Thank you, Father Leahy, trustees, faculty, graduates, it’s really an honor to be able to be here at the 50th anniversary of my BC graduation to address the – in particular the 2016 graduates, but also their families and friends. I have been told, with my 50th reunion, I am now a Golden Eagle. Gold is a euphemism for gray hair. (Laughter.) But I do welcome all the graduates to the rank of Eagle alumni.
I also want to especially congratulate the parents in particular for their now-improved economic outlook. (Laughter.) And I can certainly empathize with the idea of having tuition payments in the rearview mirror.
In 2009, actually, BC Magazine had a little interview with me, and one of the many questions was my favorite place. And it was hard to narrow it down, but I ended up choosing Alumni Stadium, remembering Jack Concannon and names of football past, et cetera, here. I certainly didn’t anticipate that that was prefacing my appearance here at Alumni Stadium a few years later. But it’s really, really, really a pleasure.
This class – and Father Leahy already alluded to it – this class might be called Boston College strong. As he said, this class was here for the terrible Boston Marathon and the terrorist events. It was here for the deepest snows of a generation. He mentioned that. I would add to it the perils of fast food, I think, became also known to this class. (Laughter.) But, of course, also some real highs, including very, very recently the first-ever Beanpot hockey shutout for BC over BU. (Cheers, applause.)
I would also note there was the additional excitement of an extended power outage. And in that context, probably surprising many of you, the Department of Energy and hockey, the NHL, we actually have a collaborative program, because they are leading in green energy – getting energy efficiency, LED lighting, and more efficient refrigeration. And, in fact, that led me, in my last visit in the campus in March, to get filmed for a slap shot right here for the NHL, what I called a real power play. That’s a pun. (Laughter.) But the idea, of course, was to use less electricity to generate the same light. They kind of got a little bit confused and the lights went out completely, but – (laughter) – this is a collaboration still in formation, so.
But turning to a few remarks to the graduates, I’d like to start first with a few remarks about change, and touch then on some of what I believe will be persistent challenges that you will face over your next 50 years, until you come back here and one of you stands up here, hopefully, addressing those graduates.
Really, the emphasis is on addressing and embracing change at the personal, community, national, and global scales, and how BC education certainly taught me, and I believe prepared you, for the challenges and opportunities of change.
So, first, a little indulgence at a personal level. Fifty years ago, when I sat where you are now, the world was indeed very, very different. And we cannot expect any slackening of the pace of change. Quite the contrary: it will continue to accelerate. So we have no idea what the world will look like 50 years down the road for you, including, if I know my line of business, we could have cities with completely robotic services. You might leave Earth’s orbit, at least for a while. Who knows? I mean, the changes are just, just incredibly dramatic.
What may surprise you more is, at least for me, I find it almost equally difficult to imagine the world of 50 years ago when I graduated, because things that you have grown up with, we have learned late in life, and then they’ve changed our lives just as they have shaped yours. And just one example from my – from my academic emphasis in physics, I’m a nuclear particle physicist by training. And when I took courses at Boston College and then at Stanford, the particles that supposedly madeup the universe we found out within 10 years were completely different.
The key was, of course, being prepared – prepared to not only accept this, but to advance this to accept those tremendous discoveries and change, because the only constant will be change – in fact, dramatic change. And the question is preparation to adapt and shape that change the way this country has done with great success over a long time.
I will return a little bit in a few minutes to the level of political discourse in the country, which, if anything, is pretending that we may able to resist the forces of change – I believe, much to our detriment. Your BC education and the values that this institution has promulgated will prepare you well, I believe, for that change.
In terms of personal background, well, let me say I come from Fall River. An American story: immigrant grandparents, parents without high school educations, but a passion for education. Working-class family, but with a labor union providing scholarship support. Frankly, I had a lot of options at that point for college, but one Father Terry from the local St. Louis Parish was a persistent lobbyist for BC, and he led me to make a great choice in coming here.
And it was a time of change. BC was undergoing enormous change in that time period of the 1960s. Actually, BC was formed in the 1860s, which many may not realize was a time of incredible change and development of higher education in this country. Right in the middle of the Civil War, land grant colleges formed, MIT across the river, Boston College, many others. It was a time of great change. A century later, as I came here, the school was making a tremendous commitment to enhancing its academic standing, one that has continued to this day, certainly in the 20 years of the current president, Father Leahy, and he’s gone through some of that.
