many things have changed since the first graduation speech i gave you are. on this very spot in 1970. er -- the electric typewriter was cutting edge technology. and paul mccartney was about the same age taylor swift is today. there are still some things that never go out of style. paul mccartney is one of them. i hear you had tie die davis. -- i heard you had tie die day this year, in 1970, every day was tie-dyed day. in 2016 the team brought home the illinois state championship. congratulations. and on may 29 of both years the cubs were in first place in their division. [applause] here's hoping 2016 works out better than 1970 did. most important it's every much as big a thrill and an honor to speak at your graduation. the foirs of the kind basis of person i am today. i owe this place a lot. of course, i didn't know it at the time. thisyou, i sat on graduation field. like today the sun was shining brilliantly. the future stretched out in front of us with what seemed like endless possibilities. and my friends and i looked on that future with great anticipation. but in all of us, there was also, as i expect a small pressure of fear. -- measure of fear. even if were were too cool, and and then lists opportunities seemed great in endless opportunities seemed great in theory. but how would they work out in practice? endless possibility means you might have to choose, paths that are different from those who have played on taking today. where we prepare for the obstacles that lay ahead or even for the first he is said was over. we were just about to start. unfortunately i'm here to anti-the twipts an turns that life will take. nor should you. life would be pretty boring because you could plan it all out on graduation dale. no one can or should try to anticipate everything, i can tell you that niles west does or at least did it for me. the next best thing. it me paired fe more the unexpect. . niles west made me feel part of the community. but the world you're about to enter is bigger still. and although west was big, and it is big as the big place made of smaller places. kids feed in from lincoln hall. and lincoln jr. high. some fair view, park view. and culver. and turn kids feed into their middle schools from smaller neighborhoods and in the end from their families. well, takes each of these communities and stitches them together. like the hope for our country. great field if you get. -- the great field of the united states. out of many the great one is me. you knew some since kindergarten and some since the beginning of the year. it was a place where people walked you have with very little interest. the kids are in the auto club and the kids are in the debate team. couldn't take -- could find common ground. we had several immensely dedicated teachers. niles west was also a place where families were involved. many of the same parents who came out to hear me at graduation had watched me grow up on the little league field. here's what i look like then. -- here is what i looked like then. all this meant that this was a place where friendships were formed. several of my closest friends today arm -- were my closest friends here. why is this important? because when hard decisions have to be made or bad things happen, you do not have to handle them alone. your friends,, your family will help you through. because they care about you. they do not care what position you have attained. they care about you. and bad things do happen even to good people. that, thedoubted bombing of the oklahoma city federal building in 1995 made it painfully clear. the weeks i spent there made me see just how important community , friends, and family are when bad things happen. lined up tolahoma offer care and comfort to their neighbors. and strangers alike. they joined together to help the investigators, firefighters, and the rescue workers who flocked to the city to help. they kept a food line going for us 24/7. where they hads donations. everything from toothpaste to snacks. one resident set up a laundry service for us. another came to cut our hair. the oklahoma standard. i know that that spirit runs through the communities of wood,,n will -- lincoln wo martin grove, and niles. so when you leave here, keep in touch with your friends and -- and the request that your parents have asked for you to put away your cell phones at the dinner table, start talking to them. but those values were confirmed by this high school. foremost among them was the responsibility to give back. a greaty, we had variety of ways to do that. most prominent was our hunger hike. american walk for which sponsors led money to feed the hungry for every mile that we walked. last week, you put on a tremendous dance marathon. you were a lot smarter than we were. a loting marathon sounds more fun than hiking one. and all of us, you and i, were lucky to be born in a place and a time that got us to this graduation ceremony. , youf us who went to hear and i, are better prepared to face the uncertainties of the future than many of our fellow americans. yet not what of us did anything by ourselves to deserve that initial lock. so, pay it back. devote some part of your life to public service. it does not matter what kind of public service you choose. at graduation, i thought i was going to be a doctor. , the my college roommate same best friend i mentioned, let me know i was not that good at math, i shifted course and chose a career in law. specifically, a career devoted to building the rule of law that's it -- that civil society depends on. , meant tol prosecutor convincing the residents of dangerous neighborhoods that we could keep them safe and bring violent gangs to justice. as a judge, it means showing litigants that the court will decide their case impartially and fairly, looking only to the law and not our personal preferences. the only kind of public service available. if you do not believe me, just ask one of my favorite people, hermione granger. the minister of magic once did. are you planning to follow a ?areer in magical