifetime of public service. to honor your contributions on behalf of the citizens of the united states, the commonwealth of massachusetts, and the city of newton, the board of trustees of lasell college confer upon you the degree of doctor of humane letters with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto. [ applause ]

congratulations. >> thank you. let me say a word. thank you. i go back to washington tuesday and for those of you who follow the news, i'm going to see if this is a hoodie you can wear on the floor of the house of representatives. >> joint chiefs of staff chairman general martin dempsey recently gave the commencement address at norwich university, the nation's first private military college. in his remarks, he talked about the legacy of the school and challenged the graduates to lead an uncommon life and to build relationships of trust. norwich university was founded in 1819 and it's known as the birthplace of the rotc, the reserve officers training corps. general dempsey speaks for about 15 minutes.

>> thanks very much. thanks. before i start my prepared remarks, let me just tell you, this is my first visit to norwich. i'm deeply honored to be here. but those of you that have been here or have been around norwich for your lives, many of you, maybe you would like the observation of an outsider and that observation is this. this is a special place. it's a special place because it's not just about cranking out graduates or issuing degrees. these people here at norwich and i know your families for sure really care what happens to you. there's a certain passion. in fact, i might have noted a bit of passion and emotion in your president as he was speaking about what it means to

be part of this norwich family, because that's what it is. so that's my outside observation. the other thing i will tell you, and congratulations for that, by the way. just as common sense isn't all that common, neither is that kind of genuine commitment to our young men and women who we are going to turn the future over to here later on today. the other thing you need to know is what do old guys talk about when they're waiting in the back of the room to march on. no, not the weather. and not our ailments, either, by the way. it's really the conversation was hey, do you remember who your commencement speaker was and almost to a man or woman, we said no, not really. i just have no idea who spoke at my commencement. not even sure what they talked about. so i want you to know that because i'm aware that i'm kind of like the corpse at an irish wake. you know that story. it's important that you have one but you shouldn't really expect too much out of him.

i really am deeply honored to be here and i do have a few thoughts to share with you. if you were to ask me okay, if you know they're not going to remember, why do you keep doing it. some day, somebody is going to remember something and i'm hoping that today's the day. so distinguished visitors, proud families and friends and of course, the class of 2012, it is genuinely a privilege to share this day with you. president schneider, thanks again for the invitation. general sutherland, thanks so much for the kind words. but these two men have made a lifelong commitment to this university. in fact, president schneider, several people mentioned to me that you are one of the best leaders they have ever come across and i put a great deal of stock in leadership, so i thank you for all you've done to set this particular group and many others, men and women and thousands before them, on a course to contribute to and to serve our nation, because that message in your remarks came out loud and clear. of course, your influence as a result reaches far beyond this

campus and well beyond today. i would also like to recognize the faculty and staff, some of whom, maybe even all of whom, have already been recognized but i want to especially point out their great support for our guard and reserve students, whether it's from accommodating early finals when they need to report for duty or helping them reunite with their studies and communities when they return home. thanks very much for that. general sullivan, of course, i always, i appreciate your kind words. you're the leader that i have always looked up to and respected, someone i have always wanted to be like. in fact, truth be known, i don't know of any general officer in the ranks today who doesn't want to be gordon sullivan, a visionary, a path finder, he transformed the army as its chief, paving the way for guys like me. he led the team that transformed our army following the cold war in the early '90s. he's a lifelong student of leadership, a gifted change

agent. he's humble to a fault and he's really, really stubborn. that's a quality that's not all that bad when you're trying to change things. his wife may disagree but the way i see it, he only has one flaw. it's sad but he has one. his shameless affinity for the boston red sox. as a yankee fan, i consider that a really big flaw. [ cheers and applause ] >> so there it went. that's probably the thing you're going to remember, right? the truth is, we all have flaws and oftentimes, we're not able to see them by ourselves and as we all know, none of us get to where we are without somebody else helping us along the way. so as rightly proud as you graduates are today of your

individual accomplishments and in reaching this milestone, it's important at every opportunity to remember the people whose love and support helped you get here. so i would like to ask all the family members of the class of 2012 to stand up so we can give you a round of applause. [ applause ] there is that little moment when you realize you have written your last tuition check as well, which -- for you graduates, don't forget to give your moms as mentioned an extra special hug today as part of the celebration. by the competing looks of fatigue and relief on your faces, i am aware that i'm the only thing standing between you and the rest of your lives. but i am the chairman of the joint chiefs and pretty much can do whatever i want.

but for those of of you in the front with a wearied look on your face, relax. the rustic isn't open yet. on the other hand, the naughty shamrock opens at 11:30, and i am irish, and so i will be brief. but i do need to share a couple of perspectives with you and would just ask you to consider them, whether you're headed to the border or to the battlefield. some may know i have a passionate curiosity for literature and for history. so on this date in history, 372 years ago on may 13, 1640, an early settler to the northeast by the name of edmund rice was

designated a freeman, and he went on to become a prominent leader >> i believe the these sure that of his community. two centuries later in 1856, one of edmund rice's descendants who went by the same name came here to norwich. in fact, this was a guy with real courage and meddle. he received the medal of honor for his actions at gettysburg. he was captured in spotsylvania but escaped and walked nearly 400 mimes to get back to federal lines. actually, that makes the 50-mile legacy march look a little tame. doesn't it? he was seriously wounded three times to include getting shot in the leg with artillery fire during the battle of antietam and it's antietam i want to connect with you here for a moment. antietam was the bloodiest day in american military history. 23,000 casualties in a single eight-hour period fought on a space not much larger than the upper parade ground.

