Paul Tsongas

I want to deploy the leadership to meet the challenges that face us and to restore America's greatness.

My father's generation gave to my generation a land of wealth and purpose and world economic dominance.

No one is immune from the larger events of his or her time - the Depression, World War II, civil rights, Vietnam, the spring of 1989 in China. These events intrude upon our lives and radically affect our directions.

You are part of that horrid expression, the best and the brightest. It can be a terrible burden if you let it be, but it is the great challenge of your time. And being a warrior in that challenge should be wondrous.

Seven and half years ago I began my own journey. For me and my family it was a time of adversity. But during that adversity I derived a deeper faith. And born out of that adversity was a commitment to devote myself to those people and to those issues that truly matter to me.

In this era of the global village, the tide of democracy is running. And it will not cease, not in China, not in South Africa, not in any corner of this earth, where the simple idea of democracy and freedom has taken root.

Two hundred years ago, our Founding Fathers gave us a democracy. It was based upon the simple, yet noble, idea that government derives its validity from the consent of the governed.

Journey with me to a true commitment to our environment. Journey with me to the serenity of leaving to our children a planet in equilibrium.

I am an American. I love this country.

Let's try winning and see what it feels like. If we don't like it, we can go back to our traditions.

That sense of sacredness, that thinking in generations, must begin with reverence for this earth.

A commencement is a time of joy. It is also a time of melancholy. But then again, so is life.