Madeleine Albright

Commencement speech at the University of California, Berkeley
with response from Fadia Rafeedie, a Palestinian student
Berkeley, California
May 10, 2000

Ms Albright was Secretary of State of the United States at that time. Her  speech is uninspiring and predictable. Ms Rafeedie's response is rambling and simplistic. However, we include them because of the power in their point/counterpoint, exceptionally rare at commencement ceremonies. Approximately half the graduation audience chose to leave the auditorium during Ms Albright's speech. Ms Rafeedie earned the honor of making the convocation address because she was the University Medalist that year. She chose not to use her prepared text when she began to speak. There was a large crowd of protesters outside the auditorium, some of whom were arrested.

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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 to 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.

Response by Fadia Rafeedie, Palestinian student at University of California, Berkeley, to the commencement address by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

May 10, 2000

Maybe one of the most surprising and different commencement rituals of the year 2000 took place at Berkeley. Madeleine Albright was the commencement speaker and political correctly named all the good deeds of the United States around the planet. This commencement speech stirred the audience so badly, that by the end of the address, half the people had left the oratorium. Fadia Rafeedie, a Palestinian student who had earned the distinguished honor to address the audience, put aside her proposed convocation speech to speak from her heart about U.S. foreign policy matters, especially in view of the sanctions on Iraq.
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Chancellor Berdahl: Please join me in congratulating our 2000 University Medalist, Fadia Rafeedie.

Ms Rafeedie: Thank you, that was way too generous, Chancellor Berdahl. It makes me sound a lot better than I am. I had a speech and it's right here. It took me so long to draft it and I kept re-drafting it, and this morning I changed it again; but I'm just going to put it to the side and I'm going to talk from my heart, because what I witnessed here today, I have mixed feelings about.

I don't know why I'm up here articulating the viewpoints of my comrades out there who were arrested, and not them. It's not because I got, you know, straight A's or maybe it is. Maybe that's the way the power structure works, but I'm very fortunate to be able to give them a voice. I think that's what I'm going to do; so if you give me your attention, I'd really appreciate it.

I was hoping to speak before Secretary Albright, but that was also a reflection of the power structure, I think, to sort of change things around and make it difficult for people who are ready to articulate their voice in ways they don't usually get a chance to.

So I'm going to improvise, and I'm going to mention some things that she didn't mention at all in her speech but which most of the protesters were actually talking about. You know, I think it's really easy for us to feel sorry for her. I was looking at my grandmothers who are actually in the audience - my grandmother and her sister - who weren't really happy with all the protesters. I think they thought that wasn't really respectful of them. Perhaps many of you didn't as well because you came to hear her speak. But I think what the protesters did was not embarrass our university. I think they dignified it.

Because Secretary Albright didn't even mention Iraq, and that's what they were here to listen to. I think sometimes not saying things, not mentioning things, is actually lying about them. And what I was going to tell her while she was sitting on the stage with me, I was going to remind her that four years ago from this Friday when we were freshmen, I heard her on 60 Minutes talking to a reporter who had just returned from Iraq.

The reporter was describing that a million children were dying due to the sanctions that this country was imposing on the people of Iraq. And she told her, "Listen, that's more children than have died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Do you think the price is worth it?" Albright looked into the camera and she said, "The price is worth it".

Since that time, 3 times that number of people have died in Iraq. And I was going to tell her, "Do you really think the price is worth it?" We are about five thousand here today; next month, by the time we graduate, that's as many people who are going to die in Iraq because of the sanctions. This is what House Minority Whip David Boniors calls 'infanticide masquerading as policy.'

Now, I don't want to make the mood somber here because this is our commencement; but commencement means beginning, and I think it's important for us to begin where civilization itself began, and where it's now being destroyed.

Let me talk to you a little bit more about the sanctions, because I think it's very important. Now, I'm a Palestinian. I would really love to talk about the struggle for the liberation of my country, and to talk about a whole bunch of other things and I see some people maybe rolling their eyes, and other people nodding these are controversial issues, but I need to speak about Iraq because I think what's happening there is a genocide. It's another Holocaust.

I'm a history major, and sometimes I look back at history and I see things like the slave trade, the Holocaust. I see people dropping atomic bombs and not thinking what the ramifications are, and I don't want us to think about Iraq that way. It's already a little too late because 2.5 million people have died and yet these sanctions continue.

For the last 10 years, you wouldn't imagine the kinds of things that aren't being let into this country: heart machines, lung machines, needles,infrastructural parts to build the economy. Even for cancer patients, sometimes some of the medicine will be let in, but not all of the medicine.

It's very strategic, what's let in at what time, because what it does is prolong life, but it doesn't save it.

In Iraq, the hospitals they clean the floors with gasoline because detergent isn't even allowed in because of the sanctions. These are all United States policies.

And Secretary Albright - I have no conflict with her, as an individual. I don't happen to respect her, but she belongs to a larger power structure. She's a symbol.

When the protesters are protesting, it's not because they want to pick a fight with the woman who you guys all happen - well, many of you - happen to love. She was introduced as the 'greatest woman of our times.' To me, that's an insult. This woman is doing horrible things. She's allowing innocent people to suffer and to die.

Iraq used to be the country in the Arab World that had the best medical services and social services for its people, and now look at it. It's being obliterated. And a lot of times you might hear it's because of Saddam Hussein and I'd like to talk a little bit about that. He's a brutal dictator - I agree with her, and I agree with many of you. But again, I'm a history major, and history means origins. It means beginnings. We need to see who's responsible for how strong Saddam Hussein has gotten.

When he was gassing the Kurds, he was using chemical weapons that were manufactured in Rochester, New York. And when he was fighting a long and protracted war with Iran, where one million people died, it was the CIA that was funding him. It was U.S. policy that built this dictator. When they didn't need him, they started imposing sanctions on his people. Sanctions - or any kind of policy - should be directed at governments, not at the people.

The cancer rate in Iraq has risen by over 70 percent since the Gulf War. The children who are dying from these malicious diseases weren't born when the Gulf War happened. The reason that the cancer rate is so high is because every other day our country is bombing Iraq still! We're still at war with them. They have no nuclear capabilities. In fact, just last week, the United Nations inspectors found [again] that Iraq has no nuclear capabilities and yet we are bombing them every other day with depleted uranium. And this releases a gas that people breathe. It's making them ill, and they're dying and they don't have medicine.

I saw some of my friends, even, being arrested here today. One of them was Lillian. Her aunt did a documentary about this depleted uranium. It showed that it's being mined by Native American populations in the United States. They're getting sick. Their children are getting sick. And that depleted uranium is going from here, to our military, to Iraq, and it's decimating populations. This is a big deal.

And I'm embarrassed that I don't even get to talk about Colombia, because I saw a few signs today about that, too. And my colleague here, Darren Noy, who's also a Finalist, is very interested in these issues. We don't stand alone. I'm on stage with allies; I'm looking out at allies; we need allies; my allies have been taken away [today].

But in general, I mean, I'm speaking to a crowd that gave a standing ovation to the woman who typifies everything against which I stand. I'm still telling you this because I think it's important to understand.

And I think, that if I achieve nothing else, if this makes you think a little bit about Iraq, think a little bit about U.S. foreign policy, I've succeeded.

I don't want to take too much of your time, but I want to end my speech with a slogan that hangs over my bed in Arabic. It translates into, "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." I think our future is going to be the future of truth, and we're going to walk on that path, and we're going to fill it with travelers!

Thank you very much.

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