Because you know what . There is an old saying, you hang around the barber ship long enough sooner or later you will get a haircut. Hewlettpackard Ceo Meg Whitman received an Honorary Degree at Carnegie Mellon university and spoke at the Commencement Ceremony in pittsburgh. She was the republican nominee for california governor in 2010. [applause] president , numbers of the class of 2017, members of the faculty, distinguished guests, fellow recipients of Honorary Degrees, families of the graduation class, ladies and gentlemen, it is a true honor to be with you today and a great privilege to receive an honorary dr. Of business practice degree. I am grateful to be earning my degree in a lot less time and with a lot less a lot fewer all nighters then it took you to you to earn yours. To the parents of the graduating class of 2017, it is a magnificent and memorable day when your child graduates from college. It certainly is a wonderful day for you, and i am guessing that for many of your parents it is a pretty good day for your wallets as well. Congratulations for having traveled this journey with your children, a journey that began not with their enrollment at this university, but at the moment of their birth. Whether your children realize that are not or have fully expressed it to you or not, they would not be here today without your love and support and encouragement along the way, so congratulations to the parents. [applause] most important to the class of 2017, congratulations. Graduating from college is an impressive achievement, but especially graduating from one of the leading universities in the world, an institution characterized by high standards and excellence, one that has produced winners of nobel prizes and tonys, emmys, and Academy Award winners. Carnegie Mellon University has prepared you for a life of purpose and meaning. And there are people and moments you will never forget. Including, i understand, the spring carnival, which includes what i gather are some Pretty Amazing Amusement Park rides, booths, and buggy races. To bagpipe thing, which the school has made into an art form and my personal favorite, the band without pants. A tradition unique to Carnegie Mellon and i am confident to say, one you are unlikely to encounter in your first fulltime job. You are graduating at a moment of great challenge for our nation, when our country will decide on matters having to do not look just commerce but conscience. Not just with what we will gain but what we will give. Powerst with our military , but with our deepest ideals. This is hardly the most difficult moment in american history. I believe you can safely argue that the civil war, two world wars, and the Great Depression have us beat by a long shot. You are a blessed generation in so many ways with opportunities unimaginable to past generations, and gratitude is one of the hallmarks of a blessed life, but every life faces hardships. We are in the midst of a profoundly perform test important moment in the poll important moment in the political and civic life of america. The challenges today are more from within them without, and i believe this is the moment that if we do not handle it well, could produce harmful effects on my generation and on yours, and on generations yet unborn. The stakes are that serious. So today i want to speak about some Disturbing Trends in our national life, trends that need to be challenged by people of both genders, every class, race, and ethnic background, of every Political Party and ideology, but most especially by young people who are not only inheritors of the future but will do so much to shape it. The first disturbing trend i want to mention is the attack on truth. There are many people these days , including people at the highest levels in public life [applause] who use lies to the value truth. Alue truth. Using phrases like alternative facts. But we know better. To paraphrase shakespeares juliet, a lie by the other name is still a lie. [applause] what is so striking is the brazenness and rapidity of lies and their purpose, just to delegitimize sources of information hostile to those in power. The lies tumbledown like rocks in an avalanche. They are not subtle, they are overt, obvious, and part of a conscious effort. Language is being employed, not to reveal reality but to obscure it. Not to simply mislead people, but to disorient them. To assert power over truth in an effort to deconstruct it. So here is why this should matter to you. If we do not share a common reality, we cant reason together. Truth creates restraint on power. If we allow those with power to control the very idea of truth itself, then we cannot identify and stand against injustice. And if we cannot identify in justice then we cannot replace it with concepts like equality under law, respect, decency, compassion, and justice itself. [applause] ms. Whitman a Great University is always and listed against the spread of illusion and on the side of reality, said president kennedy, and that is the essence of your calling. I encourage you to be men and women who stand for truth, who spend your life in search of it even if you never truly know it, who believe in inquiries, fax, and have the courage to speak truth to power even when there may be a cost in doing so. [applause] do, if you if you truth in an age truth marked by lies, it will have a liberating effect on our citizens and make more possible all good things in life. A second truth that needs to be confronted is the attack on free speech. In the last several yearsa secoe have seen a powerful movement, one that