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President Joe Biden delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday morning, his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and a key opportunity for him to engage with a group of voters that data suggests is softening on him: young, Black men. (Biden delivers Morehouse commencement speech as some students and faculty express pro-Palestinian messages)
The address is interesting and worth a read, if only for what it suggests will be some of the rhetorical tropes that will be much on display between now and the first week of November (Watch Speech here). Much of it provided no surprises, though the discursive tropes are worth considering and their importance for the election campaign and its hints for the future course of policy ought not to be dismissed.For some analysis in the press here, here, here, and here. Most focused on the Gaza protests and US positions, mentioned during the course of the remarks. Much for interesting, for me, was Mr. Biden's return to Scripture--heartfelt and complex and dark, and perhaps hopeful. This sort of speaking through Scripture is a discursive trope that remains part of the palette of Presidential discourse, especially at key events and in key moments (a historic example Lincoln's House Divided Speech of 1858 (referencing Matthew 12:25)):
President Biden starts with a reference to part of James 5:16 (KJV): "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." The President emphasized the later part of the passage; one wonders, though whether the first part might be more significant--the fervent prayer of a righteous man may well avail much (the point of the reference as the start of the story of a founder of Morehouse College). And yet, that availing appears to do little in the absence of collective and mutual confession that is meant to set people on the path to healing. That path, President Biden reminded the audience took him through the valley of the shadow of death, a reference to Psalm 23:4 (KJV: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."). Mutual collective confession, a pathway to healing that takes the community through a dark night of the soul (the title of a poem written by Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic San Juan de la Cruz) through prayer that points the way, in this case, both to the establishment of the College, and perhaps more broadly, for the community now stronger in solidarity of mutual collective confession.
And yet, Mr. Biden suggested, the nation may not be at the point of either mutual confession of faults, much less one in the mood to pray for one another, that in righteous solidarity might avail the nation all of them. Instead, Mr. Biden, in a somewhat extraordinary turn, moves us from the possibility of hope to the moment of hopelessness between the Crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus.
We gather on this Sunday morning , if we were in church, perhaps, there would be this reflection, a reflection about resurrection and redemption. Remember, Jesus was buried on Friday, and it was Sunday, on Sunday, that he rose again. But, we don't talk about Saturday. When his disciples felt all hope was lost. In our lives, the lives of the nation, we have those Saturdays. To bear witness the day before glory. Seeing people's pain and not looking away. What work is done on Saturday to move pain to purpose. How can faith get a man, get a nation, through what was to come? (Biden Remarks)
This appears to be the moment before the mutual and collective confession of fault. It is the moment before it is possible to contemplate the possibility of healing; it is the time before the path through the valley of the shadow of death appears; it is the time before righteousness and fervent prayer. This is, indeed, a dark time. Applied to the nation this might be read as a confession of sorts--of fear, and ultimately of hope in a resurrection of some sort. But for the moment, and perhaps for some time, the Nation is in its Saturday--the day of stillness, of the Sabbath, as Jesus might have celebrated it--with a hpe of the renewal to come with Sunday and the restart of a cycle that was once long enough for the Divine spirit to fashion the world. We are left in the void and a cry of despair: "How can faith get a man, get a nation, through what was to come?", one that perhaps unbidden reflects another moment of a dark night of the soul, another moment of despair: 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? '” that is to say “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 (KJV)).
And then the moment disappears. It disappears in the retelling of a life rich in triumph and tragedy; his life. His life, like that of others, and perhaps the nation, provides a template, repeated over and over, against which it is possible to know that while one may be stuck in Saturday, Sunday s coming witeh prayer and faith of the sort he recounts.
Class of 2024, four years ago felt probably like Saturday. Four years later, you have made it to Sunday. You can reveal a light of hope for yourself and for your nation. The prayers of a righteous man unveil as much. A righteous man, a good man, a Morehouse man. God bless you all, we are expecting a lot from you. Thank you. [applause]Let us hope he is right, whatever that Sunday looks like (¡Oh noche, que guiaste! ¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada! ¡Oh noche que juntaste amado con amada, amada en el amado transformada!) San Juan de la Cruz, En Una Noche Oscura). For the moment, it seems, and from the perspective of the White House; it may still be Saturday in America.