law not. am i am hoping to do some good in the world. that does not mean that you and your friends have to vanquish lord baltimore. not everyone has the particular set of skills required to accomplish that task. tolds professor dumbledore harry potter, it is our choices that show what we truly are more than our ability. so, make the choice to do some good in the world. on this memorial day weekend, it is particularly appropriate to log those like your assistant principal who made the choice to defend their country in the armed services. [applause] some of you will be fortunate enough to do good through the kind of work that you choose. but your country, your stay, and even this community have all kinds of needs. and you can meet many of those needs just by dedicating yourself to working after hours others 121. in fact, the most personally rewarding experiences of my career have not been the high profile cases i have investigated, or the legal disputes i have results. they have been the 18 years i students inutoring reading and math at an elementary school in washington, d.c. any of you are already way ahead of me in that regard. has 155racy center student tutors and averages 216 visits per day. that is impressive. [applause] but even more impressive is the fact that those students are tutoring their fellow students at this school where students speak a total of 90 different first languages. nice work tutors. [applause] you should engage in public service not just for the benefit it provides others but what it will do for you. when you are facing the unanticipated twists and turns that life will take, when the bad things happen, it can be a tremendous solace to get outside yourself, to focus on someone else. so, instead of taking a selfie, turned the camera around, you know, the way we used to take pictures. you will have a much more fulfilling pictures by turning your focus outward. helping others. that is enough serious talk about the future. what about the present? i hope i am not about to lose the parents with this final recommendation. if you can, take a little break this summer. you have worked very hard. cards the time to take the trip across west with your friends. get in that can do and paddle across the lake. don't make this a mistake that my friends and i did when we took that trip. make sure you all know how to canoe before you head out into the lake. before closing, i want to thank tea gonzales for speaking after me. as some of you probably heard, the last time i shared the stage with a student speaker, that speakers microphone was cut off and i had to defend his right to speak. i was counting on tea to do the same for me. we are both relieved that was not necessary. congratulations class of 2016. [applause] is for all you have done. and all that you will do. your parents are justifiably proud of you. as someone who well remembers high school graduation, not just as a student at as a parent of two daughters, i urge you to by urging youents to phone home. often. thank you. [applause] thank you judge garland. the class of 2016, i present you this gift. [applause] >> i want to think you and only my friends in the class of 1970 will understand this, but this is as close as i will ever get to looking like a hobby -- bobby hall. >> we have been the invisible half of the congress. we have watched our house colleagues with interest. tv coverage of members of our colleagues in the house. as the senate comes out of the dark ages, we create another historic moment in the relationship between congress and technological advancements in communications through radio and television. 50 years ago, our executive branch began appearing on television. today marks the first time when our legislative branch in its entirety will appear on that medium of communication through get their americans information about what our government and country does. >> televising the senate chamber proceedings represents a wise policy. right and needic of the citizens of our nation to know the business of their government. >> thursday, c-span marks the 30th anniversary of our live gavel-to-gavel coverage. program features key moments from the senate floor from the past 30 years. >> i would show to you the body of evidence to this question. do you trust william j clinton? >> we have just witnessed something that has never happened in senate history. the change of power during a session of congress. american people do not understand in this bill is that there are three areas that in the next five years will put the government in charge of everyone's health care. >> plus, a meeting with mitch mcconnell. voting against having c-span televise the senate was one of them. and alan richie truman. watch 30 years of the u.s. senate on television beginning thursday on c-span. and to see more of our 30 years of coverage on the senate, go to c-span.org. washington journal is next with items in the news and your phone calls. later this morning, a look at u.s. policy in the asia-pacific region. that is live from the woodrow wilson center. foundatione heritage and the relationship between worker pay, productivity, and the economy. after that, former israeli military officials take part in a conversation regarding the palestinian conflict. live at 1:30 p.m. eastern. this hour, whether nutrition labels make a difference in changing people's eating habits. served inlliams, who the fda, will join us. then, a conversation with writer jack hit on his recent smithsonian magazine article about the future of flying cars. later, former new mexico governor gary johnson who secured the libertarian nomination will talk about the 2016 race. a reminder, you can join the conversation on phase book and twitter. -- on facebook ♪ host: this is the "washington ." hillary clinton is headed to california for a series of ends on thursday. -- events on thursday. bernie sanders will be in santa cruz today. "usa today,"of a fight withll has senate republicans about how candidacymp's ten might affect their finances. because of