relying on values-based guideposts, a challenge of making those important decisions, these priorities lay a foundation for continuing long-term success of an enterprise. they help create a vision and help to build an inclusive community and they foster open communications and trust and excitement in the organization. leaders are the builders and the stewards. they have to be based on values. thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today. i hope they are helpful as you shape your own leadership approach. congratulations on your graduation from this outstanding university. thank you. [applause] >> former president bill clinton was the commencement speaker of the graduation ceremony at howard university in washington, d.c. the former president's speech is about 30 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you for meeting me outside. as the father of a grown daughter, i wonder if you shared my experience. it is humbling and rewarding and occasionally frustrating to have a child who knows more about aboutthing than you do. everything. [laughter] i think she ought she did when she was in high school, but eventually it was true. i'm honored to be here. thank you for the degree. thank you to the governor for

his introduction. we have been friends for a long time. we served together. i was impressed by his leadership as a governor and also when he went back to serve as mayor. i asked him, don't you enjoy being there? he said, yeah, but the good news is you're closer to the people. the bad news is your host enough -- you are close enough for them to strangle you if you mess up. [laughter] it is great to be here at howard. in 2009, i was in that it as an honorary -- inducted as an honorary member at an -- five beta sigma .- phi beta sigma

[applause] i'm not quite that old although i looked it. i'm also glad to be here because of the record of this great university. i want to try to talk about not only howard's leadership and preparing people for science and engineering and technology at mathematic careers -- also the phenomenal success you have a producing female which i am impressed with. more important is all the -- morent principles. importantly is all of the leadership that howard has shown in all of these different rents

of goals. thank you for the community service you have been here while at howard. thank you for your interest in doing this around the world. i had pulled from the records the number of commitments involving howard university students or faculty made through the clinton global initiative network. there were 10 different commitments. the most recent of which is that howard is one of 13 medical schools committed to totally retrain the healthcare workforce in rwanda. [applause] it was devastated by genocide. all the hospitals except the one in the capital city were destroyed. my friend help to rebuild it. but they do not want to take in any foreign assistance from anyone to do anything after

2020. they had to have hospitals and people trying to work their and but o work there, clinics and community health workers. they asked us to put together a plan to do it. austen goolsbee and other life- threatening diseases agreed to finance this for a year now. you should be really proud of howard. every one of these schools including howard are committed to doing this work for three or four years for only seven percent overhead. the lowest in history of any foreign assistance programs. you should be proud. [applause] you will save countless for decades and decades.

i am well aware that the commencement speech is the least important part of this day. i congratulate all of you who are here. your parents and your friends and your loved ones. thank you to those who taught a new mesh -- taught you. i remember who gave my commencement speech 45 years ago next month. i remember exactly what the speech was. we were like this on the lawn at georgetown. it started out to be a clear day. then a huge storm cloud came over. the lightning began to dance in the sky.

a howard graduate, the mayor of washington, d.c., stood up at the podium and look at the sky and the students and said, congratulations. if we did not get out of here, we will all drown. [laughter] if you want a copy of my speech, i will send you one. good luck. and off we went. [laughter] what did i learn from that? the most successful commencement speeches are brief and highly relevant. wherever you are, mr. mayor, thank you for the memories.

when you leave here, it is important for you to remember that you have been empowered to do something most people who have ever lived cannot do. even with employment situation and the economic challenges, virtually all of you have the power to choose what you will do to earn a living. including billions of people on -- it may seem self-evident, that including billions of people on the face of the earth today never had that choice. they simply did whatever was at hand in whatever form it presented itself to put food on the table and it had a family to support, to support their families.you have a choice.

