U.S. President Barack Obama gives the commencement address to the graduating class of The Ohio State University at Ohio Stadium on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo: Getty Images)
Erica Ritz, TheBlaze — A year to the day after kicking off his re-election campaign at Ohio State University, President Barack Obama returned to the college campus and told graduates that only through vigorous participation in their “democracy” can they right an ill-functioning government and break through relentless cynicism about the nation’s future.“I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to do better,” Obama said.
In a sunbaked stadium filled with more than 57,000 students, friends and relatives, Obama lamented an American political system that gets consumed by “small things” and works for the benefit of society’s elite. He called graduates to duty to “accomplish great things,” like rebuilding a still-feeble economy and fighting poverty and climate change.
“Only you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be,” the president told more than 10,000 cap-and-gown-clad graduates. “But it requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship.”
Obama also urged the students to “reject these voices” that warn of the evils of government, saying:
Still, you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.Invoking the end of the Cold War, 9/11 and the economic recession, Obama said this generation has already been tested beyond what their parents could have imagined. But he said young Americans have responded with a deep commitment to service and a conviction that they can improve their surroundings. He urged graduates to run for office, start a business or join a cause, contending that the health of their democracy “requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship.”
We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems, nor do we want it to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government.
[...]
The cynics may be the loudest voices—but they accomplish the least. It’s the silent disruptors—those who do the long, hard, committed work of change—that gradually push this country in the right direction, and make the most lasting difference. [Emphasis added]
Ohio State also bestowed an honorary doctorate on Obama, applauding his “unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose.”
Obama’s other two commencement speeches this season will be later in May at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and at Morehouse College, an all-male school in Atlanta.
» Full Article
Watch video of President Obama’s speech courtesy of MSNBC, below:
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
» TheBlaze
» Erica Ritz Article Archive
Obama Tells A New Generation To “Reject These Voices”
Voices they heard "growing up"... that would be their parents and grandparents voices
who were influenced by such men as ‘Ike’
who were influenced by such men as ‘Ike’
President Eisenhower - Farewell Warning
“The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination [military-industrial complex] endanger our liberty or democratic process.” Long before Obama's drones over America, in President Eisenhower's farewell Address to the Nation he warned Americans about the persistent threat to our liberties by the "military industrial complex".
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the thirty-fourth President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and the five-star general in command of all the United States Army during WWII. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe.
Other Breaking News Items On TheBlaze
» Obama Blames Mexico Gun Violence On US Lust For Drugs And Guns
Forgets To Mention ‘Fast and Furious’
» Israeli Jets Bomb Syria Overnight – See Video of the Powerful Explosions
Israeli Jets Bomb Damascus
» Is That Occupy Portland Dancing Around a Golden Calf on May Day?
“Flabbergasted”
Glenn Delivers NRA Keynote
“Let Us Declare Without Shame That I Will Cling To My God And My Guns”
Radio host Glenn Beck speaks at the NRA Stand and Fight Rally, an event of the 2013 NRA Annual Meetings in Houston, Texas. In his highly-anticipated keynote speech, Beck conveys his message through stories often ignored by the mainstream media of law-abiding citizens defending themselves with firearms, and the cold, hard facts about gun control that have been rejected by the political elites. “So what is this gun, good or evil? It is nothing! A gun is only a reflection of the people that use it,” he declares. Originally aired on 5/4/13. » GlennBeck.com