Learn English with President Obama Speech at Michigan University English Subtitles
through your achievements in your words
you’ve inspired and encouraged our
nation to become a more perfect union in
these difficult times you have
challenged us to open our minds and work
together to reach common ground your
life exemplifies the power of Education
to create new opportunities and to offer
significant contributions to our society
for all you have accomplished and for
your leadership of this great nation the
University of Michigan is deeply honored
to present you with the honorary degree
Doctor of Laws congratulations
by the authority of the state of
Michigan vested in the Board of Regents
and by them delegated to me I now confer
upon you Barack H Obama the degree
Doctor of Laws and admit you to all of
its rights honors and privileges
thank you
thank you very much thank you
thank you very much thank you thank you
everybody please be seated
oh I love you back
[Applause]
it is great to be here in the big house
and so may I say go blue
I thought I’d go for the cheap applause
line to start things off
good afternoon president Coleman the
Board of Trustees to faculty parents
family and friends of the class of 2010
congratulations on your graduation and
thank you for allowing me the honor of
being a part of it let me acknowledge
your wonderful Governor jennifer
Granholm
[Music]
your Mayor John Heath J and all the
members of Congress who are here today
it is a privilege to be with you on this
happy occasion and you know it’s nice to
spend a little time outside of
Washington now don’t get me wrong
Washington is a beautiful city it’s very
nice living above the store you can’t
beat the commute
it’s just sometimes all you hear in
Washington is the clamor of politics and
all that noise can drown out the voices
of the people who sent you there so when
I took office I decided that each night
I would read ten letters out of the tens
of thousands that are sent to us by
ordinary Americans every day this is my
modest effort to remind myself of why I
ran in the first place and some of these
letters tell stories of heartache and
struggle some express gratitude some
express anger I’d say a good solid third
called me an idiot which is how I know
but I’m getting a good representative
sample
some of the letters make you think like
the one that I received last month from
a kindergarten class in Virginia now the
teacher of this class instructed the
students to ask me any question they
wanted so one ask how do you do your job
another ass do you work a lot
somebody wanted to know if I wear a
black jacket or if I have a beard
so clearly they were getting me mixed up
with the other tall guy from Illinois
and one of my favorites was from a kid
who wanted to know if I lived next to a
volcano
I’m still trying to piece the thought
process on this one love this letter but
it was the last question from the last
student in the letter that gave me
possible the student asked are people
being nice are people being nice well if
you turn on the news today or yesterday
or a week ago or a month ago
particularly one of the cable channels
you can see
you can see why even a kindergartner
would ask this question we’ve got
politicians calling each other all sorts
of unflattering names
pundants and Talking Heads shout at each
other the media tends to play up every
hint of conflict because it makes for a
sexier story which means anyone
interested in getting coverage feels
compelled to make their arguments as
outrageous and as incendiary as possible
now some of this contentiousness can be
attributed to the incredibly difficult
moment in which we find ourselves as a
nation fact is when you leave here today
you will search for work and an economy
that is still emerging from the worst
crisis since the Great Depression you
live in a century where the speed with
which jobs and industries move across
the globe is forcing Ameri to compete
like never before you will raise your
children at a time when threats like
terrorism and climate change aren’t
confined within the borders of any one
country and as our world grows smaller
and more connected you will live and
work with more people who don’t look
like you or think like you or come from
where you do I really enjoyed Alex’s
remarks because that’s a lot of change
and all these changes all these
challenges inevitably cause some tension
in the body politic they make people
worry about the future and sometimes
they get people riled up but I think
it’s important that we maintain some
historic perspective since the days of
our founding American politics has never
been a particularly nice business it’s
always been a little less genteel during
times of great change
a newspaper of the opposing party once
editorialized that if Thomas Jefferson
were elected murder robbery rape
adultery and incest will be openly
taught and practiced not subtle
opponents of Andrew Jackson often
referred to his mother as a common
prostitute which seems the low
over-the-top presidents from Teddy
Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson have been
accused of promoting socialism or worse
and we’ve had arguments between
politicians that have been settled with
actual duels there was even a caning
once on the floor of the United States
Senate which I’m happy to say it didn’t
happen while I was there it was a few
years before the port the point is
politics has never been for the thin
skinned or the faint of heart and if you
enter the arena you should expect to get
roughed up