The Remarks (transcript form) follow below in a somewhat crude transcript form. After this post was circulated the White House released a cleaned up version of the Remarks on the President's website; it may be accessed HERE and also follows below.
thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, president thomas, faculty, staff, alumni, and a special thanks to all the folks who helped you get here. Your mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers. All of those who got you here, all the way in the back, parents, grandparents, all the health, stand up. Because we owe you a debt of gratitude. All the families. [applause]
that is not hyperbole. A lot of you, like my family, had to make significant sacrifices to get your kids to school. It mattered. It mattered a lot. And the friends of morehouse and the morehouse men, class of 2024, i have more and more people telling me what to do than i know what to do in the white house. [laughter]
you all think i'm kidding, don't you? You know i'm not. It's the best thing that has happened to me.
scripture says, the prayers of a righteous man avail of much. In augusta, georgia, a righteous man once enslaved set foot for freedom, the story goes, he feared no evil. He walked through the valley of the shadow of death on his way north to free soil in philadelphia. A baptist minister, he walked with faith in his soul, power and his steps in his feet, to glory. After the union won the war, he knew his prayers availed him freedom, that was not his alone. So this righteous man richard coulter returned home, his feet weary, his spirit in no ways tired. 157 years ago, you all know the story, but the rest of the world doesn’t and they should. In the basement of a baptist church, he and two other ministers, william jefferson white and edmund turny planted the seeds of something revolutionary. And was, at the time. A school, his school to help formerly enslaved men enter the ministry, where education would be the great equalizer from salvery to freedom. An institution of higher learning, that would become morehouse college.
i don't know any other college in america that has that tradition, that consequence. To the class of 2024, you join a sacred tradition. An education that makes you free. And morehouse education makes you fearless. [applause] i mean it. Visionary, exceptional; congratulations. You're morehouse men. God love you. And again, i think your families and friends who helped you get here, because they made sacrifices for you as well.
this graduation date is a day for generations. A day of joy, a day earned, not given. We gather on this sunday morning , if we were in church, perhaps, there would be this reflection, a reflection about resurrection and redemption. Remember, jesus was buried on friday, and it was sunday, on sunday, that he rose again. But, we don't talk about saturday. When his disciples felt all hope was lost. In our lives, the lives of the nation, we have those saturdays. To bear witness the day before glory. Seeing people's pain and not looking away. What work is done on saturday to move pain to purpose. How can faith get a man, get a nation, through what was to come?
here's what my faith has taught me. I was to first Biden to ever graduate from college; taking out loans with my dad and all through school to get me there. My junior year, spring break, i fell in love at first type -- first sight, literally, a woman i adored. I graduated in her hometown. I got married and took a job at a law firm in my hometown, Wilmington, delaware. But then, everything changed. One of my heroes, and he was my hero, a Baptist minister, Morehouse man, dr. Martin luther king, in april of my law school graduation year, he was murdered. My city of wilmington, to our great shame, an enslaved state, and we were segregated. Delaware erected into flames when he was assassinated. Literally. The only city in America the national guard patrolled every street corner for nine full months, drawing bayonets, many american cities since the civil war. Dr. King's legacy had a profound impact on me and my generation. Whether you are black or white. I left a fancy law firm that i had just joined and decided to become a public defender. And then a county counsel, and working to change our state's policy. The democratic party in delaware was a southern democratic party at the time. They wanted to change it to become a northeastern democratic party. Then, trying to get someone to run for the united states senate, the year Nixon ran. I was 29 years of age. I had no notion of running. I loved reading about how everyone knew i was going to run, i didn't know i was going to run. When a group of senior members of the democratic party came to me, they couldn't find anybody to run, they said, you should run. Nixon won night stay by 60% of the vote. We won by 3100 votes. We won by the finishing margins. Over the broad coalition, including students from the best HBCU in America, Delaware state university. You guys are good. [laughter] they got me elected. You all think I’m kidding. I'm not kidding. [laughter]
By Christmas, i was a newly elected senator, hiring staff in Washington, D.C., when i got a call from the first responders in my fire department in my hometown. It forever altered my life. They put a young woman on the line to say, there is an automobile accident. Tractor-trailer into your wife's car while she was Christmas shopping with your three children. The poor woman, she blurted it out, she said, your wife and daughter are killed. And your sons are badly injured. We are not sure they are going to make it either. I rushed from Washington to the bedside. I wanted to pray, but i was so angry. I was angry at god, i was angry at the world. I have the same pain 43 years later, when that four-year-old boy survived, is a grown man, a father himself, lying in another hospital bed. Having contracted glioblastoma because he was a year and a rack, won the bronze star, living next to a burn pit. Cancer took his last breath. In this walk of life, you can understand -- you come to understand that we don't know where or what faith will bring you, or when. We also know we don't walk alone. When you have been a beneficiary of compassion, of your family, friends, even strangers, you know how much compassion matters. I've learned there is no easy optimism. But by faith, by faith, we can find redemption.