the only advice i have is this try to do something that makes you happy. people are happy doing what they are best at. you have that gift. you can see it in trade and travel and increasing diversity. you are going out into a world that is the most interdependent world in history. look at how diverse america is. pretty soon there will be no majority race. there is the majority race in california or hawaii.and by 2050, there will be no majority in america. we will be one big group of people that will have to think of something to hold ourselves together. it is very important. the second thing i want to say to you is this -- the world has

many challenges. you know them. there is too much inequality. it has manifested that college students have debt and wonder if they will ever repay it. that is manifested for people who do not have a college degree because they have been working 10 years without much of a pay raise. it has manifested all over the --rld by a global. crisis for by a global jobs crisis for young people. when the arab spring occurred in egypt and you saw the young people in tahrir square, ever university square.

there's a lot of instability in the world. manifested by the financial crisis and a quick bit sped and also howorld. these wonderful open borders can lead to what happened at the boston marathon. two boys come here looking for a college education and seem to be doing well. and theyg goes wrong. decide that the only way that their lives have meaning as to take other people's lives away. they were not empowered as you just about a year before, another young man tried to blow up

obama new york. he and his wife both have college degrees. tried to blow up a bomb in new york. he and his wife own had college degrees. he thought the only way his life could matter is if you took with the lives of people he did not even know. so, the first decision we have to make before we can get to the policies and all of the things that would change the world for the better is to share the future. create a world of shared bus parity.-- of shared prosperity sharedhere is a prosperity and everyone can be a part of a community as long as they

believe in certain values, including equal treatment and the absence of violence and the opportunity to begin again. this whole thing comes down to what we think the future would be better if we faced it with open hands or closed fists. one of the things that when president obama asked hillary clinton to be secretary of state and they developed a working relationship and amazing friendship which i watched with great interest -- [laughter] aw, come on, guys. when you are as old as i am, you will be able to laugh about this they fought this huge campaign, tooth and nail, trench campaign, down to the end, he

was big enough to ask her secretary and she was big enough to take it.[applause] they trusted each other. they acknowledged their and their positions were not there -- and their positions were not that profound and they work for the things we believe in. it was amazing.and i would travel around the world as my foundation works in 70-80 countries given on what projects we would work on in any year and all these politicians i used to know would marvel at this. they said -- this is the way this is supposed to work. we have differences, we have an election and it is over. people people join hands and work together. washington is dysfunctional

today largely because people can't find anything to work together on.[applause] they think our differences are more important than what we have in common. wait for the next election, maybe you will gain power. i say that because everyone of us has to make make a decision like that every day. you can't live in a world that is interdependent, where the walls come down, and borders look like nets. you cannot keep every bad thing out anyway. unless most people believe that what we have in common is more important than our interesting differences. it turns out that there is not only a religious basis for this and all faiths, the quran says that all output different people allaays that a la

earthifferent people on the are not that they might despise one another that they might come to know one another and learn more on another. the torah says that he who turns aside from a stranger might as well turn aside from the most a by god. the christian bible says you should love your neighbor as yourself. it is the second most important commandment after loving god.

the buddhist says that if -- you are not truly human unless when you see the arrow piercing your neighbor's body, you feel as if it had pierce yours. in addition to that, we now know that it is scientifically true. i spent $3 billion of your money to finish the sequencing of the human genome. [applause] all the people and the scientists will tell you what has happened. it is the best money we have ever spent. it has generated best -- massive economic prosperity. we have learned patterns that make little children susceptible to certain kinds of cancers. medicines have been developed which have saved their lives. we have just begun. the most important thing for all of you is that when the genome was sequenced, we learned that every -- look around this crowd, every non-age related difference you can see, including race and gender, are all rooted in one half of one percent of your genome. we are all 99.5% the same.

because of our ability to do genetic history, we have found interesting relatives. you know. which has made for funny things. -- some politicians found out in their lineage embarrassments of their current politics. [laughter] the most important thing is, we before we get same. to arrogant about this, we all spend 99.5% of our time thinking about the half of percent of us is different. don't we? all of us. you walk down the street by store windows, you see your reflection, you think i wish i was taller. that is also focusing on the half percent. ite half of percent matters.

gave einstein the biggest brain ever measured and he made use of it. a good thing. that 0.5% means lebron james is hard to stop at the striving for the basket. the 0.5% matters. so does the 99.5%. that's why this service counts. when you leave here, i want you never to forget for the rest of your life in good times and bad that you live in an interdependent world, and we have to pull it together, which means you have to do something sometimes for somebody else because they are just like you are.[applause] thet is really important. last point i want to make is that it is very good economics. a few years ago, and american journalists wrote a book called

"the wisdom of crowds." he chronicled all these experiments, which come down to this. if i pick 20 of you at random from this crowd, and i put you in a nice room, and the person with the highest measured iq in this entire crowd, the biggest genius, when into another room, and we kept feeding questions in there, had you solve this problem, that problem, how can we end up road hunger -- world hunger, how can we create more jobs for young americans, how can we employ the long-term unemployed people who don't have if i justol diplomas. kept feeding questions in over time, the room would make better decisions than the room with the genius. it turns out, there is economic and social imperative that compels those of us who understand it to work together.

it turns out to creative cooperation works better than constant conflict. we forget that.-- we forget that at our peril. if you can't share the future, unless you share responsibility for building it. i implore you to look for opportunities to do that. [applause] the last thing i would say is that you are living in a time that is changing focus -- so fast, it is more likely than not a even if you start off fast, something will happen that you will find frustrating. you have to be able to begin again. you have to be able to begin again without blaming somebody else, in a way that isolates you from them.

perhaps we will never know what tipped the scales of those young men who did the terrible thing the boston marathon. perhaps we will never fully understand what happened to that young man who drove the car bomb into times square. all the others who found that all their cooperation options were close, and the only way they could say hey look at me, i matter, i mean something, to take somebody else down. if you were going to avoid that, you have to be able to begin again. the thing i liked about being here today is that you still like to laugh. it is a part all cultural -- is a part of our culture and it is essential in life. but i will close with this story.

i hope you will remember it. try to do something that makes you happy. try to find a way to serve. try never to forget what we have in common is more important than our interesting and profoundly important differences. don't give up on yourself. or your life. one of the most rewarding experiences that i had, or have had since i left the white house, is the opportunity to work in south asia after that horrible tsunami which occurred a couple of years before hurricane katrina. it was devastating to indonesia and southeast india and sri lanka. parts of thailand. president bush asked me to work with his father for a while. i did that. i work with the u.n. for two years. we had a great time. because of the disaster am a long-standing civil conflict in

indonesia was settled, because it brought back the fishing to them together. we brought new opportunities to grow and sell coffee to them together. but in every disaster, as you remember from katrina, and as we see in haiti, where i'm working, the housing is always the hardest thing to fix. there was one tent city, which 40,000 people in indonesia were sweltering, miserable in these hot tents. as the u.n. coordinator, i had to go visit and let them on load me because we were six months late in getting them out of there. i showed up and the president of the camp was there. they had elected a president. he introduced me to his wife,

and to his son. a 10-year-old boy, that i still believe to this day is the single most beautiful child i've ever seen. his eyes were luminous. i had a young indonesian woman working as my interpreter. when i started the two were -- tour, the mother and son went off. i said, i believe that is the most beautiful boy i've ever seen in my life. she said, yes him and he is very handsome. before the soon on the, he had -- he for the tsunami, he had nine brothers and sisters. they are all gone. every last one of them. i have two points to make. first, this man, who had lost nine of his 10 children, let me through that camp with a smile on his face, and never talked about anything but what those other people needed, and what he needed me to do for them. he honored his children by pouring himself into meeting the needs of the people left on

earth. so, we do the tour. they ended at the health clinic. he were talking, and all of a sudden, the man's wife showed up again. this time, holding a three-day- old baby. she said, this is our youngest resident. we want you to name this child. she was carrying the baby, not the mother. i hesitate to tell you all this, but a mother gives birth when you baby, she gets to go to bed for 40 days and be waited on. [laughter] you should ask congressman cummings to introduce that next week preset how far that gets in the congress. this woman, who had lost nine of her 10 children,'s -- nine of

her 10 children, was holding baby. i said, you will be to name the child?-- i said, you really want me to name this child? it was a boy. they said yes. i said, they're my interpreter, what is the word in your language that can be an name ahat means new beginning? this woman got a big smile on her face. she said to me to my yes, lucky for you, and our language the word dawn is a boy's name. we will name this boy dawn.

