by Paula J. Baughn

Geraldine A. Ferraro told the nearly 2,000 graduates in the CWRU class of 2003 gathered in the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center that they are waking to a new day in their lives and in the world, a dawn that brings with it a common set of challenges and opportunities.

photo by Susan Griffith Geraldine A. Ferraro gives the keynote address at commencement.

"Today each of you says your own good morning to your lives as educated citizens," the first female vice presidential candidate on a national party ticket and a three-term Congressional representative said. "Today you commence what you will now become and commence, too, your role in shaping the promise of this nation."

photo by Susan Griffith Honorary degree recipients Bruce Alberts, Richard M. Krause, Richard H. Thaler, Franz Welser-Most and Geraldine A. Ferraro with President Edward M. Hundert.

A graduate herself of Fordham University Law School, Ferraro, who received an honorary doctor of laws degree during the convocation, said the greatest test and highest hope for the new graduates—and for the nation—will be to help protect and strengthen the civil liberties on which this country is built.

"No matter what your national origin, age, education level or chosen field or specialty, you all share one essential thing," she said. "You-we-all have a personal stake in the direction this nation will take in the next several years."

According to Ferraro, now president of G&L Strategies, a consulting firm that advises global organizations, threats on American civil liberties originate not just from outside the country by way of terrorist attacks, like 9-11—which the lifelong New Yorker said she experienced "up close and personal"—or oppression in other countries, like those the recent Iraq War addressed.

But infringements on freedom also can come from inside the United States, she said. These internal dangers, Ferraro said, include apathy and "attempts to roll back the very liberties and freedoms that make this nation mighty," particularly the USA PATRIOT, or Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, Act passed in October 2001 following the 9-11 attacks.

photo by Susan Griffith Graduates gather outside the Veale Center.

Ferraro, a long time advocate for women, children and the elderly, said the USA PATRIOT Act was "perhaps a necessary emergency measure at an unprecedented time of attack," but what is "far more necessary today is that we remain vigilant about encroachments on the freedom and liberty that we have so long cherished."

photo by Susan Griffith A bagpiper leads the academic procession across the Case Quad.

"And if we fail to do so, then we fail to use the tools afforded us by our education and (fail to) raise our voices," she added. "We won't have to wait for the next Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein to attack America. We'll do it to ourselves as we undermine and dilute the very institutions of privacy and freedom that we depend on for a free and democratic society."

As a lawyer, Ferraro said she reaches for facts when she wants to make a point. But when she wants to raise her spirit, she turns to poets. She cited a verse written by last years' commencement speaker, Maya Angelou, for the 1992 inauguration of President Clinton.

"Here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eyes and your brother's face-your country-and say simply, very simply with hope, 'good morning,' Ferraro quoted Angelou.

"For the magnificent diversity of this room, what you have in common is simple," Ferraro said. "You are the sisters and brothers and friends of America. It is you who will shape this country through your public choices and private acts. With the stands you take and the votes you cast, you will determine the freedoms you enjoy or those we all forego. And how and when you speak up, you will decide if we remain the land of the free.

"For your parents and me, well, our morning is behind us," she continued. "But your morning has come upon you. I, for one, can hardly wait to see what you will make of this ever unfinished dream of America."

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