underground boy scout troop, which absolutely happened -- underground scouts were very important in poland -- you've crated another group of political dissidents from otherwise apolitical teenagers. >> other featured interviews from our footnotes and q&a programs and c-span sundays at eight, from public affairs books, now available for a father's day gift at your local bookseller. >> next, we continue our look at some of this year's commencement speeches from around the country.

>> on the next washington journal, former transportation secretary ray lahood discusses u.s. competitiveness. derrick morgan at the heritage foundation talks about the prospects of immigration legislation and how it could impact the economy. washington post reporter david baron bold examines the job corps, described as the most expensive single job training program in the labor department. it we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> special operations commander raven. he is a u t

graduate. he described long swims through shark infested waters and wallowing in cold blood as part of the seals hell week. this is arguments. minutes. 20 >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you, president powers. members of the faculty. members of the faculty, family and friends, and most importantly a class of 2014. [applause] it is indeed an honor for me to be here tonight. it has been almost 37 years to the day that i graduated from u.t. i remember a lot of things about that day. i remember i had a throbbing headache from a party the night before. [applause] i remember i had a serious girlfriend who i later married.

[applause] that is important to remember, by the way. i remember being commission to the navy. of all the things i remember, i don't have a clue to the -- who the commencement speaker was, and i certainly don't remember anything they said. so acknowledging that fact, if i can't make the speech memorable, i will try to make it short. [laughter] the university slogan is, what starts here changes the world. i've got to admit i kind of like , it. what starts here changes the world. there are almost 8000 students here tonight. that's great paragon of analytical rigor, ask.com, says the average american will need -- will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. that is a lot of folks. if everyone of you change the lives of just 10 people, and each one of those people change the lives of another 10 people,

and another 10, then five generations in hundred 25 years, -- in 125 years, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people. [applause] think about it. over twice the population of the united states. go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world. 8 billion people. if you think it is hard to change the lives of 10 people, change their lives forever, you are wrong. i saw it happen every day in iraq and afghanistan. a young army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right and this 10 soldiers with him are saved from an ambush. in afghanistan, an officer from the female engagements team senses that something is not right and to direct the platoon away from a 500 pound ied. , saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.

if you think about it not only , were those soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children were saved. and their children's children. generations were saved by one decision, one person. changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it. what starts here can indeed change the world. the question is what will the world look like after you change it? i am confident that it will look much better. but if you will humor this old sailor for just a moment, i have a few suggestions that might help you. these lessons were learned during the time in the military, but i can assure you it matters not whether you serve today in uniform. -- whether you served a day in uniform it matters not your , gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, your social status. our struggles are similar and the lessons to overcome those

struggles and the lessons changing ourselves in changing the world around us will apply equally to all. i have been a navy seal for 36 years, but it all began when i left u.t. basic seal training is six months, a torturous run, midnight swims in cold water, obstacle courses, days without sleep, and always being cold, wet, and miserable. six months of being constantly it is harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming an navy seal. lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure, and hardship. it is a lifetime of challenge crammed into six months. here are the lessons i learned that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward. instructorsg, my

would show up in my barracks in the first thing they would do is inspect my dad. if you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers will be tight, but hello centered just under the headboard, and the extra blanket folded neatly. it was a simple task. monday night best. every morning we were required to make our beds to perfection. it seemed ridiculous at the time, in light of the factory were aspiring to be a real warriors. the wisdom of the simple act has been proven to me many times over. if you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. it'll give you a small sense of youe and it will encourage to do another task, and another, and another. by the end of the day, that's one task and we did will have turned into many. making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the

little things in life matter. if you can't do the little things right, you will never be able to do the big things. if by chance you have a miserable day, he will come home to a bed that is made. [laughter] that you made. it gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. [laughter] [applause] during seal training, the students are broken down into cruise. each crew to seven students, three on each side of the small boat. every day your cruel forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone. tothe winter it can be eight 10 feet high. that is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone helps.

every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count. everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave. for the boats to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. you can't change the world alone. you will need some help. startingget from your point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the goodwill of strangers, it is strange -- strong man to guide you. find someone to help you paddle. over a few weeks of training, my class would start with 150 men and was down to 40. there were boat crews of seven men each. i was with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of little guys,, th them unchkin crew. they had one american indian,

one african, one polish-american, one italian-american, it's too tough kids from the midwest. and out paddle, how brand, out slam all the others. they would always make good-natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet dryer to every swim. somehow these little guys from every corner of the nation and the world's had the last laugh. faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest. it was a great equalizer. nothing mattered but your will to succeed wil. world,want to change the measure a person by the size of their heart, not by the size of their flippers. week, themes a instructors would line up the class and do it uniform inspection. it was exceptionally thorough.

