*EPF105 05/15/00
Text: Albright Address at University California, Berkeley
(Speaks of promoting status of women around the world) (1650)

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says she is proud that the Clinton administration has "succeeded in bringing efforts to advance the status of women into the mainstream of U.S. foreign policy -- in emphasizing the role of women in development and in launching a major diplomatic initiative against trafficking in women and girls."

In remarks May 10 to the graduating class at the University of California, Berkeley, Albright, the first woman to head the U.S. State Department, said "after 63 male Secretaries of State" she has been "determined to make a difference."

Following is State Department text, as prepared for delivery, released May 15:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
(Berkeley, California)

As Prepared for Delivery
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
Commencement Address to
University of California at Berkeley

May 10, 2000 (text not released until May 15, 2000)

Thank you Lisa Delehunt, for that introduction. Chancellor Berdahl, fellow speakers, honorees, members of the class of 2000, university officials, family members, protestors and friends, good afternoon. It's great to be in Berkeley!

I especially want to thank the graduating class for inviting me. I, myself, would probably have chosen Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington; but I am glad you didn't, because as a former professor, there is nothing I enjoy more than Graduation Day.

It is truly a time to celebrate. For parents, it's cause to marvel that the interval between diapers and diplomas is so short.

For graduates, it's one of the five great milestones of life, the others being birth, death, marriage, and the day you finally pay off your student loan.

Graduation is the reward for all the late nights in the library and the long hours studying. In the years ahead, you will look back upon this ceremony and realize that today -- May 10, 2000 -- was the very day you began to forget everything you learned in college.

You will find slipping from your mind the carefully memorized names of old composers, dead kings, and the body parts of dissected frogs. But even as hopes fade for striking it rich with Regis, you will find the deeper aspects of your education here will endure.

For Berkeley is one of the foremost academic institutions in our land. And you will be thankful all your lives for the opportunity to attend and graduate.

Of course, as long as you are in school, grades and test results measure accomplishment. You know what is expected and where you stand.

But once you leave school, you will have to rely upon an inner compass in a world undergoing ceaseless and kaleidoscopic change. You will have the benefit of every time-saving device known to man -- or woman -- and be so busy using them, you will hardly have a moment to think.

When I was your age -- and how many times have you heard that phrase before -- the world was a simpler place. The class of 1959 had a more uniform sense of identity and a more common view of what our country was about and by whom we were opposed.

Because of my personal background, I always had a deep interest in foreign policy. But I never dreamed of one day becoming Secretary of State. It's not that I was modest; it's just that I had never seen a Secretary of State wearing a skirt.

Since taking office, I have been asked about being a female in this job. Most who ask expect me to reply, it makes no difference. But after 63 male Secretaries of State, I have been determined to make a difference.

And I am proud that we have succeeded in bringing efforts to advance the status of women into the mainstream of American foreign policy; in emphasizing the role of women in development; and in launching a major diplomatic initiative against trafficking in women and girls.

After all, if we have zero tolerance toward those peddling drugs; we should have even less tolerance toward those who buy and sell human beings.

We have also made progress in curbing violence against women. But despite these gains, around the world, terrible abuses persist. They include domestic violence, mutilation, dowry murders, honor crimes and forced prostitution.

Some say all this is cultural and there's nothing any of us can do about it. I say it's criminal and we each have a responsibility to stop it.

Our initiatives on women are part of a larger strategy for bringing the world closer together around basic principles of democracy and the rule of law. That's why we moved so strongly against ethnic cleansing in Kosovo; and work so hard on behalf of Middle East peace.

It's why we support debt relief for the world's poorest countries; and speak out against violations of human rights whether they occur in China or Chechnya, Serbia or Afghanistan.

We are also striving with our partners to shape a new world economy that benefits the hardworking many, not just the privileged few. Because I suspect you are like me, when we buy a blouse or a shirt, we want to know that it was not produced by workers who were underage, underpaid, under coercion, or denied their basic right to organize.

We Americans cannot and will not accept a global economy that rewards the lowest bidder without regard to standards. We want a future where profits come from perspiration and inspiration, not exploitation.

Every day, I thank President Clinton for the opportunity to represent America around the world. The United States is not perfect. Like other nations, there have been shameful periods and practices in our past. But I believe deeply in the fundamental goodness of our country, and in the immense value of our continued leadership for democracy, justice and peace.

That, in a nutshell, is my story. But every one of us has a story, and those of you in the class of 2000 are far closer to your opening chapters than I am to mine.

As you go forward from here, I hope each of you will aim high, choosing compassion over complacency, and prizing courage over comfort. As I look around this theater, I am confident you will make the right choices, in part because so many of you already are.

To those who say your generation is self-absorbed, I say come to Berkeley, where many of you have taken a pledge to tutor and mentor Bay Area students.

To those who say your generation is indifferent, I say come to Berkeley, where students have helped to record evidence of war crimes in Kosovo; documented human rights abuses against Haitians; worked to save archeological treasures in the Bahamas; prepared to open a university in Ghana; and collected life-saving earthquake data in Turkey and Mexico.

To those who say your generation is materialistic, I say come to Berkeley, which has contributed more Peace Corps volunteers than any other institution in our country, and also the Peace Corps' current director, Mark Schneider.

The Class of 2000 will leave this university with great gifts embodied by the diplomas you have earned, and the knowledge, skills and character you have developed. The richness of these treasures is best demonstrated by their diversity.

For in years to come, some of you will lift lives through your capacity to teach; others will save lives through your ability to heal.

Some will create opportunity through enterprise; or enrich public life through accomplishments in science and law.

Some will nurture; others entertain.

But I hope you will all be animated by a common spirit, like streams of fresh water flowing to the same sea; your inspirations and energies giving life to a shared dream.

During the century just passed, we humans learned how to transplant hearts, fly spaceships, clone sheep and squeeze a library's worth of data into a single slender disk.

But as world events reflect, we remain far from mastering the art of human relations. We have invented no technology that will guide us to the destinations that matter most.

After two world wars, the Holocaust, multiple genocides and countless conflicts, we must ask how long it will be before we are able to rise above the national, racial and gender distinctions that divide us and embrace the common humanity that binds us.

The answer depends not on the stars or some mysterious forces of history; it depends on the choices that you and I and all of us make.

It depends on whether we settle for an America that takes the easy path or help build an America that will blaze new trails of freedom and shared prosperity in the new century.

It depends on whether we settle for a world crippled by faction and hate, or help create a more just and tolerant world -- where every individual is valued, and no nation is allowed to run roughshod over the rights of others.

It is said that all work that is worth anything is done in faith.

This afternoon, at this ceremony of warm memory and high expectation, I summon you in the name of this school and all who have passed through it, to embrace the faith that every challenge surmounted by your energy; every problem solved by your wisdom; every soul stirred by your passion; and every barrier to justice brought down by your determination will ennoble your own life, inspire others, serve your country, and explode outward the boundaries of what is achievable on this earth.

Class of 2000, congratulations once again; and thank you again for letting me share with you this very special moment in your lives.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN