i was born in 1968 and lewis: "so young" umm i... (ifill: "yep, so young.") and i'm...i feel very much this... i'm also the son of immigrants and so ifeel very much the sense of generational obligation. i basically have done nothing. i won the lotterybeing born in this country when i was born. i didn't have to do any of the thingsthat you've had to do.
i didn't have to do make any of the choices you've had to make and i want you to...i would like you to explain to people, not only my age, but to theyoung, young people in the room um how it is that we should define this generation's challenges that we should be willing toput ourselves completely on the line for. and, how we in this age where it's not asstark as a trooper standing on the bridge every day,how does this rising generation find and summon that same courage to stand up and fight the way that um, that you did congressman?
well, i must tell you, you're much better educated. you are better informed. you know there is new technology. we didn't have a fax machine. we had one of those old mimeograph machines. just turn and turn. you have an obligation. your generation -- young people -- have anobligation, a mission, and a mandate to push and pull and not be satisfied.
and, do everything possible. i tell young people all the time. i've spoken at 7 college graduations this past season, and i said, the three young men that i met and got to know, they didn't die in vietnam or the middle east, or eastern europe, or central or south america or in africa. they died right here in our own country. and, i hear too many people say: 'i'm notgoing to participate.' 'that's not my cause, that's not...'
we have to participate. politics control everything that we do in america. from the time that we are born until thetime we die. so you have a moral obligation, a missionand a mandate to get out there and push and do everything you can to leave this little piece of real estate wecall america a little greener, a little cleaner, and a little more peaceful for generations yet unborn.