2006年毕业典礼致辞

简·莱克·哈曼，66年，94年，2006年5月21日

U.S. 众议员简·莱克斯·哈曼, a leading Congressional expert on terrorism and security issues, was the speaker at 澳门葡京博彩软件's 128th commencement ceremony, 周日, 5月21日.

Seventeen years ago I watched the Smith commencement ceremony. 发表那年的演讲, in 1989, 是一个巨人:约翰·肯尼斯·加尔布雷斯, whose robe looked more like a cape over his 6'8" frame.

Sorry, this year you’ve got me — and I’m 17 inches shorter! Some of you may know that I gave the commencement address at Smith 12 years ago, 在我第一次当选国会议员后不久. When I asked Carol Christ why she wanted a “repeater,她回答说，“简。, 这是全新一代的学生.”

唷! 这可能吗?? 我能那么老吗? 嗯,是的. 但你得帮我个忙. You give me a chance to tell my youngest daughter, 杰斯丁, 谁周一从宾大毕业, 她年迈的母亲在想什么.

My message to the Class of '94 was that dreams don’t just come true, they must be pursued. I talked about arriving at Smith from a Los Angeles public school and how my mother, the first in her immigrant family to go to college, had been accepted at Smith but failed to qualify for a scholarship because she was under 16.

Though I had never seen the college before my first day as a freshman, 我觉得我正在实现我母亲的梦想. But once here, I soon realized that I had to discover my own dream, and pursue it.

我做过，我也做过.

I am passionate about public service and I have the job I dreamed of since, 作为一名高二学生, I attended the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, 遇见了埃莉诺·罗斯福, 并见证了约翰·F·肯尼迪的提名. 肯尼迪竞选美国总统.

我已故的母亲为我感到骄傲. When she died in 1993, I had just been elected to Congress — my first elected office. I was 47, part way between 40 and 60, the years my mother said would be the best of my life.

But though she was very wise, my mother was wrong to claim age 60 as an end-point.

I turned 60 last year, ran a marathon, and became a grandmother for the first time two months ago. 谢谢你！. If I’m counting right, Lucy, named after my mother, should be the Class of 2027!

我今天的演讲是关于女性如何领导.

My view — and my advice to you — is that leading is tough work. It starts when you are ready, and it ends…when you are ready.

什么是领导力? It is barely defined in the New Oxford American Dictionary (a gift I recently gave my literate husband). First definition is to “cause a person or animal to go with one by holding them by the hand, 一个束缚, 一根绳子, 等.“呀!! 我不是这个意思.

领导是一件很难描述或量化的事情. Actually, if done well, people being led don’t know it is happening. Instead of feeling pulled or tugged, they feel inclined to follow the right vision or message.

成为一名领导者需要做很多事情:

• First, an instinct to move people to do something.
• Second, a vision of where you want them to go — or what you want them to do.
• 第三，实现目标的路径或计划.
• 第四，开始的自信.

None of this is easy — and anyone who tells you it is, is lying.

那么如何开始呢?

好吧，今天是个好时机. You are graduating from a top-tier college and look great in your caps and gowns. Your families have spent a fortune on you, and are here to cheer you on. 谢谢你们，家人.

Perhaps you have a job lined up, or graduate school, or summer travel. What will any of those opportunities mean to you?

I doubt you completed four years here and have no answer to my question. I would guess your answer has something to do with what you have learned, 你会学到什么?, 或者你期望完成什么.

在每种情况下, 不管你信不信, you now have the self-confidence to know you are bringing some capabilities with you: a well developed brain, 职业道德, 好奇心, 也许还有一种责任感.

所有这些特质都有助于领导力.

So how does one learn to lead?

Well, there are tomes and courses on leadership, but there’s no rule book. There are great mentors, but I think the best way to begin is by looking inside. Even if it is not yet obvious to you, you have what it takes to be a leader.

You have graduated — or almost graduated — from Smith. 这可是一大笔钱.

What did Smith teach me about leadership, and what have I learned since?

Smith was a nurturing environment in which I took my first shaky baby steps as a leader. I often say that Congress is my first elected office since my run for junior high school treasurer, 我弄丢了. 但是在澳门葡京博彩软件, I did run the Young Democrats and organized an event for Hubert Humphrey in 1964 when he was the Democratic candidate for Vice President.

I still have the clip from The Sophian showing me and fellow Smithie, 特鲁迪鲁宾, now an author and ace reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, 在头版. 我们做得很好! And if you don’t believe me go to the new collection in the library and you’ll see the clip.

澳门葡京博彩软件也给了我攀登更高的工具. I had to take the law boards at Amherst because Smith didn’t offer them. But I felt well prepared for my Harvard Law interview, and was accepted.

在哈佛大学, I pursued my political interests and marveled at being one of only 30 women in a class of 550.

Though my life after law school has not always come up roses, 有一个清晰的轨迹, 我从来没有停止过.

我热爱公共政策, and suffer withdrawal when I can’t find a good newspaper, hear an informed panel discussion or find substantive news program on TV. From time to time, I’m even part of breaking news! Something I could barely imagine as a dreamer and student here.

有几个故事可能是有益的.

When I ran for Congress in 1992, few thought I could win in a so-called “lean-Republican” seat. 我轻松赢得了民主党的初选, but my break came when Maureen Reagan — daughter of the former President — lost the Republican primary.

