THE WHITE HOUSE
      
                     Office of the Press Secretary
      
      ______________________________________________________________
      For Immediate Release                       June 15,1994          
      
      
                 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY THE FIRST LADY
            AT DUKE ELLINGTON SCHOOL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
                            WASHINGTON, D.C.
      
               MRS. CLINTON:  Well, I don't know about all of you,
      but I think we can just quit right now.  I feel like I've had
      one of the best evenings in a very long time.
      
               I want to thank Eli and Naisha for the best
      introduction done ensemble that I have ever had and ever will
      have.  I am grateful for you for that.  I want to thank Mrs.
      Cafritz and her (inaudible), Mr. Malone (phonetic), for
      realizing their dream and yours through this marvelous school
      and all that it represents. 
      
               Principal Wilson and representatives of the school
      board and board members and all of you who are gathered for
      this special evening, I know that you join me in a feeling of
      pride and even of teary eyes as I watched all of the graduates
      coming in, and I was privileged to get here early enough to
      see your performance, and I could not help but be moved by all
      of it, but particularly the finale.  This indeed is your
      night.  Tonight is yours, and I hope every other night from
      now into the future gives you the same joy that you gave all
      of us. 
               
               On behalf of the President, I want to extend my
      congratulations on 20 remarkable years, and I hope that
      today's editorial in the Washington Post will galvanize this
      community so that this school continues to be a symbol of
      excellence of public schools and will flourish and thrive for
      many years to come.  All of us who have seen the results of
      Ellington's work should join with the supporters of Ellington
      to make sure that work not only continues but grows in
      strength.
      
               As you probably know, I live with a President who
      has an abiding interest and love of the arts.  It was given to
      him as a young child by teachers such as the ones that you
      have enjoyed here at this school.  He loves music.  We love
      together painting and museums.  We love theater.  We know that
      in a very deep way the arts represents the very soul of our
      nation.  
      
               And what Ellington has done is to represent young
      people who are fulfilling their dreams as artists and
      performers, and I was particularly proud that you had a role
      to play in the festivities honoring the Emperor and Empress of
      Japan, and they personally spoke to me about how impressed
      they were by your choir, and, after hearing you tonight, I
      certainly can understand that. 
      
               By now, most of you have discovered the power of
      human hope and imagination.  Where there is imagination, there
      is always hope.  Where there is potential for creative
      expression, there is always the possibility for human
      progress.  I believe, as I know you do, that all forms of art
      -- music, dance, literature, painting, sculpture, poetry 
      -- all of it has an enormous capacity to affect not only your
      individual lives but the lives of your larger community.
      
               Art is not beyond.  It moves people.  It encourages
      people.  It puzzles people.  It provokes people.  You have at
      your fingertips, because of your talent and your dedication
      and your hard work, the opportunity to not only explore your
      own potential but to influence people far beyond.  
      
               I was very moved to receiving the painting.  It will
      come with me back to the White House, where it will hang in a
      place of honor.  And I was very touched to receive the
      sculpture.  Those two pieces of artistic work, standing on
      their own, carry meaning.  You know, because of what you have
      given your lives to, that you've had to have a lot of
      discipline to get where you are.  You've made a lot of risks
      and sacrifices and taken on a lot of responsibilities. 
      
               Now the question is, what will you do with all that
      you have been given and all that you have taken?  As you look
      to the future, I hope you will remember there are many things
      that distinguish artists and performers from the rest of us,
      but there are at least three I would like to mention.
      
               First, artists are willing to make sacrifices. 
      That's something you already know because many of you have
      already done that.  Peggy mentioned the VPIs award and
      Children's Defense Fund.  I know from my own experience that
      many of you have already overcome great odds and have been
      willing to make sacrifices for your education and your art.
      
               Second, artists are willing to take risks.  They are
      willing to expose their ideas, their visions, their emotions
      to outside scrutiny in ways that other people are not.  It
      takes courage and it takes guts to be an artist.  And I hope
      that you will always celebrate your willingness to take risks
      on behalf of your art.
      
               Robin Smith (phonetic), the president of the student
      body, talked recently about the hard lessons she had learned
      here.  She said, "I have learned to accept criticism, and if
      you don't learn that you shouldn't go on with your career."  I
      might add that being open to criticism means being open to
      learning and growing.  As someone who gets more than, I think,
      my fair share of criticism, I have to echo Ms. Smith's words. 
      You have to learn to accept criticism.  But I would add to
      what she said, learn to accept it seriously but not
      personally.  Do not let anyone else's opinion of you or your
      work (inaudible).
      
               The third point of distinction I would like to share
      with you is that perhaps because the work of artists and
      performers reflects, in the words of the painter Romer Beardon
      (phonetic), "the soul of the people," you do have an added
      responsibility to make a positive difference in society.  This
      is always the subject of commencement speeches, but in your
      case it is more dramatic and perhaps even more immediate than
      it is for the usual graduates.
      
