Madam President, distinguished trustees,
Reverend Parsons and Rabbi Pernick, Senator Schumer
and Senator Morahan, faculty and guests, graduating
students, proud parents and family members, it is my great pleasure to join
with each of you at these commencement exercises to congratulate these
graduates on the achievements that gave rise to their arrival at this time and
this place in the history of their lives.  Whether they're earning a graduate degree, a Baccalaureate, a professional certificate, or an Associates degree, today they become graduates of St. Thomas Aquinas College, and with this great achievement, complete a major chapter in their lives. 

As someone who was educated by Adrian Dominican Sisters, I can say to you graduates, you can feel justifiably proud of what you have achieved; for today, you fulfill the objectives of this great institution -- to continue the heritage and spirit of its founders, the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill.  With your graduation, you realize the mission
of this school, to enlighten the mind.  And, in doing so, you exemplify the values of your namesake, St. Thomas
Aquinas, who lived his life in pursuit, not of knowledge, but of truth.  St. Thomas
Aquinas College
is a dynamic institution with a thoughtful, purposeful past, a resourceful,
dramatic present, and an important, vibrant future.  As graduates of this school, you now, more
than ever, become part of this distinguished and life-long legacy.  By the way, I'm proud to tell you that the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management is an alumna of St. Thomas Aquinas College.  

I want to extend a special
thanks to the President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Thomas Aquinas
College, Dr. Margaret Mary Fitzpatrick, who invited me to share this special
day with you.  She and her staff have
pursued the mission of this College with energy and vitality, and, through
their relentless efforts, are propelling the growth and progress of this
institution into the 21^st century.  

I would also like to express my
deep gratitude for the honor you will bestow on me today with the award of the Doctor
of Commercial Science honorary degree.  As
one who appreciates deeply the value of learning as a life-long endeavor, I am
humbled and moved to join you as an honorary alumnus of this great school.  I now have a total of three earned degrees
and two honorary degrees.  Although, some of my classmates from my undergraduate days may tell you that my bachelor's degree was an honorary one as well -- but I know you won't believe them.

When President Kennedy was
granted an honorary doctorate from Yale
University in 1963, he announced
sardonically that he had achieved the best of both worlds -- a Harvard
education and a Yale degree.  Now, as a
recipient of degrees from both Harvard and St. Thomas Aquinas, I might say that
I have the best of both worlds -- a Harvard education and a St. Thomas Aquinas
degree!  But, I believe that I also would enjoy a St. Thomas Aquinas education as well.

******

To the class of 2003, I commend
your hard work and diligence over the past few years. Today, we are gathered to
celebrate the results of those long hours you have spent in libraries and
laboratories, in seminar rooms and dormitories, and across that great
cosmopolitan educational environment that is the city and environs of New York.  Hopefully you spent more time in the library and the labs than you did
in the city, but I expect for some, the lure and luster that is the Big Apple
played a valuable role in your education as well.  Yet, I suspect during your college years, you personally experienced the three foundations of learning included in the widely noted proverb: "seeing much, studying much, and suffering much."

Today, we mark a great milestone in your lives. The diplomas you receive are not merely a tangible reward for completing a prescribed program of study -- they are also a signpost toward the wonderful, scary, and ultimately, fulfilling thing that happens to us all after college, called real life. You will be challenged, but as   STAC graduates, you will be up to
it. 

Emerson once said:  "The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education."   In this spirit, I challenge you to look upon
these diplomas not as the brass ring that marks the culmination of your
ride in the carousel of college life, but rather as a stepping-stone on a
continuous journey of inquiry, discovery, and service.  Persist in your quest to become a responsible
citizen of our nation and the global community.  Strive to become a leader who can shape the future and create a better
world for our children and grandchildren.  Use the broad foundation your liberal education has provided you as the
means to serve the communities from which you came.   And, I
can assure you, that in this increasingly technical world, your education will
be of great value as you meet the challenges of the future. 

Although born as a charity case
in Kings County
Hospital in Brooklyn
just before World War II, I too was blessed with a liberal arts undergraduate
education; and, my earned degrees were made possible by the taxpayers of the United States through the United States Navy.  Hence, the foundation of my American dream is
composed of both education and service, and my experience combined the two in a way that allowed me to prepare for national service
physically, mentally, and yes, spiritually. 

As I tackled the tough
technical and humanities curricula of my era, I also learned that the American
dream is based on a universal system of values that combines simple truths with
bold vision.  These ideals are often less
appreciated by those who have not sacrificed to secure them, with the costs of
liberty coming at a much higher price for previous generations of Americans
than yours or mine.   Let us never forget
the high costs of freedom. 

Yet, as residents of this
community and graduates of an institution that is close to the greatest city on
this planet, I do not need to remind you of the tenuous and fractured world
into which you graduate, or the challenges to freedom we face around the
globe. 

It is a vitally important time
in the history of our nation and, for that matter, for modern civilization as
we work to solve the challenges posed by the new threat of global
terrorism.  The American future is one
that either we can make for ourselves, as New Yorkers have done for years, or
one which we can have thrust upon us.  No
longer can we rest on the protections of geographic isolation and friendly
neighbors, nor can we put off tough choices until the future arrives; too
often, it is then too late.  

More troubling, our position of immunity
is being eroded as more nations and rogue groups obtain the capacity to project
power over long distances, and as the nature of warfare itself
continues to evolve.  Quite apart from the attacks of Sept. 11, we can foresee threats posed by ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and smuggled chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.  We can foresee the prospect of new kinds of attacks, such as computer network attacks, in which distance is less important and our traditional defenses will likely provide little protection.

For those of us charged with
protecting America,
these realities have forced us to redefine our enemies as well as our concepts
of defense.  It is these new challenges -- challenges that were intensified, but not created by the events of 9/11 -- that underscore the value of our Air Force to our nation.