她支持堕胎, and her moderate Republican supporters decided to support the pro-choice candidate in the race: me! They formed the nucleus of Republicans For Harman, a key to my close victories thereafter.

I got over 50 percent of the vote — for the first time — in 1996, and was beginning to relax about my vulnerability when, 在最后一刻, Senator Dianne Feinstein dropped out of the 1998 race for Governor of California.

She and I are great friends and our voting records are similar: progressive on social issues, 在经济和安全问题上态度温和. 一大群支持她的人转向我. 我会逃跑吗??

只有像我这样的人, 他们认为, could defeat the very conservative Republican candidate, then California Attorney General and former Congressman Dan Lungren.

这是相当令人兴奋的东西. I learned then that political advisors and pollsters will always tell you that you can win … especially if they will get hired.

I decided to do it, and had to give up my House seat to do so. (In California and most states, a candidate cannot run for two offices simultaneously.)

接下来的就是灵魂出窍的经历. I had to win in a three-way primary in 12 weeks, but I was virtually unknown statewide. So my team cut a few introductory biographical TV spots, and I vaulted quickly into first place.

Then, one of my primary opponents unleashed a relentless $42 million attack campaign against me. Every vote I had made in Congress was dissected and twisted. I was called an agent of communist China — notwithstanding the fact that the Cold War had ended nine years earlier and our country had recognized the People’s Republic of China for a quarter century!

我能拿出一笔资金进行反驳. “Leadership is about attacking problems, not each other,” my face-to-camera spot said.

最后，它被称为“谋杀-自杀”.” I was murdered, and his negative campaign killed him. 初选中的第三位候选人, 名叫格雷·戴维斯, 赢得了, and he did go on to beat Dan Lungren — only to be recalled a few years ago.

但讽刺的是. 通过退出国会, I had the chance to become Regents Professor at UCLA and to refine my views on public policy. I was appointed to the National Commission on Terrorism, a position I used to gain expertise on the security challenges we face — and faced — prior to 9/11. 我们的委员会预测美国将遭受重大袭击.S. 土壤.

但也, when the Democratic Leadership persuaded me to run against the moderate Republican who had been elected to my vacated seat, I was promised that my seniority would be restored — which is why I am now the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.

In that post I have traveled to the four corners of the world: Libya (twice), 叙利亚, 黎巴嫩, 巴基斯坦, 阿富汗(两次), 伊拉克(3次), 和朝鲜, 举几个例子. And I was a principal author of the major intelligence reform bill that became law in 1994.

本月初, 我是另一项法案的主要合著者, 港口安全法案, a massive maritime security reform bill that passed the House by a slim margin — 421 to 2 — a legislative miracle in a sea of toxic partisanship.

但有趣的是. 我的合著者是丹·伦格伦! Yup, the very fellow I was recruited to beat in the California Governor’s race.

丹于2004年重返国会. I strongly disagree with his views on social issues, but we serve together and work together on the Homeland Security Committee and our ports bill reflects that collaboration. By the way, a similar bill is moving through the Senate, and I predict our effort will become law.

那么，教训是什么呢?

一:如前所述，领导力是由内而外的. 从你自己的头脑和内心开始. If it doesn’t, people will know it and 赢得了’t believe in you.

二:领导需要工作. You have to trust your own instincts and marshal your arguments.

失败是你的朋友, and learning from tough experiences will set you up for even greater success.

Let me leave you with a few more lessons about leadership, which I’m still learning, too.

4 .领导者从不放弃. Think Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, or my dear friend Geraldine Ferraro. Gerry has survived political losses for Vice President, Senator and serious cancer. She is currently the inspiration for the Win with Women campaign, which is teaching women around the world advocacy skills and how to run for office.

I recently taught a campaign seminar in Kuwait and was blown away by the enormous talent in the room. 格里和他们一样兴奋!

Five: Leadership is lonely — especially for women. You have to assume you 赢得了’t please everyone and will make enemies. Sadly, I have learned that women don’t always support each other.

山顶是最陡的. 海拔越高，氧气越少. 坚持攀登需要极大的毅力.

七:当你成为一个成功的领导者, your most important obligation is to mentor and help the women who come after you. 我希望我今天能做一些.

And eight: Never forget that leaders are also family members. Some of you will marry and start your own families. 但你们都有家庭. 他们也需要你.

约翰·肯尼斯·加尔布雷斯最近去世，享年97岁. An author, beloved professor, diplomat, counselor to Presidents — his life spanned the 20th century.

他从未停止质疑现状, and had some rather pithy things to say about leadership as well. 加尔布雷斯说:

“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”

他还说:

“There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.”

他还说:

“If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.”

很难以置信的!

Of course you know that his witty and 赢得了derful wife, Catherine, was a Smithie!

So to fabulous women surrounded here by family and loved ones, 以及在你们之前吃苦耐劳的澳门葡京博彩软件家族, 我说:

审视自己的内心，找到你的激情.

大胆尝试吧.

如果不容易，不要放弃.

如果时间允许，让你的父母参与进来. 他们会比你想象的更支持你.

Know that you make those who came before you — especially Smithies — very, very proud!

祝贺你. 最好的祝愿. 你做到了!