I was a single father for five years. No man deserves one great love, let alone two. My youngest brother, hell of an athlete, he did a great thing, he introduced me to a classmate of his. He said, you will love her, she doesn't like politics. All kidding aside, until i met jill, who healed the family and -- in all the broken places, our family became my redemption. Many of you have gone through similar or worse things. But you lean on others. They lean on you. And together, you keep the faith. Until. A. Better day tomorrow. It is not easy. I know four years ago, some of your speakers already mentioned, it felt like one of those saturdays. The pandemic rob do you have so much. Some of you lost loved ones. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. Who are not able to be here to celebrate with you today. You missed your high school graduation, started college as george floyd was murdered. There was a reckoning on race. It's not for a wonder democracy you hear about actually works for you. What is democracy? If black men are being killed in the street. . What is democracy? A trail of broken promises, leaving black communities behind a pair of what is democracy? If you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot. Most of all, what does it mean, as we have heard before, to be a black man who loves his country, even if it does not love him back in equal measure. [applause] i sit behind the desk in the oval office, in front of the fireplace, across from my desk, i have two busts. One of dr. King, one of bobby kennedy. I often find myself looking at those busts, making decisions. I ask myself, are we living up to what we say we are as a nation? To end racism and poverty, to deliver jobs and justice, to restore our leadership in the world. I looked down and see the rosary around my wrist that was added from my late son when he died. I ask myself, what would he say? I know the answer because he told me in his last days. My son knew his days were numbered. His last conversation was, dad, i'm not afraid. But i'm worried. I'm worried you are going to give up when i go. You were going to give up.
We have an expression in the Biden family, when you want someone to give their word. You say, look at me. He was lying it -- lying there, he said, look at me, dad. He said, give me your word, give me your word as my father that you will not quit, that you will stay engaged, promise me, dad, stay engaged. Promising. -- promise me. I wrote a book called "promise me, dad." not for the public at large, although a lot of people ended up buying it, it was for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know who beau Biden was. The rosary around my wrist reminded me that.
Faith asks you to hold on to hope, to move heaven and earth, to make better days. That's my commitment to you. Two showed you tomorrow -- to show you democracy is still the way. Black men are being killed in the street. We bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy. To root out systemic racism. I stood up for George Floyd’s family, to help create a country. You don't need to have that talk with your son or grandson, as they get pulled over. Instead of a trail of broken promises, we are investing more money than ever in black families and black communities. Reconnecting black neighborhoods cut off by old highways and decades of disinvestment's, that no one cared about. We have delivered checks in pockets to reduce black child poverty, the lowest rate in history. Removing every lead pipe in america so every child can drink clean water without fear of brain damage.
We are delivering affordable high-speed internet. So no child has to sit in their parents car to do their homework outside of a McDonald’s. Instead of forcing you to prove you are 10 times better, we are breaking down doors, so you have more opportunities pair good paying jobs that you can raise a family on in your neighborhood. Housing, more affordable and accessible. I walked a picket line and defended the rights of workers. I am relieving the burden of student debt, many of you have already had the benefit of it, so you can chase your dreams. [applause] grow the economy. The supreme court told me i couldn't, i found two other ways to do it. And we are going to do it. Because it grows the economy. And i, in addition to the original $7 billion, i am investing 16 billion more dollars. More than our history. [applause] because it is vital to our nation. Most hbcu's don't have the endowments, the jobs that the future requires. Opportunities on campus. Opening doors so we can -- to be provided. Today, record numbers of black Americans have jobs, health insurance, and more than ever.
