Convocation Address: Barack Obama
Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
Excerpts from the address given by United States Senator, Barack Obama, at the Divisional Academic Ceremony. Senator Obama was the speaker chosen by the senior class of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
It's an honor to be back here at the University of Chicago. As most of you know, I used to teach over at the law school and my wife Michelle is in charge of community affairs at the hospital, so as a part of the family we're especially proud of you all right now.
We're also especially hopeful. With the caliber of talent and amazing dedication represented here today, I found myself thinking that in one of these chairs could sit the researcher who will finally win humanity's long battle against cancer. In one of these chairs could sit the scientist who transforms AIDS from one of the greatest disasters of the 20th century to one of the most curable diseases of the 21st. In one of these chairs could sit the doctor who says “Hey Barack, don't worry about that trick knee you're just getting old.” So that's hopeful too.
Almost eighty years ago, when the University of Chicago's first graduating class sat here ready to collect their diplomas, who would have dared to believe that before the beginning of the next century, we would add thirty years to the average lifespan and witness a 90% drop in the rate of infant death? Who would have dared to believe that with a simple vaccine, we could eliminate a disease that left millions without the ability to walk? That we could transplant a heart or resuscitate one that stopped? That we could unlock the greatest mysteries of life from the most basic building blocks of our existence? In a time where you were lucky to live past fifty and doomed if you came down with the flu, who would have dared to believe these things? The people who once sat in your chairs -- th ey did. The doctors and nurses, researchers and scientists who came before. Who grew up believing that in America, the most improbable of all experiments, the place where we continue to defy the odds and write our own history, they could be the ones to improve, extend, and save human life. They could be the healers.
As this new century unfolds, their success and your potential have led us to a moment of unparalleled promise in health and medicine. Just like a century ago, technology and treatments that were once barely imagined are now imminently possible.
Yet, while these are some of tomorrow's biggest potential breakthroughs, they are not today's biggest medical challenge. Today, as we continue to find new ways to live longer and better, the greatest single threat to the health of our nation is not a scarcity of genius or a failure of discovery; it is a lack of collective will to ensure that every single American has access to effective, affordable health care.
This has long stopped being about a single issue that politicians bring up during an election year. This is now a national crisis. Forty-five million Americans are uninsured -- over 5 million more in the last four years. This isn't just a moral shame, it's an economic disaster that's catching Americans in a vicious cycle.
So now, just like generations before, you must dare to believe -- not only as tomorrow's physicians, but as tomorrow's parents, workers, business owners, and citizens. You must choose: Will the groundbreaking miracles you discover over the next generation reach only the luckiest few? Or will history look back at this moment as the time when we finally made care available at a cost that won't bring the world's largest economy to its knees?
There isn't one person sitting here today who wants to turn a sick patient away because they can't pay. Not one person who wants the cure they discover denied to those whose lives depend on it. Each of you has dedicated yourselves to this calling because where there is a sick person, you want to heal them. Where there is a life in jeopardy, you want to save it.
And so today, when you leave here, it will not only be with great knowledge, but with even greater responsibility.
We can bring down the cost of health care in America and insure every American, and your generation can lead the way. Of course, no one's forcing you to meet these challenges. After all, there is no community service requirement in the real world; and no one's forcing you to care. But I hope that you do. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. You need to take on the challenges that your country is facing because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.
When you think about these challenges, I also ask you to remember that in this country, our history of overcoming the seemingly impossible always comes about because individuals who care really can make a difference. America is great because Americans are good.
And as you go forth from here in your own life, you can keep this history alive if you only find the courage to try. Good luck with this journey, and congratulations on all of your achievements.