it had to be perfectly starched, pressed, belt buckles shiny, but it seen a matter how much effort you put into your hat or just wasn't good enough. the instructors would find something wrong. for uniform inspection, the student had to run, full lace loads into the surf zone, then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until you are covered in sand. the effect was known as sugar cookie. you state in the uniform for the rest of the day, cold, wet, and sandy. there were many a student to couldn't accept the fact that all their efforts were in vain, and a matter how hard they tried to get it right, it went unappreciated. must students and make it their training. must students didn't understand the purpose of the drill. succeed,ever going to you were never going to have a perfect uniform.

how well, no matter you prepare, or how well you as arm, you still end up sugar cookie. it is just the way life is. world,want to change the get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. training, young were challenged with multiple events, long runs, swims, obstacle courses, to test your mettle. if you fail to meet the standards or times, your name was posted on the list and at the end of the day goes on the list were invited to a circus. it was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down. no one wanted a circus. ed and for that day that you did not measure up. it's meant more fatigue and more fatigue meant the following day would be more difficult.

everyone,me, everyone, may the circus list. an interesting thing happened. students whoose did two hours of extra calisthenics got stronger. the circuses build inner strength and physical resiliency. filled with circuses. you will fail. you will likely fail often, it will be painful, it will be discouraging, at times it will test you to your very core. but if you want to change the world, don't be afraid of the circuses. at least twice a week the trainees are required to run the obstacle course. contains 25 course obstacles, including the wall, a cargo net, a barbed wire crawled -- but the most challenging was the slide for life. it had a three level, 30 foot

tower at one end into one level timer at the other. longtween was 200 foot rope. you had to climb the three tiered tower and at the top, you grab the rope, slung undereneath, and pull yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end. the record had stood for years when my class began. it seemed unbeatable. until one day, students decided to go down the slide for life headfirst. instead of swinging his body underneath the rope, he bravely mounted the top of the rope and thrust himself forward. it was a dangerous move. seemingly foolish and fraught with risk. failure could mean injury. without hesitation, he slid down the rope perilously fast, it only took him half the time. by the end of the course, he had broken the record. if you want to change the world,

sometimes you have to slide down the obstacles headfirst. during the warfare phase of students go to an island. the waters are a breeding ground for great white sharks. to pass training there along swims that must be completed, one is the night swim. the instructors jointly brief the students of all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters. i assure you, however, that's no student has ever been eaten by a shark. at least not that i can remember. but if a shark begins to circle your position, you were taught that you must stand your ground, do not stand away, do not be afraid will stop if the shark darts toward you, summon up all your strength and punch them in the snout. he will turn and swim away.

there are a lot of sharks in the world. if you want to complete the swim, you will have to deal with them. if you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks. jobs is to conduct underwater attacks. we practice this technique extensively during training. it's where a pair of divers are dropped in any harbor and swim well over two miles underwater using nothing but a depth gauge and compass to get to the target. during the entire swim, even well below the surface, there is some light that comes through. it is comforting to know that there is open water above you. ship, you approach the which is tied to appear, the light begins to fade. the structure of the ship blocks the moonlight, blocks the surrounding streetlamps, locks

all ambient light. to be successful, you have to swim under the ship and find the keyhole. this is your objective. but it is also the darkest part of the ship, where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, or the noise from the machinery is deafening. you can fail. under the knows that keyhole, at that darkest moment the mission, it is a time when you need to be calm. when you must be calm. you must be composed. in all your tactical skills, your physical power, enter inner strength must be brought to bear. change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moments. the ninth week of training is referred to as hell week. of no sleep,ks constant physical and mental harassment, and one special day

at the mudflaps. diegoan area between san and tijuana, where the water runs off and creates the tijuana sloughs. week on wednesday of hell that you paddle down to the mudflaps and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive this freezing cold, the howling wind, the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. as the sun began to set on that wednesday evening, my training class was ordered into the mud. the mud consumed each man until there was nothing visible but our heads. we coulductors told us leave the mud if only five men would quit. only five. we could get out of the cold. looking around the mud, it was apparent that some stews were about to give up. it was over eight hours until the sun came up.