Democracy is also about adhering and heeding your generation's call, and a plan -- planet free of climate crisis. Showing the power to change the world. But also know, somebody will ask, what is democracy? Can't stop wars that break our hearts. And a democracy, we debate about America’s role in the world. I want to say this clearly. I support peaceful nonviolent protests. Your voices should be heard. I promise you, i hear them. I am determined to make my administration look like America. I have more African Americans in high places, including on the court, then any other president in American history because i need the input. [applause]
What is happening in Gaza and Israel is heartbreaking. Thomas's vicious attack -- Hamas’s vicious attacks and holding people hostage. I was there nine days after, pictures of a mother and daughter, pouring kerosene on them as they died. Innocent Palestinians caught in the middle of all of this. Men, women, and children killed and displaced, despite their desperate need of water, food, and medicine. This is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That is why i have called for an immediate cease-fire. An immediate cease-fire to stop the fighting. [applause] bring the hostages home. I have been working on a deal as we speak, working around-the-clock. I'm also working around-the-clock for more than just one cease-fire, i'm working to bring the region together. Working to build a lasting, durable peace. The question is, you see what is going on in Israel today, what after? What after? What happens then? What happens in Gaza? What rights do the Palestinian people have? I'm working to make sure we finally get a true state solution, the only solution. [applause] it is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world, there is nothing easy about it. I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family. Most of all, i know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well.
Leadership is about fighting through the most intractable problems. It is about challenging anger, frustration, and heartbreak, to find a solution. It is about doing what you believe is right, even when it is hard and lonely. You are all future leaders, everyone of you, graduating today. That is not hyperbole. You are future leaders, all of you. You will face complicated, tough moments. These moments, you listen to others, but you will have to decide, guided by knowledge, conviction, and principle, and your own moral compass. The desire to know what freedom is, what it can be, is the heart and soul of why this college was founded in the first place. And a free nation was born in the hearts of men, spellbound by freedom. That's the magic of Morehouse. That's the magic of America.
Let's be clear. What happens to you and your family when old ghosts a new power sees power, your thoughts belong to you and everyone. Today in Georgia, they want allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election. What in the hell is that all about? I'm serious. Think about it. -- and then the attacks on black election workers who count your votes. Insurrectionists storm the capital with confederate flags are called patriots by some. Not in my house. Black police officers, black veterans protecting the capitol were called another word, as you recall. They often say aloud, these other groups, immigrants poison the blood of our country. As the grand wizard and fascists have said in the past. You know and i know, we all bleed the same color. In America, we are all created equal. Extremists closed the door of opportunity, strike down affirmative action and attack diversity, equality and inclusion. I never thought i would be president at a time where we banned books, not to write history but to erase history. To me, we make history. We know black history is American history. [applause] check my records, you know what i'm saying, i mean from my gut. We know black men will help us lead us into the future. Black men from this class in this university. [applause] this is what we are up against.
Extremist forces aligned against the meeting and message of Morehouse. Being a man is about tough talk, abusing power and bigotry. Their idea of being a man is toxic. I ran into it all the time when i was younger. Don't get me started. But that's not you. Not us. You all know and demonstrate what it means to be a man. Being a man is about strength. Of respect and dignity. It's about showing up because it is too late if you have to ask. It's about giving hate no safe harbors. It's about standing up to abuse of power, whether physical, or psychological. It's about knowing faith without work is dead. And you are doing the work. I look out at all of you read with and i see the next generation of Morehouse men, doctors, researchers curing cancer. Artists. I see preachers and advocates who might even join another morehouse man in the united states senate. You can clap for him. He's a good man. [applause] i'm proud to have the most diverse administration in history to tap into the full powers of our nation. I'm also proud of putting the first black woman on the united states supreme court. I know that no doubt, one day a Morehouse man will be on that court as well. [applause]
i've been vice president to the first black president who has become my close friend and president to the first woman vice president. [applause] i have no doubt a Morehouse man will be president one day, just after an a.k.a. from Howard. [applause] she's tough, guys. I know i don't look like i've been around very long. [laughter] but in my career, for the first 30 years, i was told you are too young, kid. Now, i'm too old. Whether you are young or old, i know what endures. The strength and wisdom of faith endures. I hope for you, my challenge to you is to still keep the faith so long as you can. That cap on your head proves you have earned your crown. The question is now, 25 years from now, 50 years from now, when you are asked to stand and address the next generation of Morehouse men, what would you say you did with that power you've earned? What would you say you've done for your families, for your community, your country when it mattered most? I know what we can do. Together, we will build a democracy worthy of our dreams. Have a future where your legacies lift up those who follow. Prove the American dream is big enough for everyone to succeed.
