In Praise of Fair-Minded Words at Notre Dame

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME,University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Indiana,3:06 P.M. EDT,THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, congratulations, Class of 2009.  (Applause.)  Congratulations to all the parents, the cousins -- (applause) -- the aunts, the uncles -- all the people who helped to bring you to the point that you are here today.  Thank you so much to Father Jenkins for that extraordinary introduction, even though you said what I want to say much more elegantly.  (Laughter.)  You are doing an extraordinary job as president of this extraordinary institution.  (Applause.)  Your continued and courageous -- and contagious -- commitment to honest, thoughtful dialogue is an inspiration to us all.  (Applause.),Good afternoon.  To Father Hesburgh, to Notre Dame trustees, to faculty, to family:  I am honored to be here today.  (Applause.)  And I am grateful to all of you for allowing me to be a part of your graduation.,And I also want to thank you for the honorary degree that I received.  I know it has not been without controversy.  I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by.  (Laughter.)  So far I’m only 1 for 2 as President.  (Laughter and applause.)  Father Hesburgh is 150 for 150.  (Laughter and applause.)  I guess that’s better.  (Laughter.)  So, Father Ted, after the ceremony, maybe you can give me some pointers to boost my average.,I also want to congratulate the Class of 2009 for all your accomplishments.  And since this is Notre Dame --,AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Abortion is murder!  Stop killing children!,AUDIENCE:  Booo!,THE PRESIDENT:  That’s all right.  And since --,AUDIENCE:  We are ND!  We are ND!,AUDIENCE:  Yes, we can!  Yes, we can!,THE PRESIDENT:  We’re fine, everybody.  We’re following Brennan’s adage that we don’t do things easily.  (Laughter.)  We’re not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable sometimes.  (Applause.),Now, since this is Notre Dame I think we should talk not only about your accomplishments in the classroom, but also in the competitive arena.  (Laughter.)  No, don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about that.  (Laughter.)  We all know about this university’s proud and storied football team, but I also hear that Notre Dame holds the largest outdoor 5-on-5 basketball tournament in the world -- Bookstore Basketball.  (Applause.),Now this excites me.  (Laughter.)  I want to congratulate the winners of this year’s tournament, a team by the name of "Hallelujah Holla Back."  (Laughter and applause.)  Congratulations.  Well done.  Though I have to say, I am personally disappointed that the "Barack O’Ballers" did not pull it out this year.  (Laughter.)  So next year, if you need a 6’2" forward with a decent jumper, you know where I live.  (Laughter and applause.),Every one of you should be proud of what you have achieved at this institution.  One hundred and sixty-three classes of Notre Dame graduates have sat where you sit today.  Some were here during years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare -- periods of relative peace and prosperity that required little by way of sacrifice or struggle.,You, however, are not getting off that easy.  You have a different deal.  Your class has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and for the world -- a rare inflection point in history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age.  It’s a privilege and a responsibility afforded to few generations -- and a task that you’re now called to fulfill.,This generation, your generation is the one that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global economy that left millions behind even before the most recent crisis hit -- an economy where greed and short-term thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day’s work.  (Applause.),Your generation must decide how to save God’s creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it.  Your generation must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many.  And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity -- diversity of thought, diversity of culture, and diversity of belief.,In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family.  (Applause.),And it’s this last challenge that I’d like to talk about today, despite the fact that Father John stole all my best lines.  (Laughter.)  For the major threats we face in the 21st century -- whether it’s global recession or violent extremism; the spread of nuclear weapons or pandemic disease -- these things do not discriminate.  They do not recognize borders.  They do not see color.  They do not target specific ethnic groups.,Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone.  Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and greater understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history.,Unfortunately, finding that common ground -- recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" -- is not easy.  And part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man -- our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin.  We too often seek advantage over others.  We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar.  Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game.  The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice.  And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see here in this country and around the globe violence and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times.,We know these things; and hopefully one of the benefits of the wonderful education that you’ve received here at Notre Dame is that you’ve had time to consider these wrongs in the world; perhaps recognized impulses in yourself that you want to leave behind.  You’ve grown determined, each in your own way, to right them.  And yet, one of the vexing things for those of us interested in promoting greater understanding and cooperation among people is the discovery that even bringing together persons of good will, bringing together men and women of principle and purpose -- even accomplishing that can be difficult.,The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm.  The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts.  Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in an admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son’s or daughter’s hardships can be relieved.  (Applause.),The question, then -- the question then is how do we work through these conflicts?  Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort?  As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate?  How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonetizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?,And of course, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.,As I considered the controversy surrounding my visit here, I was reminded of an encounter I had during my Senate campaign, one that I describe in a book I wrote called "The Audacity of Hope."  A few days after I won the Democratic nomination, I received an e-mail from a doctor who told me that while he voted for me in the Illinois primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from voting for me in the general election.  He described himself as a Christian who was strongly pro-life -- but that was not what was preventing him potentially from voting for me.,What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my website -- an entry that said I would fight "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman’s right to choose."  The doctor said he had assumed I was a reasonable person, he supported my policy initiatives to help the poor and to lift up our educational system, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable.  He wrote, "I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words."  Fair-minded words.,After I read the doctor’s letter, I wrote back to him and I thanked him.  And I didn’t change my underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my website.  And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me.  Because when we do that -- when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe -- that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.,That’s when we begin to say, "Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions.",So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, let’s reduce unintended pregnancies.  (Applause.)  Let’s make adoption more available.  (Applause.)  Let’s provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term.  (Applause.)  Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women."  Those are things we can do.  (Applause.),Now, understand -- understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away.  Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it -- indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory -- the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable.  Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction.  But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.,Open hearts.  Open minds.  Fair-minded words.  It’s a way of life that has always been the Notre Dame tradition.  (Applause.)  Father Hesburgh has long spoken of this institution as both a lighthouse and a crossroads.  A lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition, while the crossroads is where "¼differences of culture and religion and conviction can co-exist with friendship, civility, hospitality, and especially love."  And I want to join him and Father John in saying how inspired I am by the maturity and responsibility with which this class has approached the debate surrounding today’s ceremony.  You are an example of what Notre Dame is about.  (Applause.)