And even sorrier that my goal of a career in service had been thwarted.
To my astonishment, he said I could keep the scholarship. There are lots of ways to serve the public, he explained. And you should choose the way that you are best at.
There was only one requirement, he said. I would have to promise to devote some part of my life to public service.
I have tried to keep that promise.
And in doing so, I have also tried to repay a debt that I feel I owe.
Before World War I, this country gave my family a refuge from religious persecution that allowed them to survive the Holocaust when World War II arrived. (Applause.)
My grandmother was one of five children born in what is now Belarus. Four of the siblings tried to come to the United States. Three made it. The fourth was turned back at Ellis Island. And the fifth did not try.
The two who stayed behind died in the Holocaust.
So, for me, public service is a way to repay the debt my family owes to this country for our very lives. (Applause.)
I know that you all worked very hard to get here. So did I. But for different reasons, the fact that we are all here today makes us lucky. So I hope you will make a promise similar to the one that I made: to devote some part of your life to public service.
As my advisor said, there are many ways to serve the public.
Some of you will decide to devote your entire lives to providing service to others.
And on this Memorial Day weekend, I particularly want to recognize those among you who have served, or will be serving, or are serving our country in uniform. We all owe you our gratitude.
I also want to recognize those of you who are preparing already to begin your service in fields as wide ranging as working in government or NGOs, teaching, running for office, and dozens of others.
And to those of you who found chemistry easier than I did, I am in awe. (Laughter.) As we worry about the possibility of future pandemics, we need people to devote their lives to medicine and scientific research. (Applause.)
Fulfilling this promise can also mean devoting parts of your career to service, depending on the other obligations you incur as you go through life.
Or it can mean serving others directly by volunteering to provide one-on-one services to those who need them. And here, I want to give a shoutout to the students at Harvard Law School and other area law schools whom I met with yesterday. You and other students answered my call to provide legal representation for families threatened by eviction during the pandemic. (Applause.) Your work kept those families safe. I am grateful for your service.
Earlier in my career, I spent weeks in Oklahoma City investigating the bombing of a federal building, as the president said. I saw – and I felt – how consequential an outpouring of volunteer services could be. Oklahomans lined up to offer care and comfort to those who were hurting – survivors and first responders, neighbors and strangers alike.
But it should not take a tragedy to prompt us to look for ways, that day in and day out, we can help those who need our help.
And from my personal experience, I can tell you that public service benefits not just those you serve, but you as well. When you are facing life’s unanticipated twists and turns – and I assure you, they will come – it can be a great solace to get outside of yourself. To focus on helping someone else.
So, don’t let your generation be defined by the pandemic. Let it be defined by public service. (Applause.)
There is one particular reason that makes my call to public service especially urgent for your generation. It is an urgency that should move each of you, regardless of the career you choose. It is the urgent need to defend democracy. (Applause.)
Both at home and abroad, we are seeing the many ways in which democracy is under threat.
I want to start with democracy abroad, as I am well aware of the international students in this audience. Harvard has come a long way since my day – when you were counted as geographically diverse if you came from the Midwest. (Laughter.)
When I was graduating from college, there were many things to worry about in the outside world, including the threat of another land war in Europe. But with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, that threat seemed to recede from the possible to the improbable.
Now that land war is upon us. Russia’s unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine this February has been accompanied by heart-breaking atrocities: murders of civilians, the shelling of hospitals, the bombing of a theater in Mariupol where hundreds had sought shelter, the demolished residential apartment buildings of Bucha and other cities.
There are, and there will be, many lessons to draw from the current conflict.
But if anything can pull us together as a country and as an international community – and make clear the stake we all have in the success of democracy both at home and abroad – this heinous invasion by an authoritarian government is it. (Applause.)
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