TRANSCRIPT OF FORMER SENATE MAJORITY LEADER GEORGE MITCHELL'S REMARKS AT
GW LAW SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT, MAY 26, 2002

Thank you. Graduates, families and friends, members of the faculty, President Trachtenberg, Dean Young, thank you very much that that very generous introduction. It’s an honor for me to be able to participate in this graduation ceremony, such an important and happy day in your lives.

Ceremonies like this in celebration of graduation have a long history. The first one took place in Italy more than 800 years ago. The first American commencement was at Harvard in 1642. For those of you in the audience already worrying about how long I’m going to speak, which usually includes everyone, you’ll be interested to know that there were nine graduates at that first commencement, and they were subjected to three addresses: one in Greek, one in Hebrew and one in Latin. The ceremony took all day and concluded with a debate in philosophy that was conducted entirely in Latin. (Laughter) So I begin by reassuring you that I will speak only in English, and the one thing I remember about the address at my graduate was that it was too long. So I intend to stop speaking before you stop listening.

Now, of course it’s traditional at a law school graduation for the speaker to give you advice about the practice of law. I’ll do that quickly to get it out of the way. I speak to a number of bar groups – that’s ‘bar’ as in law not ‘bar’ as in booze – and the first question I’m asked, almost always, is after your experience as majority leader in the Senate, in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, can you give us some tips on negotiation? How can we negotiate more successfully in our law practice? My answer is that there’s only one thing you need to know about negotiation, that’s you have to have the courage to quit while you’re ahead. Now, most people don’t remember statements like that, but they remember stories, so I’m going to tell a story you’ll remember, mind you, the point: quit while you’re ahead. Appropriately enough, the story is about an Irish farmer and English farmer who owned adjoining farms on the east coast of Ireland. The Irishman’s farm was just one acre, no woods, no water, no animals. The Englishman’s farm was a grand estate, tens of thousands of acres of forest, lake and rivers. And appropriately they didn’t get along on anything; they disputed the boundary between their property and everything else. One day the Englishman went duck hunting on his grand estate and he shot a duck out of the sky. It fell to the earth dead on the Irishman’s side of the property line. It began a long dispute over who owned the duck. Both hired lawyers, spent a lot of money, couldn’t resolve it. Finally, one day the Irishman went to see his Englishman neighbor and said, ‘I propose we resolve this through the use of an ancient ritual used to settle disputes on this island long before there were laws, or lawyers, or courts. The Englishman said, ‘well, what is it?’ The Irishman said, ‘we’ll go outside, I’ll pick you up and throw you as far as I can. And then you pick me up and throw as far as you can. And which ever one of us throws us the furthest will win the duck.’ The Englishman thought for a moment and said, ‘well, I don’t like you, I’ve always wanted to do you harm, this appears to be the first legal way to do so, so let’s go.’ They went outside and the Irishman picked up the Englishman, spun him around like an Olympic discus and threw him through the air what turned out to be 33 feet. He crashed into a stone wall, was badly hurt, cut, bleeding, dusty, he got up, stopped the flow of blood, dusted himself off, walked to the Irishman and said, ‘now it’s my turn.’ He said, ‘I’m going to throw you over that wall.’ The Irishman looked at him, looked down at the duck, he said, ‘ah, keep the duck.’ (Laughter) That’s all you have to know about negotiation for the rest of your career. (Laugher, applause)

For five years I had the privilege of working for peace in Northern Ireland. In 1998 the governments of Briton and Ireland and most of the parties of Northern Ireland reached an agreement that put to end centuries of conflict. In a free and open election, the people of Ireland, both North and South, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement. It was a historic step forward and progress has since been made. By itself, the agreement does not provide or guarantee peace or political stability or reconciliation, but it does make them possible. The making of peace there and elsewhere is a never-ending process. As each generation struggles anew with the tension between the legacy of a bitter history and the promise of a better future, can people who have been divided and in conflict for centuries rise above the past for the mutual benefit of a stable and prosperous future?  That’s what the people of Northern Ireland have been trying to do. They’re working to provide the conditions in which each individual can lead a full and meaningful life. And that’s an appropriate goal for every society including our own. We’re Americans. We’re fortunate to live in a society, which despite its imperfections, is the most free, the most just, the most open society in all of human history. (Applause)

From that society, each receives many benefits. And with benefits come responsibilities. You’ve had the good fortune to receive an advance education. So each of you will have an important role to play in preserving and improving our way of life. There’s much for all of us to do. Each of you can make up your own list of our society’s challenges. I’ll mention just a few. If you believe as I do that every American child is entitled to a good education, regardless of background or family wealth, you must oppose any actions which have the effect of denying them that opportunity. If you believe as I do that all of us have an obligation to leave for future generations the very basics of healthy human life on earth – clean air, pure water, unpoisoned land – you must demand public policies to honor that obligation. If you believe as I do that every American is entitled to good health care, especially those in the vulnerable early and late years of life, you must support policies that meet that objective. And if you believe as I do that every American is entitled a full and equal opportunity and equal justice you must stand up and speak out against all forms of injustice and discrimination. Never ever forget that in the presence of evil silence makes you an accomplice. (Applause)

As lawyers you have a special responsibility to honor the reality and the perception of equal justice under law for all of our citizens. The education you received is important, even necessary, but it is not a guarantee of self worth, it is not a substitute for life of effort. What you do in the law is important. How you conduct yourself is just as important. If you take pride in what you do, you will excel. If you do not take pride in what you do, you cannot excel.

John Garden put it best when he wrote, ‘an excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. A society which scorns excellence in plumbing because it is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exhaled activity will have neither good plumbing or good philosophy. Neither its pipes or its theories will hold water.’ (Applause)

Now when you take the bar exam, make sure you don’t do what the young Irish student did when he took it in early December. Frustrated by the difficulty of the questions, he wrote on the last one, ‘God alone knows the answer to this question. Merry Christmas.’ (Laughter). When he got the paper back, there was this response, ‘God gets an A, you fail. Happy New Year.” (Laughter)

For most human beings, life is in essence a never-ending search for respect. First and most important self respect, then the respect of others. There are many ways to achieve respect, but for me none is more certain and rewarding than service to others. You are part of a highly privileged elite in the education you’ve received and the opportunities that will be available to you. It is inevitable and appropriate that you will devote much of your life to earning the income you will need to support yourself and your family. The more successful you are, the more evident it will come to you that there is much more to life than wealth and status. You will want those rewards and most of you will get them, but you will find that fulfillment in your life will not come from acquisitions or from property, not from leisure or from self indulgence. Real fulfillment in your life will come from striving with all of your physical and spiritual might for a worthwhile objective that helps others and is larger than your self interest. I hope that each of you is fortunate enough to find such an objective in your life. Congratulations and good luck. May God bless you all. (Applause)

 -- GW --