The capabilities American
Airmen deliver -- basically global reconnaissance and strike, and the mobility
assets that make it all happen, often in enemy-controlled or politically
sensitive areas -- these are exactly what America
needs at this time in our history.  Operation Noble Eagle -- over the United States -- began the moment the Air Force was
notified of the hijackings.  Operation
Enduring Freedom, our fight against terrorism, began less than a month later.
The men and women of the Air Force made possible distant operations in a landlocked
nation for the first time in our history.  Everything going into Afghanistan moved by air, even the Marines that came ashore via ships transferred to Air Force aircraft to be flown into Afghanistan. In short order, but not without costs, we liberated that nation and have set it on a course of reconstruction.

In the past month in Iraq,
we have again liberated an oppressed people and have begun the process of
rebuilding in a very difficult tribal and political climate.   That operation also featured the most
dramatic illustration to date of what a coalition can accomplish with a just
mission, high technology, a commitment to joint and combined military
operations, and the bravery and creativity of magnificently trained soldiers,
sailors, airmen and marines of several countries.  Because we owe it to them, for the example
they set in Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is imperative that we succeed in the
rebuilding effort in Iraq
and the wider effort to assure stability and self-determination in the region.   

To meet these continuing
challenges, our future will require innovation, it will feature technology, it
will demand creativity -- in other words -- all the elements of a solid
education of the type you have received here.  It will require the transmission of civilized ideas and the values of a
freedom-loving nation.  The community
needs people who can think and reason, who can understand ideas outside their
disciplines as well as within.  We must have teachers, business leaders, military leaders, scientists, engineers, and technologists who are also citizens, who are so sensitized that they can recognize opportunities and problems, and so motivated that they want to solve them. Those who can combine a liberal education with technical understanding will lead our country in this new century. 

For the faculty, you have
prepared a generation for a bright and fulfilling future, even as you undertake
research and writing that will stretch the boundaries of your fields for your
successors.  To the graduates, I
encourage you to use this philosophy to chart a course of service to your
nation and to prepare those who will follow. 

******

As Secretary of the Air Force,
I can assure you that our Air Force is headed in a similar direction.  There is a real and significant role for the
liberally educated in our military today.  Future wars will require many forms of our nation's power: economic, diplomatic, financial, law enforcement,
intelligence and overt military capability.  To succeed in this complex new world, our leaders will require knowledge
of history, economics, religion, finance, psychology, technology, game theory,
decision analysis -- even chess -- among many other disciplines. 

In these times of conflict
against a new kind of enemy, we are reassessing how we think, and adapting to a
new form of warfare.  We seek to develop
thinkers, leaders, and professional men and women of high intellect and
unquestioned skill.  If we hope to
preserve freedom, we cannot -- and will not -- depart from this course. 

In our recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, our airmen demonstrated an appreciation for these new demands, taking into account tribal history; religious concerns; the value of food, water, and humanitarian aid; and the enduring power that respect for human life can have on a people yearning for liberty -- all while carrying out their demanding missions with professionalism and excellence. 

Our relentless development of
competent airmen who understand these demands and who are prepared to operate
in these environments is the difference between excellence and mediocrity,
success and failure.   

******

Most of you surely began your
academic experience here with confident expectations about the future.  That perspective changed dramatically when
our nation was attacked by a hateful band of terrorists that abhor our freedoms
and values.  But the problem for these terrorists is that they missed, very far off target, the bedrock upon which our nation stands -- the magnificent civic foundation that continues to attract people to our shores and our universities and our enterprises and our culture.

From my years of education, I've learned to break a problem down to its essence, to ask first principle questions, and to rigorously test one's assumptions and hypotheses.  Ladies and gentlemen, at its essence -- who
we are and what we stand for -- as citizens of the civilized world, is not
something than can be bombed, exploded, or taken away.  America
is not a building designed in the shape of a skyscraper or a Pentagon.  America,
in its essence, is not about land, or wealth, or technology -- or even a high
standard of living.  America
is not just people, or those whom we nurse, those whom we mourn, or those whom
we salute.  America
is an idea, a grand and on-going experiment like no other in the history of
mankind.  It is a dream; founded upon an
idea rather than a nationality or a religion, and guided by the most enduring
and sensible framework of government our world has ever known.  And it is a prospect of the future, a future that harnesses the disciplines of science, the creative energies of art, the lessons of history, and the moral order that derives from the rule of law.

I have every confidence that the American people, our allies and citizens of the world will remain resolved to persist in -- and yes, prevail -- in our fight against terrorism, because it is a war between freedom and fear.  It is
not a war against a people or a religion, but against a familiar enemy -- tyranny,
a hatred of liberty, and the rejection of human dignity.  I have the confidence reflected by another observer of the American idea, Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote more than 150 years ago:

"Americans alternatively display passions so strong and so similar, first for their own welfare and then liberty -- that one must suppose these urges to be united and mingled in some part of their being. Americans in fact do regard their freedom as the best tool of and the finest guarantee for their prosperity."

******

It was in this spirit, during a now famous commencement address 40 years ago next month (June 10, 1963) that President John F. Kennedy issued a similar challenge.  Hoping to resume the mission of Woodrow Wilson to encourage a revolution in human rights, not just within the United States but for the entire planet, he invoked Wilson's challenge that: "every man sent out from a university should be a man of this nation as well as a man of his time."

I am confident that the men and
women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution understand the
imperatives of this era, are willing to sacrifice for a higher calling, and are
prepared to give their talents and lives in the pursuit of pubic service and
public support.  And, let us not forget, as President Kennedy so eloquently spoke:

"For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal... But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together."