President Bill Clinton (SFS ‘68) took the stage in Gaston Hall on Tuesday to cries of “four more years!” Clinton gave the keynote address at his first annual Young Adult Symposium, a conference focused on solving youth issues in the United States, to the enthusiastic group.
Clinton noted the importance of youth involvement in their communities.
“As you grow in number, as you grow in knowledge … we can’t afford for you to turn 18 and drop out of citizenship,” he said
Reflecting on topics discussed in the morning’s “break-out” sessions, Clinton ruminated on many issues that face today’s youth, including accessible college education, HIV and health issues, crime prevention and civic involvement.
Participants in the group City Year, an offshoot of the national youth service program Americorps, which Clinton founded in 1993, comprised a large portion of the audience. Another group, College Summit, which provides college admissions counseling for underpriveleged youth, ran the education break-out group.
During the “break-out” sessions, discussion groups met with panelists including actor Don Cheadle, Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Timberland Co. CEO Jeff Swartz.
Clinton stressed the importance of putting ideas into action and said that he felt his symposium gave students a chance to experience the process of deliberation on key issues.
“The great challenge is to turn all this youthful idealism into a lifetime of action,” he said.
Clinton, who did not address the potential war in Iraq, also stated that interdependence is not enough to maintain peaceful relations in the Middle East. He cited the events of Sept. 11 and problems in the Middle East as consequences of interdependence that was not tempered with integration. He said the United States has become more diverse because of increased “immigration, travel, trade, and cultural contact,” but still needs to strive to include everyone.
“Intelligence in this world is equally distributed, but opportunity is not,” Clinton said.
