Clinton Addresses Seniors on Class Day

Two-term U.S. President Bill Clinton challenged the 1,667 graduating members of the Class of 2007 yesterday to look beyond individual differences and find what is common across humanity.

Delivering the annual Class Day speech, Clinton stressed the commonality of human existence, noting that humans share more than 99.9 percent of the genome sequence.

“The great temptation,” Clinton said, “is to believe that the one-tenth of one-percent of you that is different and which brought you here [to Harvard]...is really the sum of who you are.”

“That is the trap into which you must not fall,” Clinton said to the crowd of 15,000 to 20,000 individuals gathered in Tercentenary Theatre.

In his address, Clinton highlighted several challenges facing the world today, including poverty, terrorism, disease, and climate change. Despite these challenges, Clinton stressed that solutions could be found.

“The inequality is fixable and the insecurity is manageable,” he said.

But Clinton warned the audience that the world’s most pressing problem was the prevailing belief that “our differences are more important than our common humanity.”

“The world is awash today in political, religious, almost psychological conflicts, which require us to divide up and demonize people who aren’t us,” he said.

Clinton drew on the examples of previous Class Day speakers and his own personal hero, Nelson Mandela, who led the fight against apartheid in South Africa, to inspire seniors.

“I hope that you all share Martin Luther King’s dream, embrace Mandela’s spirit of reconciliation, support Bono’s concern for the poor, and follow Mother Theresa’s life and do some active service,” he said.

Martin Luther King was the first non-faculty individual to be invited to address seniors on Class Day. He accepted the invitation prior to his assassination in April 1968, and his wife Coretta Scott King spoke in his place. Mother Teresa spoke in 1982, and U2 lead singer and activist Bono addressed seniors in 2001.

Although Clinton’s speech was serious in nature and appeared to be extemporaneous to some extent, he injected humor into his address.

He mentioned that he recently—and unexpectedly—found himself sitting a few tables away from conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh at a New York restaurant. Clinton told the audience that he went up to Limbaugh to say hello and shake his hand.

“I came just that close to telling him that we were 99.9 percent the same, but I didn’t want to ruin that poor man’s dessert,” Clinton said to applause and laughter from the audience.

Clinton, who was made an honorary member of the class of 2007, declined a request to play a saxophone brought on stage following his address.

Class Day, held on the day preceding Commencement, is organized by and on behalf of seniors. The day is a festive celebration for the soon-to-be-graduates before the formal pomp and circumstance of the University-wide Commencement ceremony.

Packed beneath crimson banners and a canopy of leaves, Clinton spoke after speeches by senior class members.

Joshua Patashnik ’07 and Rachel B. Nolan ’07, a member of The Crimson’s news board, were the Harvard Orators at yesterday’s event, and Tracy E. Nowski ’07 and Kiernan P. Schmitt ’06-’07 gave the Ivy Orations. Per tradition, the Harvard Oration is a serious address and the Ivy Oration is humorous.

The Class Committee also presented the Ames awards for public service to Rabia G. Mir ’07 of Pforzheimer House and Rajan A. Sonik ’07 of Adams House.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.