At 7 00 a. M. Wednesday morning. Join the discussion. Over the next two hours on cspan, commencement addresses from around the country with cory booker, mike pence, illinois senator Tammy Duckworth, former president till clinton, former senator kelly ayotte, and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff general just of dunford. We start with senator booker, who spoke to graduates at the Commencement Ceremony at the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia. Sen. Booker thank you very much. It is incredible to be here and i want to thank you all for inviting me to be a part of this day of history in your lives. Allowing thank you for me to be a small part of this extraordinary community. I want to congratulate the graduates and they want to thank everyone who helped to make this possible. So many helped to make this day possible. I want to thank the parents and the grandparents in the family members. I want to thank everyone, from the incredible president and the founding provost come all the way up to those people who clean floors and manicure lawns and serve food who contribute to this community. [applause] sen. Booker i confess to you something. When i was graduating from college, i felt i knew a lot. Now that i am nearly twice your age, i am not as confident with what i know. In fact, i am a person who believes that i am struggling. We are all in this struggle together. We perceive that there are differences between us, gaps and gulf, but we are far more united, far more indivisible, far more involved in a larger, common struggle than we know. What i would like to do very briefly today is to confess to you two things i struggle with, and it is really two stories. One from history i have come to admire and one is perhaps one of my greatest mentors ever. The person from history, it is a short story. It made a point that i struggle with and it is a story about gandhi. Connie was said to be rushing a big, busy day, running from point to point, but he was running to a turn, to leap into the third class section. People were there to grab him and to help them get onto the train, but one of his sandals fell off and everybody watched with disappointment that Mahatma Gandhi had lost his sandal, but before people could settle into their thoughts of disappointment or consolation or problemsolving to how they were going to deal with this one sandaled man. ,handi reached out very quickly grabbed his other sandal, and threw it out on the track. People were curious, why would you through your other sandal out there . And said, i it threw the other sandal because weber finds that first sandal, wouldnt it be nice if they found the other sandal as well . [applause] i heard that story when i was about your age and i was astounded by the moral imagination of gandhi in that story, to literally see people who were not there, but yet still expand his love to touch those folks he would never even see. It was the most creative compassion and i wanted to try to live my life in that way. You see, i knew and i experience now the same rush, chasing after dreams, racing around a day, moving from their to there, but i realize, a simple less of the older i get, that how we live our days is how we live our lives. And as we are chasing after our destinations, our goals, and our dreams, it actually is those small things we do every single day that define us. In truth, more than a big speech more thanprepared for, ore a big goal or dream, more than a big fight, more than our race or religion, it is our actions every day that define who we are. They define us. And ive begun to learn in my life that perhaps the biggest thing you can do on any day is often just a small act of kindness, of decency, of love, an exhibition of moral imagination or grade of compassion. Nder about this and we miss our opportunities every single day with just the people around us. While we talk big about changing the world, or what is wrong with other people, and we forget that we have so much power to make a difference. Now, look, i say i struggle with this because i dont always get it right. Let me give you an example. I had been elected the United States senator and i still live in the Central Board of new york. We are not the wealthiest community there. The Median Income is about 14,000 per household. My community is rich with spirit, rich with energy, rich with compassion. But one day as i was driving home, i felt a little bit like passeds because if i this fast food restaurant, i began to hear the sirens call. Look, im a vegan. People, because how do you tell if someone is a vegan . Dont worry, they will tell you. Vegan and i knew that in my neighborhood, folks know me, but i could not resist the call to this fast food restaurant. It was a call and a language i dont speak any of them it was french. French fries were calling me. I not speak any friend, but i could swear i heard that song, couchez avec french fries. He goes, our french of an hour bond. I said kev, we are hummelstown, mind, webut do you have to swing through the drivethrough. He did not say a word, but he smirked. We drove around the drivethrough and i sunk down in the seats. I did not want anyone to see me. I used a ful falsetto voice. I ordered two of the most supersized french fries i could. I was still leaning down low when we picked up the fries and then they handed these fries into my window and im telling you, im a senator now so maybe i can change this because these french fries should be a schedule i or schedule ii narcotic. They must sprinkle a narcotic on these fries because as soon as they got in, i felt this joy and anticipation. I cuddled my fries like i was from lord of the rings, my precious, we began to move, but then i see a guy at the end of the driveway there, young, white man in a garbage, looking around and i slowed down and i told kevin to roll down the window. I said, can i help you . He turns around and he looks at me and he says, im ok. I dont need anything. I go, are you sure . He says, im hungry. I dont know what religion you all pray to, but i swear jesus said something, if i had two mcdonalds french fries and my neighbor has none. And so, i reached in my bag. My hands shook as i grabbed that large fry and i reached to him and i swear he