moreover democracy in a nation of more
than 300 million people is inherently
difficult it’s always been noisy and
messy contentious complicated we’ve been
fighting about the proper size and role
of government since the days the framers
gathered in Philadelphia we’ve battled
over the meaning of individual freedom
and equality since the Bill of Rights
was drafted as our economy has shifted
emphasis from agriculture to industry to
information to technology we have argued
and struggled at each and every juncture
over the best way to ensure that all of
our citizens have a shot at opportunity
so before we get too depressed about the
current state of our politics let’s
remember our history the great debates
of the past all stirred great passions
they all made somebody angry and at
least once led to a terrible war what is
amazing is that despite all the conflict
despite all its flaws and it’s
frustrations our experiment and
democracy has worked better than any
form of government on earth
[Applause]
on the last day of the Constitutional
Convention Benjamin Franklin was
famously asked well doctor what have we
got a republic or a monarchy and
Franklin gave an answer that’s been
quoted for ages he said a republic if
you can keep it if you can keep it well
for more than 200 years we have kept it
to revolution and Civil War our
democracy has survived through
depression and World War it has
prevailed through periods of great
social and economic unrest from civil
rights to women’s rights it has allowed
us slowly sometimes painfully to move
towards a more perfect union
and so now class of 2010 the question
for your generation is this how will you
keep our democracy going at a moment
when our challenges seem so big and our
politics seem so small how will you keep
our democracy alive and vibrant how will
you keep it well in this century now I’m
not here to offer her some grand theory
or detailed policy prescription but let
me offer a few brief effectives based on
my own experiences and the experiences
of our country over the last two
centuries
first of all American democracy has
thrived because we have recognized the
need for a government that while limited
can still help us adapt to a changing
world on the fourth panel of the
Jefferson Memorial is a quote I remember
reading to my daughters during our first
visit there it says I am NOT an advocate
for frequent changes in laws and
constitutions but with the change of
circumstances institutions must advance
also to keep pace with the times
the democracy designed by Jefferson and
the other founders was never intended to
solve every problem with a new law or a
new program having thrown off the
tyranny of the British Empire the first
Americans were understandably skeptical
of government and ever since we’ve
helped faster the belief that government
doesn’t have all the answers and we have
cherished and fiercely defended our
individual freedom
that’s a strand of our nation’s DNA but
the other strand is the belief that
there are some things we can only do
together as one nation and that our
government must keep pace with the times
when America expanded from a few
colonies to an entire continent and we
needed a way to reach the Pacific our
government helped build the railroads
when we transition from an economy based
on farms to one based on factories and
workers needed new skills and training
our nations set up a system of public
high schools when the markets crashed
during the Depression and people lost
their life savings our government put in
place a set of rules and safeguards to
make sure that such a crisis never
happened again and then put a safety net
in place to make sure that our elders
would never be impoverished the way they
had been and because our markets and
financial systems have evolved since
then we’re now putting in place new
rules and safeguards to protect the
American people now this notion
[Applause]
this notion class hasn’t always been
partisan it was the first Republican
President Abraham Lincoln who said the
role of government is to do for the
people what they cannot do better for
themselves and he’d go on to begin that
first Intercontinental railroad and set
up the first land grant colleges it was
another Republican Teddy Roosevelt who
said the object of government is the
welfare of the people and he’s
remembered for using the power of
government to break up monopolies and
establish our National Park System
[Applause]
Democrat Lyndon Johnson announced the
Great Society during commencement here
at Michigan but it was the Republican
president before him Dwight Eisenhower
who launched the massive government
undertaking known as the interstate
highway system of course there have
always been those who opposed such
efforts they argue government
intervention is usually inefficient but
it restricts individual freedom and
dampens individual initiative and in
certain instances that’s been true you
know for many years we had a welfare
system that too often discouraged people
from taking responsibility for their own
upward mobility at times we’ve neglected
the role of parents rather than
government in cultivating a child’s
education and sometimes regulations fail
sometimes their benefits don’t justify
their costs but what troubles me is when
I hear people say that all of government
is inherently bad and one of my favorite
signs during the health care debate was
somebody said keep your government hands
out of my Medicare
[Applause]
which is essentially saying keep
government out of my government-run
