This is an archive page.  The links are no longer being updated.

REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		Student Alumni Association, Madison, Wisconsin
DATE:		August 28, 1998

After leading two universities, I know how important home and family are to students. But I also understand the concept of "out-of-sight, out of mind." Once when I was at Wisconsin a mother called me and said she was very worried about her son because she hadn't heard from him in six weeks. So I called him in his dorm -- where I'm sure he was hard at work studying. When I got him on the phone I said, "Joe, call your mother!" He said, "Who's this?" I said, "The Chancellor." He said, "Yes, ma'am."

So if you think your university president or chancellor are totally clueless -- be careful. College may be your home away from home. But it is our home. We live there. We never leave. And we learn a lot from you -- and about you.

For example, I know many of you still pause each night for a few moments of silence to watch David Letterman's Top Ten list. In the spirit of that nightly ritual, let me offer you my own Top Ten list. I call it, "Donna Shalala's Top Ten Clues That You're A College Student."

Number 10: You live in a house with three sofas, and none of them match. Nine: You once wrote a check for 45 cents. Eight: You know the pizza guy by name. Seven: You get dizzy from yellow high-lighter fumes. Six: Your idea of a square meal is a box of pop-tarts. Five: You have a calling card but no phone -- and a credit card but no job. Four: You've paid 100 dollars for a book -- and sold it back for 7. Three: When getting dressed, you automatically give your clothes the smell test. Two: You're twenty-thousand dollars in debt before you're 20 years old. And the number-one sign you know you're a college student: To you, Armageddon isn't a blockbuster movie -- it's the first day of classes.

The end of summer is not the end of the world. But it does spell the end of summer movies. One of the most compelling movies in the theaters right now is Saving Private Ryan. If you don't know much about World War Two or the raw human courage that defeated tyranny, you will. It makes you look at every VFW hall in a bright new light. It makes you think of Veterans Day as more than a day off from work. It makes you honor the veterans of that war with a respect bordering on awe.

They may seem like from another time, another age. But when they landed at Normandy 54 years ago, they were much like you. They were young and brash. Fresh from home, summer jobs and college. With heads full of ideas, and hearts full of hope. To them, war was foreign news and action movies. They never imagined storming a beach or dodging bullets. They never imagined the blood and toil, tears and sweat. The death and destruction. The horrors and heartbreak. And they never imagined they'd save the world. But that's exactly what they did. Men and women. Military and civilian. On the battle front and the home front. What more can you ask of a generation?

Some suggest your generation has never been asked to do anything. That you have it too easy. They call you slackers. Cynical. Generation X. But I don't buy it for a minute. I believe the only "X" that you stand for is excellence. Excellence is what I call your devotion to public service, in all the ways you express it.

Excellence is "Make a Wish Game Day" at the University of Iowa, which brings terminally ill children to football games to enjoy the excitement and meet the players and cheerleaders. Excellence is the Food and Necessity Drive at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which supports a battered women's shelter. Excellence is Cosmo's Reading Challenge at Brigham Young University, which awards the best elementary school readers with a dinner and a seat at a football game. Excellence also describes the students at City College of Morris, New Jersey, who bring holiday cheer to mental health patients. Excellence describes all the students across the nation who volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, the Ronald McDonald House and other worthy causes. And excellence is what I call this convention and the University of Wisconsin for hosting all of you and the Children's Extravaganza this afternoon. Excellence is what I call all of you for taking time from your summer break to be here. Let's give you an excellent round of applause.

There is more excellence yet to come. The story of your generation has yet to be written. I believe that you and your entire generation will write it not according to someone else's empty labels, but by your words and deeds. Your hopes and dreams. You are a product of the American dream. The dream is opportunity. The chance to fulfill your own dreams. Each generation has something great to give the next. And a duty to give it. Private Ryan's generation suffered and sacrificed to give us the peace and prosperity we celebrate today. Your challenge is to pass it on to your children.

I know -- it's customary for my generation to preach public service to yours. You can't blame us. If you watch the tape of President Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961, you can still feel the power that inspired my peers. Like many Americans, when Kennedy said, "ask what you can do for your country," I thought he was talking directly to me. He inspired me to join the Peace Corps.

My service in Iran from 1962 to 1964 was one of the most important experiences of my youth. I remember walking across my beautiful, small, Midwestern college campus in Southern Ohio wondering whether I should go to law school, work in Washington or join the Peace Corps. Ultimately, the decision was easy. The Peace Corps was an opportunity to serve as a volunteer in another country. To study another language. To become immersed in another culture. To have an extraordinary adventure while serving my country. My family originally opposed my decision. My dad offered me a bribe to keep me away. My Lebanese grandmother finally settled the issue. She said, "Donna is going to the old country. She'll be fine." As I left for Iran, she pressed into my hand a letter written in classical Arabic. "Give this to the head man in the village," she whispered. When I arrived in Moli Sani, a small village in Iran, I gave the letter to a local mullah. It turned out that my grandmother had written the following in her note: "This is to introduce the daughter of a great sheik in Cleveland, Ohio. Please put her under your protection."

