NMSU-A News
Commencement Speech 2008
Posted May 29, 2008 by admin
New Mexico State University Alamogordo
31st Annual Commencement Ceremony
May 9, 2008
As written for delivery
(PLEASE NOTE: The Governor’s speech varied slightly from the text provided here.)
NMSU Regent Bob Gallagher, members of the Board of Regents, NMSU Alamogordo President Dr. Cheri Jimeno, Alamogordo Mayor Steve Brockett, Representative Gloria Vaughn, Deputy Commander of the German Air Force Major Andrea Seeboerger, members of the Alamogordo Foundation, Distinguished Guests, Faculty, Staff, Family and Graduates—welcome and thank you.
I’d like to salute New Mexico State University Alamogordo on the 50th anniversary. In 1958 you started with 251 students in the Alamogordo High School. Over 44,000 students have attended this institution, the campus is growing, and this graduating class is sign of bigger things to come.
To the graduates, I want to congratulate you all. You have worked hard and sacrificed to earn your degree. I want to recognize the valedictorian, and others who have earned the high honors of the school.
Many times these commencement addresses are directed toward the best and the brightest of the graduating class, but forget everyone else. Not today.
I believe everybody, no matter what your class ranking or your major, will leave NMSU today with the potential to great things.
I believe that because I lived that. I played baseball and focused a little too much on extra-curricular activities. And I struggled to make good grades. In the end I earned my degree and went on to graduate school.
Somehow, despite my lack of scholarly achievement, I stand here today as Governor of the great state of New Mexico, with the best job I ever had, giving your commencement speech.
I’ve been to many commencement ceremonies. And I’ve witnessed a lot of commencement addresses: some were good, some were brief, and some were neither—and those are just the ones I gave.
Luckily, my job today isn’t to sum up your years of education at this fine institution. Rather, my job is to talk about how to commence—or begin—this new stage in your life.
I will pass on a few things that worked for me. I will seek not to sound too old and try to remind you that today is not an end. Really, it’s a new beginning.
The best quote I know about the future was by Robert F. Kennedy forty years ago, “The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of society.”
Finding your passion, seeking reason through dialogue, and living with courage—or as I like to say—aiming big—are three values I’ve tried to live by and I believe have contributed to my success:
First—Find your passion and stick with it.
Many years ago, I was graduating from Tufts University and went with a group to Washington to meet with government officials, including Senator Hubert Humphrey. Senator Humphrey was nicknamed the “Happy Warrior” because he spoke with real enthusiasm for the duties, responsibilities and benefits of serving the public good. He took an unusual path serving as mayor of Minneapolis, as US Senator, as Vice President to President Johnson, Presidential candidate, and then returned to the US Senate a few years later. He spoke about the indignity of poverty and the fight for civil rights. He spoke of the need to defend the working family and his belief that America was duty-bound to make this world a better place. He was passionate and he was unapologetic.
His commitment to public service inspired me to run for Congress at the age of 32. I might have been a little naïve. You see, I thought I could beat a legend in New Mexico—Congressman Manuel Lujan. Even though, I had never served in elected office, had no record and had limited experience in New Mexico politics.
To give you a taste for that first campaign–one day I stopped by a coffee shop, stuck my head in the door and said, “Hi I’m Bill Richardson, and I’m running for Congress.” A guy sitting near the door said, “I know, we were just laughing about that.”
But what I lacked in experience, I made up for in desire, and hard work. I shook thousands of hands. I criss-crossed the district dozens of times. I lost the race by only a few points, but my strong showing as a political newcomer set the stage for another run. Two years later, I won the newly created Congressional seat in Northern New Mexico. And so I began my passion for public service.
The second value I’ve tried to find reason and solutions through dialogue.
Through my career, I’ve been asked to help negotiate the release of hostages or political prisoners from foreign leaders and rebels who are not friends of the United States. That doesn’t mean just be willing to talk, but also willing to listen.
As Yogi Berra once said “You can see a lot by just listening.”
Two years ago, I went to Darfur to negotiate the release of a New Mexico Journalist Paul Salopek and his colleagues from Chad. His team had crossed from Chad into Sudan to try to tell the important story of genocide in Darfur. But before I talked, I listened. I listened to all the parties, including President Al-Bashir. I understood his perspective– although I didn’t share it. And few days later after hours of back and forth, I was able to bring Paul and his two colleagues home.
Dialogue works. I’ve found that it’s possible to find reason with even my most ardent foes: from Saddam Hussein to Fidel Castro—even Republican Legislators.
The third value I’ve tried to live by is—-to aim big.
About fifteen months ago, I sat down with my wife and we talked about running for president. I say “We” on purpose—anyone who is married knows exactly what I’m talking about. We agreed and feeling rather proud at that moment, I called my mother. I told her that her son was going to run for President. She paused and gave it some thought. Then she asked, “Mi hijo, President of what?” (Never doubt, that your family can always bring you down to earth.)
Remaining humble is good, but also remember there will be those who put obstacles in your way—who will second guess your efforts—who will say it can’t be done.
The cynics said that America would never support a candidate who is Hispanic, or a woman, or an African American. I happen to think that the Democrats had the most talented field of candidates in my lifetime.
Despite overwhelming financial and political odds, I’m proud of the campaign we waged and the influence we had on the issues that matter most to the future of this country. On Iraq, on education, on clean energy, all the remaining candidates are coming to our point of view.
But I’m also proud of the millions of American voters, who proved those cynics wrong.
And as the first Latino candidate for the Democratic nomination—I sincerely hope I pushed the door open a little wider for others to run for the presidency.
I aimed big. I may not have won the nomination, but I didn’t lose either. I have returned to a job that I love, serving a state that I cherish and doing the work of the people I was elected to serve. I am the luckiest man I know. I am married to my high school sweetheart. I live in a place called the Land of Enchantment. I have the best job in the world and I just got to run for President of the United States. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Finding your passion, using dialogue to find common ground, and aiming big are three values I’ve tried to live by. But there’s one more you need to consider. Commitment.
To open one door, you need to close the other doors. Or as President Kennedy used to say: to force yourself to climb a wall, sometimes you need to throw your cap to the other side.
In New Mexico, five years ago we threw the cap over the wall and said that it was time to for our state to get off the bad lists and move onto the good ones.
And we’ve done that. We are one of the few states with a balanced budget, 10% in reserve and strong investments into our schools and health care. We cut $1 billion in taxes. We put 80-thousand New Mexicans back to work. We reformed our school system and made our state the clean energy state. And we are now going to be the home of the one of the world’s first Spaceports for commercial space flight. As a result of that commitment we are seeing more New Mexicans find good paying careers right here. I’m not asking for your commitment to stay in New Mexico—although I’d like that, and so would your parents—I’m suggesting that you need to commit to your follow you passion.
As you graduate, you may hear the refrain –“you’re too young,” “You’re too inexperienced” or you’re “not right for the job.”
If you listen carefully—someone just issued you a challenge.
My message to you is simple. You are not too young to follow your passion. You have the experience to aim big. You are the right person for the job. And when opportunity comes—you will prove it.
You here today represent hope. You represent opportunity. And you represent the best of New Mexico.
Good luck, God bless, and congratulations to the Class of 2008.
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