Clinton Commencement Address

A good speech by Clinton at Harvard. Worth the read. I liked this part:

But here’s what I want to tell you about that. The inequality is fixable and the insecurity is manageable. We’re going to really have to go some in the 21st century to see political violence claim as many innocent lives as it did in the 20th century. Keep in mind you had what, 12 million people killed in World War I, somewhere between 15 and 20 million in World War II, six million in the Holocaust, six million Jews, three million others. Twenty million in the political purges in the former Soviet Union between the two world wars and one afterward. Two million in Cambodia alone. Millions in tribal wars in Africa. An untold but large number in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I mean, we’re going to have to really get after it, if you expect your generation to claim as many innocents from political violence as was claimed in the 20th century. The difference is you think it could be you this time. Because of the interdependence of the world. So yes, it’s insecure but it’s manageable.

I think sometimes when we watch the news and see all the violence going on in the world, we lose perspective. Even with what is going on in Darfur, Iraq and Palestine, this century is likely to be the safest ever.

Other good stuff about our shared humanity and the interdependence of the world in the speech as well.