health care plan now when our government
is spoken of as some menacing
threatening foreign entity it ignores
the fact that in our democracy
government is us we the people hold our
we the people hold in our hands the
power to choose our leaders and change
our laws and shape our own destiny
governments the police officers who are
protecting our communities and the
service men and women who are defending
us abroad
[Applause]
government is the roads you drove in on
and the speed limits that kept you safe
government is what ensures that mines
adhere to safety standards and oil
spills are cleaned up by the companies
that cause them
[Applause]
government is this extraordinary public
university a place that’s doing
life-saving research and catalyzing
economic growth and graduating students
who will change the world around them in
ways big and small the truth is the
debate we’ve had for decades now between
more government and less government it
doesn’t really fit the times in which we
live we know that too much government
can stifle competition and deprive us of
choice and burden us with debt but we’ve
also clearly seen the dangers of too
little government like when a lack of
accountability on Wall Street nearly
leads to the collapse of our entire
economy
[Applause]
so class of 2010 what we should be
asking is not whether we need big
government or a small government but how
we can create a smarter and better
government because in an era of iPods
and TiVo where we have more choices than
ever before even though I can’t really
work a lot of these things but I have 23
year olds who do it for me
government shouldn’t try to dictate your
lives but it should give you the tools
you need to succeed government shouldn’t
try to guarantee results but it should
guarantee a shot an opportunity for
every American who’s willing to work
hard so
so yes we can and should debate the role
of government in our lives but remember
as you are asked to meet the challenges
of our time remember that the ability
for us to adapt our government to the
needs of the aged has helped make our
democracy work since its inception now
the second way to keep our democracy
healthy is to maintain a basic level of
civility in our public debate these
[Applause]
these arguments were having over
government and health care and war and
taxes these are serious arguments they
should arouse people’s passions and it’s
important for everybody to join in the
debate with all the vigor that the
maintenance of free people requires but
we can’t expect to solve our problems if
all we do is tear each other down you
can disagree with a certain policy
without demonizing the person who
espouses it you can question somebody’s
views in their judgement without
questioning their motives or their
patriotism throwing around phrases like
socialist Soviet style takeover and
fascists and right-wing nut that may
grab headlines but it also has the
effect of comparing our government our
political opponents to authoritarian
even murderous regimes now we’ve seen
this kind of politics in the past it’s
been practiced by both fringes of the
ideological spectrum by the left and the
right since our nation’s birth but it’s
starting to creep into the center of our
discourse and the problem with it is not
the hurt feelings of the bruised egos
the public officials who are criticized
remember they signed up for it Michelle
always reminds me that
the problem is that this kind of
vilification and over-the-top rhetoric
closes the door to the possibility of
compromise it undermines democratic
deliberation it prevents learning since
after all why should we listen to a
fascist or a socialist or a right-wing
nut or a left wing nut it makes it
nearly impossible for people who have
legitimate but bridgeable differences to
sit down at the same table and hash
things out it robs us of a rational and
serious debate the one we need to have
about the very real and very big
challenges facing this nation it
Corson’s our culture and it is worse to
can send signals to the most extreme
elements of our society that perhaps
violence is a justifiable response so
what do we do as I found out after a
year in the White House changing this
type of politics is not easy and part of
what civility requires is that we recall
the simple lesson most of us learn from
our parents treat others as you would
like to be treated with courtesy and
respect
[Applause]
but civility in this age also requires
something more than just asking if we
can’t just all get along
today’s 24/7 echo chamber amplifies the
most inflammatory sound bites louder and
faster than ever before and it’s also
however given us unprecedented choice
whereas most Americans used to get their
news from the same three networks over
dinner or a few influential papers on
Sunday morning we now have the option to
get our information from any number of
blogs or websites or cable news shows
and this can have both a good and bad
development for democracy but if we
choose only to expose ourselves to
opinions and viewpoints that are in line
with our own studies suggest that we
become more polarized more set in our
ways that’ll only reinforce and even
deepen the political divides in this
country but if we choose to actively
seek out information that challenges our
assumptions and our beliefs
perhaps we can begin to understand where
the people who disagree with us are
coming from now this requires us to
agree on a certain set of facts to
debate from that’s why we need a vibrant
and thriving news business that is
