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liberty-loving nations of the world."¹

These are the rights, they said, of people everywhere.

As we honor you graduates today for what you have achieved, so should we honor those who have gone before you to make the world a better place.

Those who saw a need and took action, who saw a lack of humanity but never lost their own, who persevered in the face of great obstacles, who understood the importance of hope.

Those who have promoted peace in Northern Ireland, who have battled for the rights of indigenous peoples, who have sought to ban landmines, who have worked on behalf of democracy. Those who have dedicated themselves to enhancing human freedom and advancing human rights.

These are the ancestors we must honor; these are the present day heroines and heroes we must celebrate.

You graduate at an auspicious time.

The year I was set to graduate from college, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. It was a time of hope and optimism, a time when all things seemed possible, when a bright young President promised the nation would go anywhere, fight any foe and bear any burden in freedom's name.

A generation much like yours believed that President's injunction and helped to organize a massive nonviolent movement that saw an end to American apartheid, giving life to other movements of oppressed in the United States and across the world.

There had been protests before against this evil system, in

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