Honor’s Breakfast Remarks
December 17, 2005
Northern Michigan University

Dr. Leslie E. Wong
President

Good morning, I want to dedicate this speech to all the students in attendance today.  You are NMU’s best and you are our brightest.....

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The preamble to the constitution of the United States is a powerful statement of who we are and to what we aspire to be.  As citizens, the guidelines provided here and further defined in the Constitution’s four articles and 28 amendments are a moving testament to what we expect of one another, what we expect of ourselves and more importantly, to what values should we measure our progress.  In an odd sort of way the Constitution reminds us that we are still somewhat “simple”, perhaps “primitive”.  But it also acknowledges how likely it is that if we are willing to abide by these morals, that we would have, within our ability, the power to “form a more perfect Union”.    The constitution does not say “THE” perfect union but “A” more perfect one.  And it is upon this phrase that I would like to center my comments. 

You are college graduates.  You are literate when the world is nearly 20% or more illiterate in their own language let alone another language.  You are capable of thought and analysis that is the envy of the industrialized and developing worlds.  You have at your fingertips incredible access to the most powerful asset we know of:  information.   And you have available to you a desire to do what few other species do in multiple ways::  communicate with one another.  So why am I, the President of Northern Michigan University starting out with the Constitution’s preamble at the Honor’s breakfast before you get your degree?

Let me try to answer my own question by offering to you some thoughts that occupy me far too much, reflections that often focus my attentions on your education and often compels me to make decisions that you may not like at all.  All because my colleagues and I are passionate about you and the potential you represent to form “a more perfect Union”.   Sometimes our expectations lead us to think we may know more about what you ought to do than what you think you ought to do.  But the truth is that we believe that you can do more than what we were able to do.

When I read the Preamble and that key phrase, “in order to form a more perfect Union...” I cannot imagine what may have been going on in Jefferson’s mind.  But from what I’ve read I don’t think it was merely that the American enlightenment or his romantic sense of it was leading him to grandiose dreams for the colony.  I do believe that he and his co-authors were telling us that in order to form “a more perfect Union”, there was a set of responsibilities and obligations to which civilized people must adhere in order to have the chance to form that more perfect Union.   As educated citizens, as participants at the highest level of this country, you represent a new view of the American dream, the shapers of our culture, not because you are a citizen and choose to be here, but the bar is higher for you because you are an educated citizen of this country.  You, in fact, may choose to do a lot of things with your life, but given your education many of us have not only hope but expectation.  You represent the potential that drove Jefferson to believe that as members of this country, perhaps even leaders of this country, that whatever role you chose to play, you are expected to make a difference because you are educated.

Jefferson and the framers of our constitution were addressing a powerful idea which I hope and encourage you to think about today.  Namely, what are the responsibilities and obligations you have as educated and enlightened young people? To what sense of values and propositions will you obey that will allow YOUR generation “to form a more perfect union”?  You see, each generation improved upon this thing we call civilization and like it or not, my generation tried to hand you a new and improved version.  Sadly, as I reflect upon our society and the one I had a hand in shaping, my cohorts could not eliminate the specter of war at all.  We could not insure “domestic tranquility” nor promote the “general welfare”.  We did however do something very important. By improving on our sense of justice for women and people of color we perhaps improved upon the scope of liberty for a wider part of our civilization. 

We are handing you the reins now because I have hope that the education you have received at Northern Michigan University has provided the roots to a life of responsibility and obligations that extend not only to you but to those around you.  You see, we are not an egalitarian country at all.  We may be equal. We are certainly not identical.  But we, as educated people must be committed to a set of values upon which YOU and your fellow graduates can “form a more perfect union”.    Let me be more blunt.  With you education, your are not like everyone else.

You will be expected to know more and be more aware because you are educated.
You will be more tolerant and forgiving because you are more educated.
You will be expected to make a difference in the lives of people less fortunate who live and work around you, because you are more educated.
You will be more loving and caring, yet demanding of yourself because you are more educated.
You will own your own mind, because you are an educated person.

The list can go on, but the message I want to share with you is that you are a very different person because of your education.  You have responsibilities and obligations to this American civilization.  My generation hopes that you will take the torch higher than we did.  And when you’re my age addressing young people, I hope you will speak to how you made a difference in the lives of others and yourself because of your education.  I believe this was the grandiose idea of our country’s elders, it was certainly the dream of my own immigrant parents to invest in my education. 

I don’t mean to be so didactic.  But what I think about most is what it means to this civilization by conveying to you this quality called an education.

If there was a means to add a new graduation requirement, and perhaps if I had the courage to require it of you, my requirement would be that I would tentatively give you a bachelor’s degree and then 10 years from now, Northern would send you a single question:

What does it mean to you to be an educated person?      You’d correct it yourself and we’d honor your answer by confirming the Bachelor’s degree you’ve worked toward.

Thank you for choosing Northern.  Give thanks to the faculty and staff who pushed you, cajoled you, supported you and inspired you.  You mean a lot to this civilization and you’ve helped me improve my answer to my own question.  Knowing that, you’ll know why I am so proud to be the President of this university, shaking your hand on today’s stage.

Thank you