chattering teeth, shivering loans -- moans... it was hard to hear anything. then one voice began to echo through the night. one voice raised in song. the song was terribly out of tune. but it was sung with great enthusiasm. and twoe became too, became three, and before long everyone was singing. the instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing, but the singing persisted. and somehow the mud seemed a little warmer home and the window little tamer, and the don not so far away. if i have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope, the power of one person, a washington, a lincoln, a mandela, who can change the world by giving people hope. if you want to change the world,

start singing when you are up to your neck in mud. finally, there was a bell. theass bell that hangs in center of the compound for all the students to see. quit hisave to do to ring the bell. ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5:00. you no longer have to be in the freezing cold swims. have to do the runs on the obstacle course. you no longer have to injure the hardships of training. all you have to do is ring the bell to get out. world,want to change the don't ever ring the bell. class of 2014, you are moments away from graduating. moment away from beginning your journey through life. the woods away from starting to change the world for the better. it will not be easy. of 2014,re the class

the class that can affect the lives of 800 million years -- people. find someone to help you through life, respect everyone, know that life is not fair and you will fail often. but if you take risks, step up when times are tough, face down the bully, lift up the downtrodden, and never give up, if you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. what started here will indeed have changed the world for the better. thank you very >> vermont senator patrick leahy was commencement speaker this year at green mountain college. he talked about challenges it graduates will face in the coming years. he is a senior member of the

senate and his third in-line in presidential succession. his remarks are just under 15 minutes. you very much. what of my best friends, chuck ross, the secretary of agriculture. i want to thank the members of the board of trustees, the faculty, the parents, the family, the class of 2014. thank you for inviting me. extraordinary. as the singing went on, i said, i used to go to a lot of grateful dead concerts. [applause] i actually remember them. wife sitting over

here, who knows i cannot carry a tune in a basket, if you do this, you might as well stay there because you not coming home tonight. [laughter] i decided not to. the president reminds us that he cares about the environment and he studies science. off.ain would hold peter welch was asked, what does he think about serving in the house of representatives way it has been lately, on questions of global warming. i serve with some of the finest minds of the 17th century. [laughter]

name of this college evokes the beauty of our state. just two decades shy of 200 years old. 1834, the green mountain college in 1974, the year i was first elected to the united states senate. i pay tribute to the resilience and thosestitution people who made it what it is today. , through thed on depths of the civil war, when they thought vermont would disappear as a state because of the losses we had. the great depression, the first and second world wars, vietnam, the recent global economic recession into the present day. i mention this history because i to those whoy

graduate today, your parents know the sleepless nights of hard work to get you to this point. that is something to remember always. .ou were fortunate you have acquired invaluable knowledge and skills. vermont in theto 1800s. leahy to getfirst a college degree. my sister the second one. i think of all of you here today . some of you may be the first and your family to get one. this is a very special moment. now the question is, what do you make of it? a college education is far

beyond the reach of millions of people your age. maybe even billions worldwide. in fact, we have been reminded in some countries, girls and women have no access to any formal education at any age. talk about a violation of human rights. remarkable in the 21st century when you and i can use our smartphones to download information, girls in northern beeria are kidnapped and may sold as property because they dared to seek an education. words, a school that taught something different than the distorted version of an ancient religion. inknow there are countries south asia, schools have been burnt to the ground and girls and young women killed just for

seeking an education. impossible when you sit , this veryin vermont , andal jewel of a state think about the education you have gotten. vietnam, you have one student here from vietnam. will he raise his hand, please? we visited the home of two aspiring students. the were struggling to read most elementary text because they suffer from severe mental and physical disabilities, most likely resulting from their parents spoke sure to --taminated herbicides

parents exposure to contaminated herbicides. country,magine if this the schoolyards, the national parks were contaminated with millions of unexploded mines? we have visited all of these landmine areas. we have helped with the clearing up of them. us toavels have taken countries where human trafficking and forced labor is common. one quarter to one half of them are children.

we have seen photographs with child refugees and child soldiers and no scavenger and dump sites. you might ask why on a joyous day like this that i mention the history. it is today's inescapable reality. you, because of the fortunate position you are in, you are in a position to change that reality. i hope you will. you live in a time that is both unchanged, but drastically different from the world your parents inherited. millions of people are suffering from poverty and more, they are no longer invisible. that is why the president is sending u.s. military advisers .nd the fbi nigeria the world was shocked into

consciousness by millions of e-mails worldwide. something your parents and my parents would not have imagined. an example of something that it can suddenly galvanize people and from pages all over the world. it reminds me of the international campaign to and landmines. -- to ban landmines. they use social media worldwide to do this. i even helped write a batman comic book that was used to ban landmines. i wish i would've kept more of them, they are a valuable collector's item now. [laughter] wepassed a law that said would no longer export landmines. 161 nations have signed the treaty. yo