Pushing the Frontiers of a Rapidly Changing World
MPA/PPA Commencement Address
Admiral Bobby R. Inman

Dean Gau, Chairman Jennings, Director Joseph, distinguished faculty, class of 2005 and their family and friends.

I am honored to have been asked to address you on this momentous day in your lives. The only thing I remember about the speech at my commencement fifty-five years ago was that it was too long!!

Life is filled with challenges and opportunities. It is my hope that the challenges provided to you during your years at this venerable institution will have prepared you to seize the opportunities that await you and overcome whatever challenges lie in your path.

As you go forth to the opportunities that await, permit me to offer you the simple goal in life that in some way you will have made this a better world for those that follow.

As you leave these grounds to embark on your life’s work, it is not a simple placid world that awaits you. My generation successfully fought and won a worldwide cold war. But we bequeath to you a chaotic world filled with clashes along ethnic, tribal and religious lines. It has always amazed me that some of the most destructive, most vicious acts against other humans throughout recorded history have been undertaken under the cloak of religious righteousness. New technologies increasingly afford warriors the opportunity to inflict damage at greater distances and with wider impact on unsuspecting populations. New weapons of destruction in the form of state supported terrorism and the accelerated international flow of illegal narcotics surround us. The rapid development of new technologies for the near instantaneous flow of information provide us quick glimpses of suffering, starvation, the ravages of conflict. Yet the absence of rapid means to solve these challenges, or at least to ameliorate them, produces instant frustration that we can’t find quick and easy solutions.

Awareness is gradually increasing of other challenges – over population, new forms of pestilence, threats to the environment that surrounds us. My generation has seen the eradication of small pox and the emergence of aids. Surely there are advances of science possible which will let you successfully attack and solve these problems. The real challenge may be in bringing focus to what can be accomplished, to find the building blocks which, when assembled, correctly provide the larger picture.

Recognizing what needs to be changed and devising the best ways to achieve change will be one of your challenges. On a world scale, institutions, organizations, alliances need to be changed to deal with the evolving world. Arrangements which served us well in winning a cold war are proving inadequate in dealing with the chaotic world which has followed. On a national level, we are in a period of reexamination of the proper responsibilities of government and of the individual. You will have the opportunity to help redefine what we expect of government and what we expect of the individual. In that defining process there will be a particular need for compassion in helping those who are less fortunate, who have lesser capabilities. On the individual level, there will be the need and opportunities to push frontiers, create new theories, develop new tools which harness evolving technologies and accelerate your ability to unlock secrets we could not discern in the past. On the commercial front, there will be new industries to create, new ways to revitalize existing industries, new jobs to create, to enhance the standard of living of the society at large. In all of these, full use of your intellect will be demanded and you should never be bashful about pursuing your ideas. You have an additional challenge not faced by other colleagues graduating this week – to help restore public confidence in the competence and honesty of the great profession of accounting.

Hopefully this university will have helped you understand and define your own character. Notwithstanding the monotonous message from much of the modern media, character does matter. When you look in the mirror each morning may you always see in the reflection that your integrity is intact, that honesty and fairness are truly words you live by.

As you leave these surroundings with one of the best educations that can be found on this globe, you will find you also have new responsibilities. Some will be mundane – effectively managing time, when no one tells you what time you need to be in class. As you begin to receive compensation for your application of the knowledge honed here, you will have the new challenge of finding a balance between consumption and savings. Amidst the many changes about to occur in your lives will be frustrations that you are not in control of events. In my young adult life I was privileged to have a wise older councilor who sat me down to listen to his advice on the conservation of enemies. He had noted my lack of patience in dealing with the many challenges around me. He noted that I expended a lot of energy in anger, in challenging those who stood in my path. He observed that I expended energy in every one of those fights, but that it was not always effective use of energy. He urged me to select my battles more carefully – to quickly fight if the issue was a matter of principle and to deliver blows that would be remembered. But in the vastly larger instances when principle was not at stake, to seek solutions other than anger and confrontation. I cannot honestly tell you that I have always followed his advice in the ensuing forty-five years, but I can assure you that I have usually regretted the occasions when I did not.

Earlier I outlined the simple goal of leaving this a better world. Often that can be accomplished by small steps. Take time to mentor those who are younger or less fortunate. Preserve time for family and for the creation of enduring friendships. As you look back on a life of accomplishment and occasional failures, you will never regret the time spent on family and friendship. For most of you, from this point forward your GPA here will not matter, but the friendships you have created will.

In this turbulent world you are about to assault, there will be setbacks as well as successes. Coping with the pace of change will occasionally be daunting – self doubts naturally arise on such occasions and can easily give way to depression. It is important when this occurs to find your bedrock, to touch that which is clear and certain, to find comfort in familiar surroundings. Remember especially on those occasions, as well as on happier ones, that this university will always be home to you, a place where most of you were young, vibrant, occasionally uncertain, where you grew unbelievably. When you need that solace, come home to this campus where you will always have roots.

May the challenges ahead always be opportunities and your accomplishments ones in which we will all bask. All the best for the exciting future we share.
 

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