(applause)
- Thank you, President Starr, Professor,
Professors all, Class of 2018.
It is an immense privilege and honor to be here
with you this morning.
My hometown, my mother's here!
(cheers and applause)
Thank you, Pomona College, for hooking me up
with the best Mother's Day present ever!
(laughter and applause)
So, while we were processing,
one of you graduating seniors passed me a note.
You know who you are.
It said, "Professor Allen, please be aware,
all that stands between me and my degree is your speech."
(laughter)
And it's raining. It reminds me of Harvard commencement.
I'm just sittin' in the rain.
That's what we do in Boston all the time,
so welcome to the community.
It is, as I said, a true honor to be here
and to share this important moment with all of you.
I know you've come here for many reasons.
I believe many of you, despite what you may say
about the life of the mind, have come here for a job.
And I am sure you will succeed, this place has equipped you.
And I am sure many of you have also come
to enrich yourselves as human beings,
to find the connections that your colleagues spoke about
so eloquently.
I worried, to be honest, before coming that you had perhaps
not come here to find your civic purpose.
The data that we read about suggests that young people
don't much care for democracy anymore.
For instance, only 30% of people born
in the most recent generations consider democracy essential
to our way of life.
And 25% of 18-24 year olds
think that democracy is either a bad
or very bad way of running things.
But I can tell that you are not apathetic.
I've learned that this morning, clearly.
Nonetheless, the work of democracy is hard,
and before you leave, I do want to share a few more thoughts
on that subject of preparing yourself
for your civic responsibilities.
For the last 20 years, for reasons that are too complicated
to explain in this moment, I have been journeying
with the Declaration of Independence.
Many of you will be skeptical of the worth of that text.
You think it was written by Thomas Jefferson, slave owner.
Let me just tell you one important lesson.
If you want credit for something, put it on your tombstone.
Jefferson's tombstone says,
"Author, Declaration of Independence".
(laughter)
That's why he gets that credit, in fact it was written
by a committee, he happened to chair the committee,
it's true that he wrote the first draft,
but the other members of the committee, and in particular
John Adams, man of Massachusetts who never owned slaves
and thought slavery was a bad thing were just as important
as intellectual architects of the document.
(applause)
But let me-
(laughter)
Yes Adams is my favorite, okay, of that founding generation.
Appreciate the response.
(laughter)
Let me just ask you to think with me for a moment,
I don't have much time, I remember that note,
(laughter)
about what I take to be the pithiest, most efficient lesson
in the content of citizenship and civic agency there is.
I say citizenship and civic agency
because citizenship is not about a formal status,
it is about empowerment
and taking responsibility for your world.
So here is the shortest lesson there is.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident
"that all men are created equal,
"that they are endowed by their creator
"with certain unalienable rights,
"that among these are life, liberty,
"and the pursuit of happiness.
"That to secure these rights, governments are instituted
"among men deriving their just powers
"from the consent of the governed,
"that whenever any form of government
"becomes destructive of these ends,
"it is the right of the people
"to alter or to abolish it
"and to institute new government laying its foundation
"on such principle and organizing its power in such form
"as to them shall seem most likely
"to effect their safety and happiness."
Tell the truth.
Did you remember it was that long?
(laughter)
It's not just about individual rights, life, liberty,
the pursuit of happiness.
It moves from those rights to the notion that government
is something that we build together
to secure our safety and happiness.
And were you listening closely?
We have two jobs.
Lay the foundation on principle.
Clarify your values. Know what you stand for.
And organize the powers of government
to secure those rights to effect our safety and happiness.
The best we can do is figure out what is most likely
to effect our safety and happiness.
We make probabilistic judgements.
We make mistakes.
We have to enter into the business of democratic agency
with humility.
And this job of laying the foundation of principle
and connecting it to how we organize the powers
of government entails two important things.
That foundation of principle, what does it amount to?
The sentence gives us some ideas.
It says we all have these rights among which...
Among which...
Are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Among which. It's examples people.
(laughter)
It's not a complete list.
The job of thinking is not done, it is your job, alright?
Clarify your values.
Maybe you care about sustainability.
Maybe you care about gender equality.
Maybe you care about free markets and capitalism,
but connect them to the basic question of what is good
for our community together.
A shared story.
(applause)
And then don't forget,
activism is valuable no question about it,
but our job at the end of the day is
to build institutions that secure our shared rights.
That means understanding the user manual, alright?
The institutions.
And yes, we can alter them.
They're not given in perpetuity.
Originalism is about understanding democratic empowerment,
which is about recognizing that democratic citizens build
and change their world, alright?
You lay the foundation on principle, that requires talking
to each other and everybody else,
and figure out how to organize the powers of government.
Understand the user manual well enough to use it
and modify it.
Alright, so I'll leave you again with my last lesson for you
for your civic preparation.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident
"that all men are created equal
"that they are endowed by their creator
"with certain unalienable rights
"that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
"of happiness, that to secure these rights
"governments are instituted among people
"deriving their just powers from the consent
"of the governed.
"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive
"of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter
"or to abolish it and to institute new government
"laying its foundation on such principle
"and organizing its power in such form as to us
"shall seem most likely to effect...
"our safety and happiness"
Congratulations, Class of 2018.
(cheers and applause)