I remember sitting down with Bill in Paris a couple of years ago where the
world was coming together to hammer out an agreement a small agreement to save
the planet by taking meaningful action to tackle climate change it's a threat
that may define the contours of this century more than just about anything
else here was the interesting thing bill saw
this not simply as a challenge but also as an opportunity and I remember him in
sort of a matter-of-fact way saying well we're going to just have to go ahead and
invent some new technologies which I said I agree let's do that although he
knows more than me about inventing new technologies but his tone was yes this
is hard but we can figure it out it's hard but it can be done and that spirit
a spirit that says to quote I guess myself yes we can
that spirit rather than a spirit of despair is is the motor by which we've
been able to see real progress in reducing the pace of carbon emission
increases here in the US and even if at the current moment the federal
government is not as engaged in these efforts as I would like nevertheless
progress continues because of the efforts of people like tho and a whole
host of entrepreneurs and universities and cities and states they are making
change around energy policy in America separate in the park from what
government is doing and that gives me confidence that we can continue to make
progress and my broader point here is is that you tend to believe when Bill says
we can do something that we can do it and when all of you stand up and say
this is something we can do that spirit is infectious and it's exactly what we
need right now we do face extraordinary challenges you've heard of many of them
in your discussions today you know the nature of these challenges from your
work growing economic inequality that changing climate terrorism mass
migration still too much extreme poverty still too many girls who are denied an
education the rise of nationalism and xenophobia and a pop of politics that
says it's not we but us and men the politics that threatens to turn good
people away from the kind of collective action that has always driven human
progress so these are real challenges and we can't sugarcoat them they're
going to take a long time to solve but that can't discourage any of us from the
belief that individually and collectively we can make a difference we
can make things better and rather than be daunted by those
challenges those challenges should inspire us and excite us because it
gives us an opportunity to make our mark on the world and in ways that we haven't
even yet scratched the surface of we have to reject the notion that we're
suddenly gripped by forces that we cannot control we've got to embrace the
longer and more optimistic view of history and the part that we play in it
and if you are skeptical of such optimism I will say something that may
sound controversial I used to say this to my staff and the White House young
interns who would come in any group of young people that I met with and that is
that by just about every measure America is better and the world is better than
it was 50 years ago 30 years ago or even 10 years ago and I know that statement
doesn't jibe with the steady stream of bad news and cynicism that were fed
through television and Twitter but think about it I was born I mean I I know I
have gray hair but I don't consider myself that old but I was born in a time
when women and people of color were systematically routinely excluded from
enormous portions of American life today women and minorities have risen up
the ranks of business and politics and everywhere else and even if we still
have miles to travel and innumerable laws and hearts and minds to change the
shift in what this country is and what it means is astonishing remarkable and
it's happened when you measure it against the scope of human history in an
instant just since I graduated from college crime rates teen birth rates
drop rates the share of people living in
poverty have dropped and in some cases dropped dramatically the share of
Americans with college education is up despite a massive global recession in
the final years of my presidency the uninsured rate reached a new low median
household income reached a new high that's here in the United States
worldwide our progress is even more remarkable and bill can rattle off these
statistics better than I can but over the past 100 years we've come
from a world where only a small fraction of women could vote - a world where
almost every woman can since the 1950s the global average life expectancy has
grown by more than 20 years since 1990 we have cut extreme poverty and
childhood mortality in half keep in mind I was in law school in 1990 it seems
like yesterday since 2000 we've evolved from a world without marriage equality
to one where it's a reality of more than two dozen countries all of this has
happened in such a steady march that sometimes we have intensity to take it
for granted but I often ask when I meet with young people if you had to choose
any moment in history in which to be born and you didn't know in advance
whether you were going to be male or female what country you are gonna be
from what your status was you choose right now because the world has never
been healthier or wealthier or better educated or in many ways more tolerant
or less violent than it is today fewer people are dying young more people are
living not only longer but better more girls are in school and more adults can
read more children get the vaccines that they need despite the enormous conflicts
that break our hearts around the world it's demonstrable that fewer people are
being killed in wars and conflicts than ever before this would be the time you'd
want to be showing up on this planet and these trends are real they do not make
us complacent but they should spur us to action because it shows