Class of 2024, four years ago felt probably like Saturday. Four years later, you have made it to Sunday. You can reveal a light of hope for yourself and for your nation. The prayers of a righteous man unveil as much. A righteous man, a good man, a Morehouse man. God bless you all, we are expecting a lot from you. Thank you. [applause]
Remarks by President Biden at the Morehouse College Class of 2024 Commencement Address | Atlanta, GA
Morehouse College
Atlanta, Georgia
10:29 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you, thank you,
thank you, President Thomas, faculty, staff, alumni. And a special
thanks — I’ll ask all the folks who helped you get here — your mothers,
fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers — all those who got you here, all
the way in the back, please, parents, grandparents, all who helped,
stand up, because we owe you a debt of gratitude. (Applause.) To all
the family.
And that is not hyperbole. A lot of you, like my
family, had to make significant sacrifices to get your kids to school.
It mattered. This mattered a lot.
And the friends of Morehouse and the Morehouse men of the Class of 2024.
I
got more Morehouse men in the White House telling me what to do than I
know what to do. (Laughter.) You all think I’m kidding, don’t you?
(Laughs.) You know I’m not. And it’s the best thing that’s happened to
me.
Scripture says, “The prayers of a righteous man availeth much.” In
Augusta, Georgia, a righteous man once enslaved set foot for freedom.
The story goes he feared no evil; he walked through the valley of the
shadow of death on his way north to free soil in Philadelphia. A
Baptist minister, he walked with faith in his soul, powering the steps
of his feet to glory.
But after the Union won the war, he knew
his prayers availed him freedom that was not his alone. And so, this
righteous man, Richard Coulter, returned home, his feet wary, his spirit
in no ways tired.
A hundred and fifty-seven years ago — you all
know the story, but the rest of the world doesn’t, and it should — in
the basement of a Baptist church in Augusta, he and two other ministers,
William Jefferson White and Edmund Turney, planted the seeds of
something revolutionary — and it was at the time — a school — a school
to help formerly enslaved men enter the ministry, where education would
be the great equalizer from slavery to freedom — an institution of
higher learning that would become Morehouse College.
I don’t know any other college in America that has that tradition and that consequence.
To
the Class of 2024, you join, as you know, a sacred tradition. An
education makes you free. And Morehouse education makes you fearless.
(Applause.) I mean it. Visionary. Exceptional.
Congratulations. You are Morehouse men. God love you. (Applause.)
And, again, I thank your families and your friends who helped you get here, because they made sacrifices for you as well.
This graduation day is a day for generations, a day of joy, a day earned, not given.
We gather on this Sunday morning because — if we were in church,
perhaps there would be this reflection. There would be a reflection
about resurrection and redemption. Remember, Jesus was buried on
Friday, and it was Sunday — on Sunday he rose again. But — but we don’t
talk enough about Saturday, when the discip- — his disciples felt all
hope was lost.
In our lives and the lives of the nation, we have
those Saturdays — to bear witness the day before glory, seeing people’s
pain and not looking away. But what work is done on Saturday to move
pain to purpose? How can faith get a man, get a nation through what was
to come?
Here’s what my faith has taught me.
I was the first Biden to ever graduate from college, taking out loans with my dad and my — all through school to get me there. My junior year spring break, I fell in love at first sight, literally, with a woman I adored. I graduated from law school in her hometown, and I got married and took a job at a law firm in my hometown, Wilmington, Delaware. But then everything changed.
One of my heroes — and he was my hero — a Baptist minister, a Morehouse man, Dr. Martin Luther King — in April of my law school graduation year, he was murdered.
My city of Wilmington — and we were a — to our great shame, a slave state, and we were segregated. Delaware erupted into flames when he was assassinated, literally.
We’re the only city in America where the National Guard patrolled
every street corner for nine full months with drawn bayonets, the
longest stretch in any American city since the Civil War.