The Peace Corps had an enormous impact on me. And it changed -- and shaped -- the way I view myself and the world. There are so many ways you can change and shape the world -- and yourselves.

Start by making sure that you vote. Let me take a brief survey with you. By show of applause, how many of you voted in the last election? Did you hear that? That's the sound of people who made a difference.

If you didn't vote, you're not alone. We just received the official results from the last national election, in 1996. Frankly, the turnout was troubling, particularly for young people. Nationwide, only 32 percent of people age 18 to 24 voted. One out of three. We all know democracy can't run on cruise-control. There's too much at stake to sit on our hands and sit out the election. As we enter the next century, we face huge new challenges -- challenges that are really about you and your future. Will we protect, not neglect, the environment? Will we kick tobacco out of young people's lives? Will health care and student loans be there for you, and for your children? And, will we end the racism and division that still plague us -- and finally emerge as One America?

It is up to you. Remember that World War Two recruiting poster -- Uncle Sam Wants You? Well, he still wants you -- to vote.

Voting is the simplest, easiest form of public service. But once you graduate, finding time and energy to give back to your community will be a lot harder. Especially if you have a new job or a new baby. Martin Mull said having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain. . I guess that also describes dorm life. Real life doesn't offer a lot of time outs to volunteer or serve. The trick is to integrate public service into real life. To give not only what you have -- but what you are.

How can we balance private needs with public service? I believe the secret lies in Teddy Roosevelt's take on life. He said: "Far and away the best prize life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." As you choose your careers, make sure it's work worth doing. You can pursue a profession in public service, such as politics and government, teaching or social work. Or you can bring public service into your profession. By infusing a sense of civic responsibility and service into your work. Whether in science and medicine. In the practice of law. In academia. Even in business, by practicing good corporate citizenship.

Let me tell you about one good life that was devoted to work worth doing. She was an ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances. A classic unsung hero. Her name was Mary Louise Martin. She began her career studying veterinarian medicine at Louisiana State. But she wasn't satisfied with that. As she raised her own three adopted children, she also wanted to raise the well-being of all children. She began by joining the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. After training for two years in epidemiology -- the study of infectious disease -- she began studying birth defects, congenital heart defects, and the impact of drugs and alcohol on unborn children. In 1995, her husband was assigned to Kenya to work with the World Health Organization on immunizing children against polio. So off they went. But Dr. Martin never missed a beat.

After resettling their family in Nairobi, she began doing volunteer work at a baby elephant orphanage. She also did field work battling an outbreak of deadly fever in northern Kenya. Sometimes she had to hitchhike on food relief helicopters to get there. In her spare time, she learned to speak Swahili. Before long, Dr. Martin resumed the career she left behind in Atlanta. She began setting up a pilot project in Kenya to treat children suffering from drug-resistant strains of malaria.

One day -- a day that seemed like many others -- she went to the American Embassy in Nairobi to pick up her mail and shop at the commissary. But it was no ordinary day. She would never return home alive. That was the day a terrorist bomb blew up at the embassy. And Mary Louise Martin was among the lives cut far too short.

We lost a brave, wonderful woman. But her death was not in vain. Her legacy lives on, in all the children whose lives are better today. Mary Louise Martin and all the Americans who died in the bombings were true national heroes. As President Clinton said, "They perished in the service of the country for which they gave so much in life. They were what America is all about. They are a portrait of America today and of America's tomorrow. But as different as they were, each of them had an adventurous spirit, a generous soul. Each relished the chance to see the world and to make it better."

There are women and men like Dr. Martin all over the nation, and all over the world. Unsung heroes walk among us. There are heroes in your homes -- parents and family members who gave you support and shaped your spirit. There are heroes in business -- executives who balance profits and responsibility. There are heroes in public life -- elected officials and civil servants who stand up for children, students, the family, the future. There are heroes in medicine and science -- doctors and researchers who keep the Hippocratic oath alive and give us longer, better lives. There are heroes all over America -- women and men who pay taxes to maintain our great public institutions, and play a role in making our country great.

Unsung heroes are everywhere you look. Look to your left, and look to your right. You're sitting next to one. Heroes are those who do their part to make our nation great. Like you have done. In your activities on campus . in gathering for this conference . in devoting your time to the Children's Extravaganza. But your challenge of public service has just begun. It is a challenge posed by your parents' generation. By Private Ryan's generation. By all the generations that culminate in yours, that built and brought the American dream to you. Listen to their legacy. They dare you to be great. To be a leader. To be a voice for good, a voice for the voiceless, a voice for change. To honor generations past. To offer generations to come their own American dream.

Robert Kennedy said, "Few have the greatness to bend history. But each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped." With your energy, your education and your empathy, each of you has a special power to change your portion of events. A special duty to change events. And together, you have the power to bend history and change the world. Let future historians say this: That your generation launched the new millennium with a new spirit of service to the nation, to the world, to humankind. And like Private Ryan and Dr. Martin, you too left the world better than you found it. Thank you.