he will be the symbol of our new beginning. i am telling you this because no matter what happens to you, it is highly unlikely that you will ever face anything as awful as what happened to that mother and father. they somehow found the strength to treasure the ones who remained, and to serve others. that is the heritage that you take with you from howard. that is what your people are doing in rwanda half a world away. if you do what makes you happy, and you don't give up, and you keep serving, i think you will live in the most interesting, prosperous, and peaceful time in human history. good luck. god bless you all. [applause] >> on the next "washington journal," we will talk about president obama's commencement

speech with joe madison and crystal right. then, energy issues facing the u.s. including hydraulic fracturing in the keystone xl pipeline with michael levi. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. the profile and courage award is prevented -- is prevented each year at the john f. kennedy library in boston. this year is gabrielle giffords. i'll hunt introduces caroline kennedy, who presents the award to ms. givers. this is 15 minutes. >> we have a high-powered committee. there are senators and house members and democrats and republicans and some of the greatest warriors. even newspaper editors.

all of us know who our leader is. she inherited her father's and mother's intelligence, charm, grace and diplomacy. the heart and soul of this magnificent place and this marvelous award, caroline kennedy. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, al. i thought ken would introduce me. that was so much nicer. thank you all for coming. this is always a special day for my family and the kennedy library to commemorate my father's birthday and honor those with the virtue -- courage.

we also remember his death. our family is still suffering from gun violence. no one should have to lose a husband, a wife, a father, a child to senseless murder. as our on a rehash on out of that pain and tragedy, we must find the strength to carry on to give meaning to our lives and build a more just world. the work that my uncle teddy did to carry on for my father. the uniquely courageous woman we honor today reminds us all how precious life is and how the human spirit can triumph over hatred and violence. before we begin today's presentation, the ceremony, i

would like to salute the first responders of boston. all americans have been inspired by the countless acts of compassion we saw in the violence that struck this city on patriots' day. we pray for those who lost their lives and those who are fighting to recover. we give thanks to the men and women who we gave a path of hope. my family and this library are proud to call boston home. now we honor a woman who inspires the entire world. gabrielle giffords has turned a personal nightmare into a movement for political change. after an assassination attempt ended her congressional career and left her with grave injuries, she returned to public life as an advocate for new legislation to prevent gun violence. when others would have withdrawn from public life, she has challenged us all to reengage in the political process. when others would have given up

hope, she has been unwavering that politics can solve problems. when others would have looked for excuses, gabby has inspired action. even before she was injured, gabby was a profile in courage. she was outspoken in her commitment to discourse despite threats over votes she had cast. since then, with the support of her remarkable husband, mark, she has not fallen silent. she understands this is not going to be easy and it will not happen quickly, but it is the right thing to do. she perseveres for newtown and aurora and chicago and tucson. her courage has already changed the way we look at guns in this country. her work will spare countless families from the loss caused by violence.

as she wrote in the "new york times," "to do nothing while others are in danger is not the right way." it is my profound honor to present her with the profile in courage award. [applause]

>> thank you, caroline. thank you so much for recognizing my wife's extraordinary courage. to be honored along with people she admires deeply like congressman john lewis is amazing to gabby. i know that. i have to say the determination and the valor my wife displays every single day has redefined the word "courage" for me. we have spent a lot of time at the kennedy space center. the only place on the globe from which humans have departed our

planet on a trip to the moon and from where i commanded both space shuttles, discovery and endeavor. even though it is not our first time at the kennedy library in boston, we are glad to be back. we are so sorry for the violence and terror that all of you have endured. we know what that is like. i saw combat in iraq and kuwait. gabby lived through a mass shooting. we know how violence changes lives. we know that those touched by violence and matters less what you call it. crime, terrorism, war -- because violence defies categories -- it draws a line in the sand and time before and after.