at antietam cemetery there's a monument to the individual private soldier. it's actually one of the few monuments to a private soldier in all of our statuary related to our wars. the locals in antietam call it "old simon." at the base of old simon there are a few simple words that speak to the men over whom he stands, and with whom he will forever share that field. and those words are these -- not for themselves but for their country. not for themselves, but for their country. 23,000 young americans. i'd ask you to feel what those words mean, not just try to understand them. feel what they mean. not for your selves, but for your country, and keep them in the back of your mind, whether you go from here into the public sector or into the private

sector, or into the uniform services. that's my first challenge to you today. one of three. my second challenge is to ask you to seek to lead an uncommon life. by choosing to come to norwich, you're already on that path, but it's more than just coming to this unique campus. realizing it or not, you have already internalized norwich's values of honesty, temperance and wisdom, guideposts that will serve you as you lead our nation into the future and the core of norwich, dispin, confidence, intete grate, loyalty and honor. timeless traits shared upon any profession. it's not about elitism, or its long legacy, not about being one of the nation's best leadership development institutions. certainly it's some of all of those things, but norwich would be little more than a beautiful moniment to the past glory of

american leaders if it weren't for you. the next generation of leaders, where you go from here. and those things you bring with you when you leave the hill. president snyder once said it this way. a school is nothing but a building with four walls and a roof, and the future inside. and i love what he said next. norwich is in the futures business. these things, this unique family, the friends you've made and the range of opportunities you've experienced will empower your future in ways you can't even understand for now. but there is a part b to living an uncommon life that has to do with delivering outcomes and making an impact. when i was a graduate student at duke university i studied a bit of william blake, because i was intreepged by the way that he wove the written word with his illuminated manuscripts and i suppose i wanted to be

considered a renaissance man of some stature. i spent one entire smes tr working on what i thought was an incredible thought-provoking these pap thesis paper and decided i had him figured out until i got the c back at the end of the semester. and it really rocked me back, to tole you the truth spip went to the professor and i said, hey, look, i really worked hard on that paper. where's the reward here in all of that? and i'll never forget what that professor told me. he said, yeah, i'm sure did you work hard on that work, but we don't reward you for the effort, actually. we reward you for the outcome. and i'll tell you, that was a real moment, an important moment for me in my life, because frankly, i'd pretty much mastered most of what i had touched up to that point. and for the first time it became clear to me that hard work wasn't just what it's all about, it's part of it, but at the end of the day, if you aspire to

lead an uncommon life, you also have to deliver. you have to have an impact. you've got to achieve in whatever line of work you choose, or you won't succeed. this is true in my job now, and it will be in yours, and here's the message, from the first day. this is not something you can back your way into. you've got to start deliver, from day one. by the way, you're going to do this. this is not a bridge too far for you, bust i do want you to remember that your work is really just beginning. especially for those of you dressed like you're dressed. the last challenge i'll speak to you about, and some of you are really excited that i just said last, is creating relationships based in trust, and i heard the president speak about that a moment ago as well. it doesn't get anymore fundamental for us than trust. it's one of the pillars of the

strength of our nation. at every level it's trust that wins. it starts with trust in yourself. some of you have goals and dreams that you've had your entire life. and some of you are going to achieve those goals. others aren't even going to come close. life will kind of reach up and happen, and some of you will have to adjust and develop a whole new set of goals and dreams. but even there, i trust that you'll exceed beyond your wildest expectations, because you have that kind of trust in yourself. trust is built with relationships and confidence in each other. there has to be shoulder-to-shoulder trust relationships between citizen and soldier. norwich's founder, captain partridge, understood that and it's the reason he developed this institution wait he did. a brotherhood, sister and nation, and nation to nation with allies and partners. president eisenhower standing on

this very campus said it this way. progress constantly integrates. influence of man upon man and nation upon nation is the growing characteristic of our times, and i'll add to that, no clear cut distinguishes any it plonger. security cuts across lines of economic and social process, demands the support of an array of professions and skills as well as alliances, international systems and even voluntary organizations. and it requires the best from each of us and from all of us. you saet a powerful example las fall when so many volunteer the to help your vermont neighbors recover from tropical storm irene and the group of you that spent winter break building a community kitchen in a rural village in thailand completed the circle of trust that was

begun by your fellow students two years' prior. the enduring challenge for us all is to do what's right for ourselves, our families and for our nation. winston churchill said it this way. we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. as you put norwich in your rearview mirror, i ask you, actually, i urge you, to be leaders of character as so many of your norwich graduates before have become. live an uncommon life with consequence. build trust in every relationship and in everything you do. not for yourselves, but for your country. good luck to each of you. i admire and i salute your accomplishments. thanks in advance for what you're going to do, because i trust you. thank you very much.