put his hand on it and i resisted for just a moment. Then he pulled the fries to him and he was happy and i felt some sense of, i did the right thing. Then he was about to leave, but his face went from appreciation to anguish come almost as if he was in pain. He said, hey, man, do you have any socks . It was a strange question, but i knew it must to speak to something he was dealing with. Ilooked at him and i wished could have helped him, but i did not carry spare socks in my car. He began to leave, but then this retired police detective, born in newark, raised in the park,ts, threw the car in reached down between his legs, kicked off his issues, pulled off his socks and handed them through the window. [applause] sen. Booker i sat back and i realized, i am a few blocks from my house, i have so many socks i dont even wear that my mother gave me on some birthday or some special occasion. Yet, i was not living with that moral imagination. That creative compassion. Lifee come to learn in my that we have such power that we do not use as we go about our big challenges, our big goals, make big changes, we forget the power we have right now. We have a choice in every moment. And the choice we often surrender and failed to make is to accept things as they are or take responsibility for changing them. And no you may not be able to end homelessness, maybe youre not going to be able to end hunger, but we can never allow our inability to do everything to undermine our determination to do something. We [applause] senator booker as great as every one of us are, as much as i spent my life trying to change the world, we cannot forget that our real power is not necessarily to change the world, but to make a world of change to the people we encounter every day a smile, creative and a creativity and they cant word. Finding a way to throw a sandal onto the track that is the power we have right now, today and every day. It was desmond tutu who said, do a little bit of good where you are. Its those little bits of good, put together, that overwhelm the world. Were not here because of the people we read about in history books yes, thats part of the story, but were here because of little bits of good, of sacrifice, of decency, of mercy and of love. Let me tell you, though, about two ralphs. And when i was in college, to ralph meant something completely different, so let me be more specific. Its emerson who said, very simply, to paraphrase him, that only what we have within, can we see without, if we see no angels, its because we harbor none. Now, i worry because i still see now the words of Ralph Ellison being so true. He said, i am an invisible man, because people refuse to see me. I believe that there are so many people we encounter every day that we just dont see. But what is even worse than that and i am compelled by that, it is what drives me every day to try to make this nation one more of justice and mercy and decency, but im telling you now that im in a professional world, ive come to worry about a different type of invisibility that actually cant be best described as invisibility, but maybe it is how we, every single day, reduce people, strip them from the layers of their humanity down to a label or a presumption. You know, i love the flowing words of Martin Luther king when he talked about repentance, he said we will have to repent in this day and age, not just for the vitriloic words and actions of the bad people, but also the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. Well, ill tell you [applause] senator booker i am compelled to try to motivate and inspire through my actions good people to get off the sidelines to realize that this democracy is not a spectator sport, but i also worry about those folks who we assign labels like vitriolic words and we assign conclusions about their souls that they are bad people. And we do this in ways we dont even realize. I remember as a young guy, living in the projects in newark, i was in new york trying to chase down money for a nonprofit, and as i was scuttling through, on an awful day, sleet and snow and every street seemed to have curbs full of slush as i walked to this one curb, i saw what amounted to one of the great lakes of slush, and i worried about my shoes, how was i going to get around it, and then i saw an elderly africanamerican woman, amongst all the hustle and bustle of this fancy new york street, she was carrying a cart, one of these metal carts with wheels, trying to make it across a busy street, with the light about to change, heading towards the ocean of slush. My mama raised me right, i began to dart over to her, but before i could, some guy cut me off. I was angry about it. He was dressed like a wall street guy in a coat that was probably worth more than my car. He had fancy shoes on, and i looked at this white man cutting in front of me, just holding back for a second, its like he didnt see me, but suddenly, he does what i dont expect he goes through the great lake of slush in his fancy shoes, grabs the womans cart, lifts it up, pulls it to the sidewalk, goes back through the slush to grab the woman and take her all the way around, putting his hand up to traffic to get the woman on the curb. Before [applause] senator booker before my implicit biases about this man because of the color of his skin or because of what he was wearing could fully settle in, he shocked me to the consciousness. I didnt render him invisible, but i stripped away his humanity because i did not see him. The question we have to ask ourselves of the importance of being good and decent and loving, morally creative, is that do we extend those feelings and those emotions just to people we like, or just to people we deem worthy, or just to people who agree with us, or just to people who think like us. [applause] senator booker i dont understand, and it hurts me that were becoming a society that just because someone has different views, we tend to strip them from their humanity. I want to talk about us and our daily lives, but let me use the public stage for one moment. One of my lowest points during the president ial elections, was when i was sitting at home watching the republican debate. And it was one of those strange moments where i knew a lot of folks i mean heck, half the america