Dr.
le- — Dr. King’s legacy had a profound impact on me and my generation,
whether you’re Black or white. I left the fancy law firm I had just
joined and decided to become a public defender and then a county
councilman, working to change our state’s politics to embrace the cause
of civil rights.
The Democratic Party in Delaware was a Southern
Democratic Party at the time. We wanted to change it to become a
Northeastern Democratic Party.
Then, we were trying to get someone to run for the United States
Senate the year Nixon ran. I was 29 years of age. I had no notion of
running — I love reading about everybody knew I was going to run; I
didn’t know I was going to run — (laughter) — when a group of senior
members of the Democratic Party came to me. They couldn’t find anybody
to run and said, “You should run.”
Nixon won my state by 60
percent of the vote. We won by 3,100 votes. We won by the thinnest of
margins but with a broad coalition, including students from the best
HBCU in America, Delaware State University. You guys are good, but —
(laughter) — they got me elected. And you all — you all think I’m
kidding. (Laughter.) I’m not kidding.
But by Christmas, I was a
newly elected senator hiring staff in Washington, D.C., when I got a
call from the first responders, my fire department in my hometown, that
forever altered my life. They put a young woman first responder on the
line to say, “There was an automobile accident. A tractor-trailer hit
your wife’s car while she was Christmas shopping with your three
children.” And she — poor woman, she just blurted out. She said, “Your
wife and daughter are killed” — my 13-month-old daughter — “they’re
dead, and your almost three-year-old and four-year-old sons are badly
injured. We’re not sure they’re going to make it, either.”
I
rushed from Washington to their bedside. I wanted to pray, but I was so
angry. I was angry at God. I was angry at the world.
I had the same pain 43 years later when that four-year-old boy who
survived was a grown man and a father himself, laying in another
hospital bed at Walter Reed hospital having contracted stage four
glioblastoma because he was a year in Iraq as a major — he won the
Bronze Star — living next to a burn pit. Cancer took his last breath.
On
this walk of life, you can understand — you come to understand that we
don’t know where or what fate will bring you or when. But we also know
we don’t walk alone. When you’ve been a beneficiary of the compassion
of your family, your friends, even strangers, you know how much the
compassion matters.
I’ve learned there is no easy optimism, but by faith — by faith, we can find redemption.
I was a single father for five years —
No man deserves one great love, let alone two. My youngest brother,
who was a hell of an athlete, did a great thing. He introduced me to a
classmate of his and said, “You’ll love her; she doesn’t like
politics.” (Laughter.)
But all kidding aside, until I met Jill,
who healed — who healed the family in all the broken places. Our
family became my redemption.
Many of you have gone through
similar or worse — and even worse things. But you lean on others, they
lean on you, and together, you keep the faith in a better day tomorrow.
But it’s not easy.
I know four years ago, as some of your speakers have already mentioned, it felt like one of those Saturdays.
The pandemic robbed you of so much. Some of you lost loved ones — mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, who were — aren’t able to be here to celebrate with you today — today. You missed your high school graduation. You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race.
It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you.
What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street?
What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave Black — Black communities behind?
What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?
And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure? (Applause.)
When I sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, in front of
the fireplace across from my — my desk, I have two busts: one of Dr.
King and one of Bobby Kennedy. I often find myself looking at those
busts and making decisions. I ask myself: Are we living up to what we
say we are as a nation, to end racism and poverty, to deliver jobs and
justice, to restore our leadership in the world?
Then I look
down and see the rosary on my wrist that was out of — my late son, he
had on him when he w- — died at Walter Reed and I was with him. And I
ask myself: What would he say? I know the answer because he told me in
his last days.
My son knew the days were numbered. The last conversation was, “Dad,
I’m not afraid, but I’m worried. I’m worried you’re going to give up
when I go. You’re going to give up.”
We have an expression in
the Biden family. When you want someone to know — give you their word,
you say, “Look at me.” He was lying to me — he said, “Look at me, Dad.
Look at me.”
He said, “Give me your word. Give me your word as my father that you
will not quit, that you will stay engaged. Promise me, Dad. Stay
engaged. Promise me. Promise me.”
I wrote a book called “Promise
Me, Dad,” not for the public at large, although a lot of people would
end up buying it. It’s for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to
know who Beau Biden was.
The rosary on the — my wrist, the bust in my office remind me that
faith asks you to hold on to hope, to move heaven and earth to make
better days.