separate from opinion makers and Talking
Heads
[Applause]
that’s why we need an educated citizenry
that values hard evidence and not just
assertion
[Applause]
as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
famously once said everybody is entitled
to his own opinion but not his own facts
still if you’re somebody who only reads
the editorial page at the New York Times
tried glancing at the page of The Wall
Street Journal once in a while if you’re
a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh try
reading a few columns on the Huffington
Post website it may make your blood boil
your mind may not be changed but the
practice of listening to opposing views
is essential for effective citizenship
it is essential for our democracy
[Applause]
and so too is the practice of engaging
in different experiences with different
kinds of people if I look out at this
class and I I realized for four years in
Michigan you have been exposed to
diverse thinkers and scholars professors
and students don’t narrow that broad
intellectual exposure just because
you’re leaving here instead seek to
expand it if you grew up in a big city
spend some time with somebody who grew
up in a rural town if you find yourself
only hanging around with people of your
own race or ethnicity or religion
include people in your circle who have
different backgrounds life experiences
you’ll learn what it’s like to walk in
somebody else’s shoes and in the process
you will help to make this democracy
work
[Applause]
which brings me to the last ingredient
in the functioning democracy one that’s
perhaps most basic it has already been
mentioned and that is participation
class of 2010 I understand that one
effect of today’s poisonous political
climate is to push people away from
participation in public life if all you
see when you turn on the TV is name call
if all you hear about is how special
interests lobbying and partisanship
prevented Washington from getting
something done then you might think to
yourself what’s the point of getting
involved here’s the point when we don’t
pay close attention to the decisions
made by our leaders when we fail to
educate ourselves about the major issues
of the day when we choose not to make
our voices and opinions heard that’s
when democracy breaks down that’s when
power is abuse that’s when the most
extreme voices of our society fill the
void that we leave that’s when powerful
interests and their lobbyists are most
able to buy access and influence in the
corridors of power because none of us
are there to speak up and stop them
participation in public life doesn’t
mean that you all have to run for public
office though we could certainly use
some fresh faces in Washington but it
does mean that you should pay attention
and contribute in any way that you can
stay informed write letters or make
phone calls on behalf of an issue that
you care about
if electoral politics isn’t your thing
continue the tradition so many of you
started here at Michigan and find a way
to serve your community and your country
an act that will help you stay connected
to your fellow citizens and improve the
lives of those around you
you know it was 50 years ago that a
young candidate for president came here
to Michigan and delivered a speech that
inspired one of the most successful
service projects in American history and
as John F Kennedy described the ideals
behind what would become the Peace Corps
he issued a challenge to the students
who had assembled
in Ann Arbor on that October night on
your willingness to contribute part of
your life to this country he said will
depend the answer whether a free society
can compete I think it can he said this
democracy we have is a precious thing
for all the arguments and all the doubts
and all the cynicism that’s out there
today we should never forget that as
Americans we enjoy more freedoms and
opportunities than citizens in any other
nation on earth we are free to speak our
mind and worship as we please we are
free to choose our leaders and criticize
them if they let us down we have the
chance to get an education and work hard
and give our children a better life none
of this came easy none of this was
preordained the men and women who sent
in your chairs 10 years ago and 50 years
ago and 100 years ago they made America
possible through their toil and their
endurance and their imagination and
their faith their success and America’s
success was never a given and there is
no guarantee that the graduates will sit
in these same seats 10 years from now or
50 years from now or 100 years from now
will enjoy the same freedoms and
opportunities that you do you two will
have to strive you too will have to push
the boundaries of what seems possible
for the truth is our nation’s destiny
has never been certain what is certain
what has always been certain is the
ability to shape that destiny that is
what makes us different that is what
sets us apart
that is what makes us Americans our
ability at the end of the day to look
past all our differences and all of our
disagreements and still forge a common
future and that task is now in your
hands
as is the answer to the question posed
of this University half a century ago
about whether a free society can still
compete if you are willing as past
generations were willing to contribute
part of your life to the life of this
country then I like President Kennedy
believe we can because I believe in you
congratulations on your graduation 2010
may God bless him or may God bless the
United States of America