was running for the nomination for the Republican Party at that point and there was my governor. Now, Chris Christie and i i could write a dissertation on my disagreements we literally fought over policy issues, yet he and i had forged a friendship. We knew that he was the governor of the state, i was the mayor of the largest city, we had to put aside the 60 , 70 , 80 of things we disagreed on because i represented a struggling city in a recession, and when the country has a recession, inner cities face depressions. I had to seek the Common Ground with him to try to find a way to make some difference for my community. And as i sat there during a president ial election, i could not believe my eyes when these other nominees were castigating Chris Christie for hugging barack obama. Now let me tell you about this hug. It was after hurricane sandy. The president flew into the state of new jersey. So many people died, thousands of people lost their homes. And here is the president of the United States, coming down the steps to meet the governor and the two of them at the bottom of the steps, they hugged. And i want to tell you something, im a hugger, and it wasnt really a good hug, either it was one of those awkward guy hugs. [laughter] senator booker but what have we become in a society where we are vilifying people so much so that to hug someone of a different party, who thinks different, is a sin . Where have we come as a nation . [applause] senator booker but thats the national stage, i want to take it you. I was just a few weeks ago at a Humane Society banquet dinner. And its the Humane Society, treatment of animals did i tell you im a vegan . [laughter] senator booker and here we are talking about compassion and kindness and treatment of animals and someone comes up to me and goes, senator booker, i so appreciate what youre doing, thank you for being in the fight. Hey, let me show you what i tweeted just now, and they showed me a tweet to paul ryan and it was probably one of the most trolly, vile, angry tweets id ever seen. And the incongruency of the moment really struck me. And so this is the challenge can we be a nation that can disagree but still find that Common Ground . But thats the country, can you be a person whose love is so great that you love those people you disagree with, you love those people who curse you, you love those people who you see as an obstacle even to justice. [applause] senator booker now, im not asking folks to do what my heroes did like mandela did in prison, who found a way to love his captors and eventually forgive them, or gandhi with the oppressive, imperialistic regime, but still found a way to love his enemy, or Martin Luther king, who literally got on his knees and prayed for white supremacists, no. Im just asking you, hey, can you sit down with somebody thats wearing a red make America Great again hat and have a conversation . And, by the way, one of the best pieces of advice ive ever been given, was simply this talk to the person, but you dont have to attend every argument youve invited to. You could look for other Common Ground. But that brings me to the last person and who i want to end on. Because this was my mentor that lived these lessons that i am struggling to embody. This mans name was frank hutchins, and he was a legend. By the time i was a law student, coming to newark, the stories of him as a tenant activist and a tenant organizer were legendary. He literally was responsible for the longest rent strike in newarks history against the worst of slum lords, the federal government and the newark housing authority. And he won. By the time i met him, we were organizing these neighborhoods that had highrise buildings with some of the most difficult slum lords imaginable, people that were caricatures of slum lords. But ill never forget this guy, when we would sit in negotiations and i would be angry, i would be fit to fight and yet he still found a way to look at them with grace and even mercy. He seemed to understand that you dont have to be mean to be tough, that you dont have to be cruel to be strong, that you dont have to curse the person who curses you. I saw frank now in tenant meetings where we would sit up and have to take peoples complaints, to try to write it down, to fight these battles, and it was amazing to me how frank would sit in the tenant meeting that would go on for hours and hours, i would get restless, is another person would get up and tell their whole life story . But he never seemed to falter at looking at those people, teaching me that perhaps the most valuable thing you can give someone in your life, is your attention. He said, it is important that we those holding from the crisis that they are in, but people need healing to. Were all fighting hard battles. Pay attention to people, see them. Well i would become a councilman and a mayor, and frank and i would still work together. And yet, he got older and older and then he started getting sick. His disease took his eyesight from him and i would still take him out to restaurants and i would still take him shopping. He would demand that i still take him to the movies and i was like, frank you cant see, man. And he would say, no, no take me there i want to listen, i want to listen. By the time franks health became failing, they put him in hospice but i would still go visit and i confess to you, i was frustrated at times that the hospice room wasnt full of people. Heres a guy that thousands and thousands of people relied on i was frustrated that he was alone. And ill still always remember the last day i saw him alive. This is my hero. And i walked into his hospital room after the nurse told me that he wouldnt last long and i could see his breath was faltering. Now, when franks eyesight started going, we started a little joke. I would see him before i would take him out to dinner and id say, hey frank, its cory and hed push me off and hed say, i see you cory, i see you. Well it became our thing, hey frank its cory, and i see you. But now in this hospital room, his voice is not there, his breath is rapid, and i said, frank, its cory. And i saw him with such effort, he labored and he said to me, i see you. I walked to the side of his bed and i held his hand and i talked to him, and as i sat t