Well, that’s my commitment to you: to show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way.
If Black men are being killed on the streets, we bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy, to root out systemic racism.
I stood up for George — with George Floyd’s family to help create a country where you don’t need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over.
Instead of a trail of broken promises, we’re investing more money than ever in Black families and Black communities. We’re reconnecting Black neighborhoods cut off by old highways and decades of disinvestment where no one cared about the community.
We’ve delivered checks in pockets to reduce child — Black child poverty to the lowest rate in history. We’re removing every lead pipe in America so every child can drink clean water without fear of brain damage, and then can’t afford to remove the lead pipes themselves.
We’re delivering affordable high-speed Internet so no child has to sit in their parents’ car or do their homework in a parking lot outside of McDonald’s.
Instead of forcing you to prove you’re 10 times better, we’re breaking down doors so you have 100 times more opportunities: good-paying jobs you can raise a family on in your neighborhood — (applause); capital to start small business and loans to buy homes; health insurance, prescriptions drugs, housing that’s more affordable and accessible.
I’ve walked the picket line and defended the rights of workers. I’m
relieving the burden of student debt — many of you have already had the
benefit of it — (applause) — so I [you] can chase your dreams and grow the economy.
When
the Supreme Court told me I couldn’t, I found two other ways to do it.
(Applause.) And we were able to do it, because it grows the economy.
And I — in addition to the original $7 billion investment in HBCUs, I’m investing 16 billion more
dollars — (applause) — more in our history, because you’re vital to our
nation. Most HBCUs don’t have the endowments. The jobs of the future
require sophisticated laboratories, sophisticated oppor- — opportunity
on campus.
We’re opening doors so you can walk into a life of
generational wealth, to be providers and leaders for your families and
communities. Today, record numbers of Black Americans have jobs, health
insurance, and more [wealth] than ever.
Democracy is also about hearing and heeding your generation’s call to a community free of gun violence and a planet free of climate crisis and showing your power to change the world.
But I also know some of you ask: What is democracy if we can’t stop wars that break out and break our hearts?
In a democracy, we debate and dissent about America’s role in the world.
I want to say this very clearly. I support peaceful, nonviolent
protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them. I
determined to make my c- — my administration look like America. I have
more African Americans in high places, including on the Court, than any
president in American history — (applause) — because I need the input.
What’s
happening in Gaza and Israel is heartbreaking. Hamas’s vicious attack
on Israel, killing innocent lives and holding people hostage. I was
there nine days after, s- — pictures of tying a mother and a daughter
with a rope, pouring kerosene on them, burning them and watching as they
died. Innocent Palestinians caught in the middle of all this: men,
women, and children killed or displaced in despite — in desperate need
of water, food, and medicine. It’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
That’s
why I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire — an immediate ceasefire to
stop the fighting — (applause) — bring the hostages home. And I’ve been
working on a deal as we speak, working around the clock to lead an
international effort to get more aid into Gaza, rebuild Gaza.
I’m
also working around the clock for more than just one ceasefire. I’m
working to bring the region together. I’m working to build a lasting,
durable peace. Because the question is, as you see what’s going on in
Israel today: What after? What after Hamas? What happens then? What
happens in Gaza? What rights do the Palestinian people have? I’m
working to make sure we finally get a two-state solution — the only
solution — (applause) — for two people to live in peace, security, and
dignity.
This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems
in the world. And there’s nothing easy about it. I know it angered and
frustrates many of you, including my family. But most of all, I know
it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well.
Leadership is
about fighting through the most intractable problems. It’s about
challenging anger, frustration, and heartbreak to find a solution. It’s
about doing what you believe is right, even when it’s hard and lonely.
You’re
all future leaders, every one of you graduating today. And that’s not
hyperbole. You’re future leaders, all of you. You’ll face complicated,
tough moments. In these moments, you’ll listen to others, but you’ll
have to decide, guided by knowledge, conviction, principle, and your own
moral compass.
And the desire to know what freedom is, what it can be is the heart and soul of why this college was founded in the first place, proving that a free nation is born in the hearts of men spellbound by freedom. But the — that’s the magic of Morehouse. That’s the magic of America.
But let’s be clear what happens to you and your family when old ghosts in new garments seize power, extremists come for the freedoms you thought belonged to you and everyone.