And this is my individual story. You all have your own individual stories. But certainly I would venture that all of you have gone through a substantial period of change as you have gone through this experience at Boston College. Here I might add that my exceptional education here particularly derived from the mentorship of working with a faculty member, Professor Chen. He retired before you came here, Professor Chen, in physics. And it’s that kind of bonding that I think Boston College has emphasized in terms of the faculty-student relationship which is really the basis, certainly, of what I consider to be, my career trajectory.
That career trajectory has had, going back to the word, many changes – from physicist, to laboratory director, to energy technology and policy leader, to governments, to company boards, to national security issues. None of it planned, other than the first step. But each of these changes has enriched certainly my career, and my call really is to all of you, once again, to embrace change. When the opportunity comes to serve in different ways, take it on, because that will lead to personal fulfillment, in my view, but also really help move our fellow citizens, our country, and our world forward.
Indeed, let me just end by referring to some of these global issues that I think, again, will be something that will be constant in your 50 years, even if the circumstances are changing dramatically. Two trends I’ll just refer to: one, global warming, climate change, and the clean energy solutions; and, second, a global security framework that is probably permanently changed from the one that I grew up with. That’s where the marathon events and the snow come in, in terms of terrorism and extreme weather. Those are just indications of much, much bigger trends that you will be dealing with in a multi-generational sense. But again, with an education that will allow you to be good stewards of the Earth, its environment, its ecological, and human needs.
So I’ll just say a few words on climate change up front, and first of all emphasize that discussing climate change, in my view, in the view of our administration, of the president, this cannot be separated from our need to address the needs of the world’s most vulnerable.
We have over a billion people today without electricity, many without water, paying exorbitant prices to get fuel to remote locations, consumed by gathering fuel, especially disadvantaging women in these societies. We have these challenges in our own country, let alone in other countries.
And in fact, I am honored, again, to join this group of honorees who, as you have heard, have done so much in individual and community ways, whether it’s Haiti or sub-Saharan Africa, or our Southwest, or our remote villages in Alaska, et cetera. These are people and challenges that we really need to bring our capacity to help.
Indeed, the Jesuit tradition of advancing education and social justice brings these two threads together.
Pope Francis, in his encyclical “Laudato Si’,” said, “We must hear,” and I quote “both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.” Mother Earth is speaking more and more loudly, even though some choose to cover their ears and pretend that they cannot hear.
But the voices of the poor remain too muffled. And that will be part of your challenge as we address the potential dislocations from climate and from other forces.
Today, we are seeing a lowest-common-denominator social and political discourse: a lot of “me first,” a lot of isolationism. These are trends that we must act to reverse. Certainly, a discussion that devalues the situation of the most vulnerable among us is fundamentally opposed to the Christian ethic and must be addressed independent of religion. We will need a lot of innovation from you and your generation – innovation in many forms. Sure, science and technology innovation, but also policy and politics innovation, business-model innovation. Every skill set you have acquired must be brought to bear to address these issues, and to do so while carrying and advancing the core values that we have spent two millennia developing.
So now it comes to you, the 2016 graduates, looking to the next 50 years, not the last. I can tell that you’re not. You have to just look forward to the next 50 years. You have been characterized in this march of generations – the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z – it’s always hard to know where the boundaries are. And in fact, the boundaries will not be set until history judges that over several decades. But you are probably like late Millennials, or something like that.
And it’s interesting, when the first book that talked about the Millennials, its subtitle was something like “The Next Greatest Generation.” Didn’t take long for that to be challenged – Generation Me, Generation Like, in terms of social media. And again, for these themes – addressing change, managing change, addressing climate, addressing the relationships among nations, addressing the needs of the vulnerable – it’s up to you to decide which of those characterizations is going to be the most appropriate.
Whether you make that difference at the individual, community, national or world level, you will decide. You will have opportunities placed in front of you. Communities of faith, of course, have historically played a critical role in these areas.
BC has given you tools. Use them or lose them. And use them to good end, because you will write history. Go Eagles. Boston College strong. Thank you.
