Waynesburg College Commencement Remarks
Sunday, May 14, 2006
by Attorney General Tom Corbett
"Do the right thing"

Thank you President Thyreen, and good afternoon to you all.  I am honored to be a part of your celebration today.
 
Today is a wonderful day for everyone gathered here.  For you graduates, today is a step across the threshold, from youth into adulthood - from learning to doing.  It is one of those transition points in life, when opportunity abounds and possibilities are limitless.

For your parents, it's another milestone after two decades of watching you grow and develop.  I know they are proud, just as I know that they'll never stop wishing the best for you and worrying about you as you start this next phase of your lives.

And your college family, the faculty and staff here at Waynesburg College, are equally proud.  They have watched you make the transition from awkward freshmen to confident seniors.  You may be concluding your time on campus, but you will carry these college experiences and relationships with you, in your hearts and minds, for decades to come.

Looking out on the crowd gathered today, I think back to my own college graduation, and to look to the future and wonder --- who will be standing here 35 years from now, offering thoughts to the Class of 2041? 

I begin with that question because I firmly believe that the next 35 years will pass in the blink of an eye.  Before long, one of you may find yourself standing in this same spot, trying to distill three-and-a-half decades of experience into 12 minutes. Or, you may find yourself here as a parent, watching your child prepare to make their transition to adulthood.
  
For the past two decades, since the day you could understand the spoken word, chances are that someone has asked, or more likely told you what to do:
Clean your room, eat healthy food, look both ways before you cross the street, pay attention to your teacher. yada, yada, yada.

For two decades you have been bombarded with directions and information by parents, family, teachers, friends and a long list of other well-meaning people.  Now they're going to start asking you a very simple, but important question.

Someone is going to turn to you on this graduation day and say:  So, now that you're finished with college, what are you going to do with your life? To borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, Spike Lee and many others: Do the right thing!    

Scientific and technical advances have made it much easier to communicate, to explore, and to connect with other people.  From that perspective, the world has become a much smaller place, but the future that lies ahead of you remains vast - a blank page, for you to fill. 

 Robert Frost is often quoted at graduation:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I believe that now, in the 21st century, your choice of Waynesburg College, with its emphasis on faith and serving, has already put you on a less-traveled road.  And, in our high-tech world of Mapquest, G-P-S enabled phones and directions-on-demand, it can be difficult to find that road less traveled.    

I prefer the challenge by another American poet concerning the road you choose.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

  "Do not follow where the path may lead. 
  Go, instead where there is no path,
  and leave a trail."

Or, to put it in more contemporary TV terms, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek put us on a mission to "go where no man (or woman) has gone before."

The future that lies before you is unknown, but filled with new trails you can make, places you can visit, and ideas that you can conceive.  Ask Larry Page and Sergey Brin. 

May I have a show of hands?  How many of you know who Page and Brin are?   Frost and Emerson were easy.  As a former teacher, I had to throw at least one harder reference into the mix.  Graduates, don't help your parents.

Here's a hint  -  Have you "Googled" today? 

Page and Brin created the Google Internet search engine, and gave us a new word in the process.   They found Emerson's wood - the Internet - filled with a staggering amount of information.  So much information, in fact, that it was a challenge to find what you needed.  In essence, we couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Google gave us a new path, carved out 10 years ago by two graduate students from Stanford, and now most of the online world follows that path on a daily basis.

 Our world today is filled with other examples, devices and technology that didn't exist just a few years ago, especially when it comes to personal technology:
- You can take pictures with phones. and instantly send them to friends around the world.
- TiVo searches out and records television shows you like. and plays them back when you have time.
- You I-M your friends. and blog your thoughts for the world to see and share.  I dare say that four years ago, "blog" was not even a word.
- You may even be "texting" your friends as I speak.

 The gadgets you carry in your pocket, from web-browsing camera phones to blackberries, pack more computer power than the spacecraft that put men on the moon, and all of these items were created by people who were traveling paths that did not exist before.

 As I said before, scientific and technical advances have made the world a smaller place, but the future that lies ahead of you remains a blank page for you to fill.  You may be traveling into uncharted territory, but your journey still needs direction, which brings us back to that question you're going to be asked later today: What are you going to do with your life??
 
I say, do the right thing!

 You have reached a transition point - Putting your youth behind you and beginning a journey that will last the rest of your lives.  

(First Corinthians, Chapter 13, starting with verse 11)
When I was a child,
I talked like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man (or woman),
I put childish ways behind me.

Apologies to today's older graduates, but I'm going to spend the next few minutes talking directly to the younger members of this group.

You have now reached a point where you are ready to step out into the world as an adult and start making your own way.  That doesn't mean you will stop learning, or growing, or seeking guidance for those you know and trust.  

Today's ceremony marks a departure from the classroom, but it also marks your arrival at a point in life where the control and responsibility for your actions rests squarely on your shoulders.  That last term - responsibility - is a stumbling block for some in our society, but it is a vital concept. 

Playwright George Bernard Shaw put it succinctly:

"Liberty means responsibility - That is why men dread it most."

Responsibility is difficult. We live in an age where criticism can quickly be labeled verbal assault, where intellectual debate is held up as obstructionism, where the demand for quality work is attacked as fanaticism and where strong moral standards are derided as intolerant. 

Responsibility means taking on risk and uncertainty to accomplish something you believe in. Responsibility means long hours of hard work gathering the information you need to make wise choices.  And responsibility means having the inner moral strength to always do what is right, even when those around you make other choices. 

As Mark Twain said:

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest." 

Your life will be filled with complication. Careers and relationships will reach points where you will be faced with hard choices.  The path you choose may be lonely and difficult.  Power, profit, temptation and a host of other factors may come to bear, trying to move you to a different path.

Do the right thing!

It is difficult to pick up a newspaper, or watch the news without seeing a parade of people trying to avoid responsibility for their actions.  Corporations, professionals and politicians, along with a parade of people caught up in everything from "white collar crime" to drugs and violence, all jumping at the opportunity to explain how it "wasn't their fault." 

As Pennsylvania Attorney General, U.S. Attorney, and a local prosecutor, I have seen many of these people, and I am sure I will see many more.  I hope that I will never see any of you in that same situation, and I am pretty sure that I won't, because I firmly believe that the strong moral background that brought you to Waynesburg, and the past four years of focus on faith, learning and serving will guide you on the correct path.

Do the right thing! 

Find something you can be passionate about and take an active role.  Don't let the fear of failure, or the criticism of others, force you off the path you have chosen.  

Find a way to contribute and serve. Share your talents, share your voice and share your ideas with the world. 

Do not be a spectator to the events happening around you. 

Do the right thing!

Find a way to share your love:  Love your family, love your community and love your faith.  There will be no more powerful influence in your life, and faith and love will always guide you to do the right thing.

35 years from now, as you gather here for a reunion, to watch sons or daughters graduate, or perhaps to address the class of 2041, I'm certain that you will be able to look back on your life's journey with pride, knowing that you made the right choices, knowing that you used your talents well, knowing that you served your faith, and your fellow man and knowing that you did the right thing.

Let me share with you one final quote, author unknown.  Engraved on a plaque that hangs above the door at my home are six simple words:

LIVE WELL.. LAUGH OFTEN.  LOVE MUCH

Add four more, DO THE RIGHT THING, and your life's journey will be wonderful.

Good luck, and may God bless you and watch over you along the way.