Today in Georgia, they won’t allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election. What in the hell is that all about? (Applause.) I’m serious. Think about it. And then the constant attacks on Black election workers who count your vote.
Insurrectionists who storm the Capitol with Confederate flags are called “patriots” by some. Not in my house. (Applause.) Black police officers, Black veterans protecting the Capitol were called another word, as you’ll recall.
They also say out loud, these other groups, immigrants “poison the blood” of our country, like the Grand Wizard and fascists said in the past. But you know and I know we all bleed the same color. In America, we’re all created equal. (Applause.)
Extremists close the doors of opportunity; strike down affirmative action; attack the values of diversity, equality, and inclusion.
I never thought when I was graduating in 1968 — as your honoree just
was — we talked about — I never thought I’d be in — present in a time
when there’s a national effort to ban books — not to write history but
to erase history.
They don’t see you in the future of America.
But they’re wrong. To me, we make history, not erase it. We know Black
history is American history. (Applause.)
Many of you graduates don’t know me, but check my record, you’ll know what I’m saying I mean from my gut.
And we know Black men are going to help us, lead us to the future — Black men from this class, in this university. (Applause.)
But, graduates, this is what we’re up against: extremist forces
aligned against the meaning and message of Morehouse. And they peddle a
fiction, a caricature what being a man is about — tough talk, abusing
power, bigotry. Their idea of being a man is toxic. I ran into them
all the time when I was younger. They got — all right, I don’t want to
get started. (Laughter.)
But that’s not you. It’s not us. You
all know and demonstrate what it really means to be a man. Being a man
is about the strength of respect and dignity. It’s about showing up
because it’s too late if you have to ask. It’s about giving hate no
safe harbor and leaving no one behind and defending freedoms. It’s
about standing up to the abuse of power, whether physical, economic, or
psychological. It’s about knowing faith without works is dead.
(Applause.)
Look — and you’re doing the work. Today, I look out at all you
graduates and I see the next generation of Morehouse men who are doctors
and researchers curing cancer; artists shaping our culture; fearless
journalists and intellectuals challenging convention. I see preachers
and advocates who might even join another Morehouse man in the United
States Senate.
You can clap for him. He’s a good man. (Applause.)
As I said, I’m proud to have the most diverse administration in history to tap into the full talents of our nation. I’m also proud of putting the first Black woman on the United States Supreme Court. (Applause.) And I have no doubt, one day a Morehouse man will be on that Court as well. (Applause.) You know it.
I’ve been vice president to the first Black president and become my close friend and president to the first woman vice president. (Applause.) Wh- — I have no idea — no doubt that a Morehouse man will be president one day, just after an AKA from Howard. (Laughter and applause.) She’s tough, guys. (Laughter.)
Look, let me close with this. I know I don’t look like I’ve been
around very long. (Laughter.) (The President makes the sign of the
cross.) But in my career, for the first 30 years, I was told, “You’re
too young, kid.” They used to stop me from getting on the Senate
elevator when I first got there, for real. Now, I’m too old.
Whether
you’re young or old, I know what endures: The strength and wisdom of
faith endures. And I hope — my hope for you is — my challenge to you is
that you still keep the faith so long as you can.
That cap on
your head proves you’ve earned your crown. The question is now, 25
years from now, 50 years from now, when you’re asked to stand and
address the next generation of Morehouse men, what will you say you did
with that power you’ve earned? What will you say you’ve done for your
family, for your community, your country when it mattered most?
I
know what we can do. Together, we’re capable of building a democracy
worthy of our dreams; a future where every — even more of your brothers
and sisters can follow their dreams; a boundless future where your
legacies lift us up t- — so those who follow; a bigger, brighter future
that proves the American Dream is big enough for everyone to succeed.
Class of 2024, four years ago, it felt probably like Saturday. Four
years later, you made it to Sunday, to commencement, to the beginning.
And with faith and determination, you can push the sun above the horizon
once more. You can reveal a light hope — and that’s not — I’m not
kidding — for yourself and for your nation.
“The prayers of a righteous man availeth much.” A righteous man. A good man. A Morehouse man.
God bless you all. We’re expecting a lot from you.
Thank you. (Applause.)
10:55 A.M. EDT
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