seeks to shut down free speech, gain traction in the academy. The very institutions that were created in order to allow for the Free Exchange of ideas. On some campuses we have seen. Ertain speakers not invited on others they have been shouted down and on still others, we have witnessed violence. I understand this kind of thing is not happening on most american campuses but it is happening into many places and needs to end. There is Something Else going on as well. College students are increasingly demanding protection from words and speech they find offensive. We hear a lot about trigger warnings and safe spaces, which are designed to protect students from viewpoints they might find unsettling. Here is why i think this is problematic. Or one thing, i dont think most of you want to be treated like porcelain dolls. Now that you are college graduates, the rest of the world , and certainly the Business World will not treat you that way. One is doing College Students any favors when i intellectually isolate them. Intellectually isolate them. [applause] ms. Whitman but the issue extends beyond the walls of the whetherand matters on or not use that foot on campus again. While many of you are about to complete your formal education, you will spend a lifetime continuing to learn, gathering and processing new information and dealing with people with different Life Experiences and points of view. ,hutting down free speech insulating ourselves from hearing competing points of view, is the equivalent of injecting poison into the bloodstream of our republic. [applause] jon stewart now, liberty his classic on put it as well as anyone has he who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. And nosons may be good one may have been able to refute them but if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. Say, nor is it enough to say he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them and offered as reputations. He must be able to hear from persons who actually believe them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive forms. My encouragement to you is to be the men and women who stand up for free speech, who welcomed debate, who model for others with genuine dialogue is, and who are not afraid to have your beliefs challenged. Too many of us live an intellectual silos where we seek out people and information that simply reinforces our existing opinions. Venture out of those silos. We are better when we are exposed to different ideas and competing philosophies. Learn to listen in order to understand others, not just to respond to them, and remain open to the possibility that you may have something to learn from others. Be the generation that embodies real tolerance, genuine inquiry, and authentic openmindedness. It is what this nation desperately needs during this fractured and fractious time. [applause] ms. Whitman the third trend that needs to be confronted is the attack on civility. We live in an age of escalating incivility. We see it all around us, on our roads, airways, in sports stadiums and on social media and in politics. The problem has gotten worse recently with those running for High Public Office mocking reporters and demeaning opponents with childish names or worse. It seems that no words, no matter how hurtful or cruel to others, are considered inappropriate. We are fostering the conditions in which we view others not as opponents but enemies. We are treating one another as subhuman, and that is a terribly dangerous line to cross. Civility is more than nice manners. It is a precondition of democratic dialogue, in the words of professor Stephen L Carter of yale law school. Civility is part of the etiquette of democracy. It allows for genuine social interaction. It has been said that the true genius of Martin Luther king jr. Was not his ability to argue the an oppressed people, but his ability to inspire those very people to be loving and civil in their dissent. We should treat each other with civility, not because we agree with others but because it is a measure of our respect for human dignity. People,at we owe all including those with whom we have fierce disagreements. Our institutions, our culture, our communities cannot be sustained, let alone thrive if civility is eroded. It is an essential democratic virtue. [applause] kingman brewster, a former president of the lsat the presumption of innocence is not just a legal concept. In commonplace terms, and wraps on the generosity of spirit which assumes the best, not the worst of a stranger. My encouragement to you is to be the women and men who embody civility, who demonstrate a generosity of spirit in an ungenerous time, and assume the best, not the worst of the stranger, of those you do not know. Enter making the world in a dramatically different way than you do. S adoing so, you will make u more decent and just society. This country desperately needs the skills you developed at Carnegie Mellon. But, it needs more than your skill. It needs your ideals. Universityis great as better men and women than when you arrived. More knowledgeable, and better educated, im sure im a but, i trust wiser and more hopeful. There is a beautiful line in a poem the prelude in which the officer says, when we have love, others will love, and we will teach them how. The faculty at cmu has taught you went to know and love and now it is your turn to teach others what you have come to know and love. All a life of joy and purpose, fulfillment, and congratulations to the great class of 2017. Thank you very much. [applause]
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