before, gabby could ride her motorcycle around the foothills of the mountains and speak easily and often to her neighbors and after. before, when parents in tucson or martin richard's parents could go to sleep wondering what wonderful thing their child would say when he woke up the next morning and after. for the victims of boston, the boston marathon bombing who we spent time with today at a rehab center. before when they gathered on a sunny day of the physical strength and determination watching the runners go by and after when they must find the physical strength and

determination necessary for their own recovery. we extend our deepest sympathies to all of you who have endured violence and loss here. but courage for us, it is about doing everything we possibly can to make sure that fewer parents face that loss. for me, it meant learning more about politics. previously, i handled the spaceflight travel responsibilities in our marriage, and gabby handled the politics. but now we have to do to the politics together. for gabby, her courage is the equivalent of a lunar mission. she has set her sights on a distant horizon, a country that will be dramatically safer from gun violence, and she works hard each and every day with physical

therapy, speech therapy, and also a little bit of yoga to make sure she is in shape to get there. and there are many doubters, many who think the nra and the rest of the gun lobby is simply too powerful, many who think are deep and patriotic support of the second amendment, which, by the way, gabby and i share, would prevent us from making progress. many who view the failure of the senate to pass expanded background checks last week have thrown up their hands in anger and disgust. that is fine. our friend jim lovell, the commander of apollo xiii, remembers being amazed. he was amazed in 1961 when president kennedy said we would get to the moon. jim says that he thought that was impossible. then, as many of you know, he flew there, twice.

jim says there are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happens, and there are people who wondered what happened. [laughter] to be successful you need to be a person who makes things happen. gabby giffords is a person who makes things happen. [applause] gabby has chosen to help inspire, organize, and motivate a nation that is fed up with violence and fed up with congressional inaction, and she has chosen to focus us on coming together and taking concrete steps that will keep families and communities safer. her courage inspires us daily, but i know she is inspired by the courage of those who came before her, those she met today and those hundreds of thousands

of americans all across the country who are joining her each and every day, those who are sending checks for $5, $10, that they may need in tough times, to stand shoulder to shoulder with gabby, those who are talking to their friends at the grocery store and at the water cooler and on playgrounds and saying, we can do better, and i am standing with gabby giffords to get it done. i know she is inspired by the courage, by her friend and staffer gabe zimmerman, who ran toward her and toward danger during the terrible shooting in tucson and lost his life trying to help. president kennedy said, the stories of past courage can teach, they can offer hope, they

can provide inspiration, but they cannot supply courage itself. for this, each man or woman, must look into their own soul. gabby's courage is limitless and powerful. we ask for your courage in joining us to make sure we achieve our goal of a safer america for all of us. i would like to introduce you to the woman who reminds me each and every day to deny the acceptance of failure, my beautiful wife, gabrielle giffords. [applause] >> thank you to the kennedy family for this award.

i appreciate it very much. i believe we all have courage inside. i wish there was more courage in congress. [laughter] sometimes it is hard to express it. i know. it has been a hard two years for me, but i want to make the world a better place, more than ever. thank you. [applause] thank you. >> thank you very much. [applause]

>> next, education secretary arne duncan. later, your called and comment on "washington journal." >> when the attorney general arranged me in california after the extradition, he indicated that he wanted the death penalty on each of the three charges. he wanted the death penalty three times. that made me realize how serious they were. and again it made me realize that it was not about me because first of all, i cannot be killed three times. it was about the conception of this imaginary enemy, and i was the embodiment of that enemy.

>> she was not that interested in talking about what happened. this period -- the crime, the implications, being chased by the fbi, the love story, she was not that interested in talking about it. she was also one of these people you do not necessarily go to directly. and i was trying to get to her directly. i figured out that there were very important people in her life, and i took the way at the people she knew and trusted. was able to get points with them, write letters, and get them involved, let them see my previous work. and slowly, she came around, and she agreed to meet me. >> filmmaker shola lynch on the 1960's radical activist angela davis.