despite the naysay them the naysayers and the cynicism that in fact change can
happen they're not the result of mysterious forces of chance they happen
because countless people like you toiling for many years chose to make
this progress some like Bill and Melinda have enormous wealth and influence
others like Justin Trudeau who I knows addressed you earlier have formal
political offices but the majority of people who made these advances we're
citizens doctors nurses entrepreneurs clergy moms community leaders activists
union leaders who mobilized and organized and voted and innovated and
pushed for change and by the way they knew at every step of the way that they
would not get everything they wanted as fast as they wanted they knew that
progress required struggle and perseverance and discipline and faith
they knew that sometimes for every two steps forward you'll take a step back
but they made things better and this is something I always had to emphasize to
my staff when I was president better is good
you laugh but sometimes people forget that I will take better every time so
that's what's needed today the engagement of everyone who wants to see
a better future for our children and it can be frustrating I'll take an example
here in the United States over the past eight years thousands upon thousands of
Americans threw themselves into the collective effort of reforming our
health care system those of you who live in countries that already have the
universal health care are trying to figure out what's the controversy here I
am too these people
but you know the folks who did the work it wasn't just policy wonks it wasn't
just politicians it was moms and dads people who had the experience of a sick
child or crushing medical bills that threatened to bankrupt them maybe a
parent who was lost to cancer that had that person got a regular checkup it
might have been caught earlier and those voices from every walk of life in every
court of the country against all odds made a difference and for the first time
more than 90% of Americans know the security of health insurance paying more
for insurance or being denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition or
because you are a woman that's not a thing anymore we got rid of that and
people are alive today because of it and that's progress now the legislation that
we passed was full of things that still need to be fixed it wasn't perfect but
it was better and so when I see people trying to undo that hard-won progress
for the 50th or 60th time with bills that would raise costs or reduce
coverage or roll back protections for older Americans or people with
pre-existing conditions the cancer survivor' the expecting mom or the child
with autism or asthma for whom coverage once again would be almost unattainable
it is aggravating and all of this being done without any demonstrable economic
or actuarial or plain common-sense rationale it it frustrates and it's
certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep
our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents but
typically that's how progress is won and how progress is maintained on every
issue we have to stand up for each other
recognize that progress is never inevitable that it often can be fragile
it's in need of constant renewal and our individual progress and our collective
progress depends on our willingness to roll up our sleeves and work and not be
afraid to work so in conclusion each of us can make a difference and I know I'm
preaching to the choir cuz otherwise you wouldn't be a goalkeeper but many of you
are young and maybe have only seen forward momentum and may not have seen
backward momentum yet many of you may confront hurdles and roadblocks and
disappointments in the future and when that happens that's the test the test is
not how do you feel when things are going good or when you are at a cool
conference in New York with Bill and Melinda Gates and will.i.am
right the test is when you're in the field and you're on the ground and you
are doing work and people are resisting or misunderstanding or purposely
undermining efforts that you know can make a difference and how do you respond
to that and what I'm suggesting here today is is that your response has to be
to reject cynicism and reject pessimism and push forward with a a certain
infectious and relentless optimism not blind optimism not one that ignores the
scale and the scope of challenges but that hard-earned optimism that's rooted
in the stories of very real progress that have occurred throughout human
history and the recognition that our successes even
though sometimes they're small or incomplete accumulate they built and
they create a trajectory that's better and will mean some girl somewhere
getting an education that otherwise she would have been that'll mean some farmer
being able to cultivate a crop to feed his family and if enough of them do it
feed a nation that's what you're fighting for at every moment because
each new generation stands on the successes of the previous generation
there's like a relay race that we're running each generation reaches up
standing on that previous generation and bends that arc of history in the
direction of more freedom and more opportunity and more justice that's why
I spend so much time when I was president convening young leaders on
every continent that I visited that's why in my post presidency my emphasis is
going to be on training the next generation of leaders to take their own
crack at changing the world through the Obama foundation which will
be based in Chicago but we'll have projects and programs and digital
networks all across the global and I'm hoping I get a chance to work with some
of you because I have great faith in you this is I know Bill and Melinda have
great faith in you and I'm certain that if you keep pushing forward then America
and the world are going to be just fine thank you very much