               For your generation, the future holds great promise
      and great peril, great peril because we only have to look
      around us to see that the world still has too much poverty,
      too much racism, too much violence, too much indifference, too
      many of the things we have struggled with since the very
      beginning of time.
      
               But there are great promises embodied in the lives
      of every one of us, and particularly in your lives.  You have
      what I hope you will always hold onto, what someone once
      called "a hard-earned optimism."  I know that many of you sit
      here often thinking in the past four years that you might not
      be able to stay the course.  I know that there were times when
      it didn't seem worth it, when you didn't feel you had the
      support that you needed or thought you deserved from family
      and friends.  But it was your optimism, your willingness to
      keep going that really at the root is what will make your
      promise ripple out into a great promise for the larger
      society.
      
               That means you must have a vision of life that does
      not ignore the tough realities but is based on those tough
      realities but is infused with hope.  You know, an attitude
      about one's ability to take responsibility and contribute to
      society can be yours no matter what your personal
      circumstances might be.  And I would only say to you what I
      believe with all my heart, what I see my husband doing every
      day, and that is, never, never give up, no matter how many
      obstacles are thrown in your way. 
      
               Giving up, especially when you have the talent that
      you all have, is an indulgence.  And you only have to look at
      the events of the last month to realize why it is never
      appropriate to give up.  Think for a minute about the
      inauguration of Nelson Mandela.  
      
               If there were ever a man who had reason to give up,
      it certainly was he.  Twenty-seven years, longer than you have
      been alive, he spent in prison.  I had the extraordinary
      privilege of attending his inauguration.  I hope you saw much
      of the television coverage of that historic event.  But I want
      to tell you what personally made the single biggest impression
      on me.  
      
               Yes, I was overwhelmed by the inaugural ceremonies,
      by the sight of Nelson Mandela mounting the stairs, surrounded
      by the military leaders of South Africa who were now part of a
      new constitutional government.  But what really moved me and
      what said more to me about his greatness than anything else
      was what he said at a function after the inaugural, when he
      stood before a very large crowd of visiting dignitaries and
      other people from around the world and told us that he had
      invited to his inaugural three of his former jailers.  
      
               Stop and think about that for a minute.  I felt a
      rush of emotion like I have never experienced.  I sat there
      thinking, this man is great because he has learned the basic
      lessons of what it is to be a human being filled with hope,
      who continues to forgive, never to forget, but always to
      forgive, because a hopeful heart has no room for bitterness,
      has no room for vengeance, has no room for (inaudible).  
      
               And I thought to myself, if this man in this
      extraordinary act of humanity could overcome bitterness and
      invite his three jailers to his inaugural, certainly every one
      of us could change our own hearts and our own minds and begin
      to live with that same level of hopefulness.
      
               And then, last week, the President and I were in
      Europe to celebrate the lives and sacrifices of many of your
      grandparents and uncles and others who lived and fought and
      maybe even died during World War Two.  We saw many there who
      had survived that particular conflict, but I want to tell you
      about one particular gentleman. 
      
               He's not a famous person, but he is a very important
      man.  His name is Woodrow Profitt (phonetic).  He was a member
      of a very significant group called the Tuskegee Airmen, young
      African American men who believed they were as good as anybody
      else.  Who believed in the promise of democracy and freedom
      and decided they wanted to make their contribution, and they
      formed themselves into the Tuskegee Airmen.  
               
               And if you followed any of the TV coverage of the
      invasion of Europe, you may have heard that in the two months
      before D-Day, 2,000 planes, 12,000 men were shot down over
      Europe by the Germans.  The Tuskegee Airmen, who flew fighter
      planes that were to protect bombers making those bombing runs,
      never lost a single bomber.  And I asked Mr. Profitt, how, in
      the face of the extraordinary attacks that were going on, did
      the Tuskeegee Airmen never lose a single bomber?  And he said,
      "That's because we knew our job, we stayed in formation, and
      we took care of each other."  Pretty good words to live by
      (inaudible). 
      
               And those words echoed for me when I heard these
      words from someone who not only plays beautiful music, but has
      a lot to tell us, namely, Wynton Marsalis.  Wynton Marsalis
      says, "Life is like playing the blues."  So, in ending, let me
      pass on his advice.  And it is as follows:  "Always bring your
      horn.  Know the tune.  Learn to listen with empathy. 
      Understand your role in the ensemble.  And, most of all, enjoy
      playing."
      
               Think about your own lives in that light, and go
      forth from this celebration with optimism and hope, courage
      and confidence to chart your own courses.  Many people have
      invested in you, and I think it's an investment that has been
      very well made.  God bless you, and good luck, everyone. 
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