legalbriefs
commencement House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Baltimore native, delivered the School of Law’s commencement address on May 20, 2013. Here are excerpts: Today, you graduate at a time when public service is not only commendable, it is essential; when our common values of fairness and equality must not only be restated, but they must be strengthened. What we need now is the courage— your courage—to face, confront and overcome some of the challenges of our time, the challenges to our democracy. […] [T]he challenges that we face today … threaten the middle class and we must strengthen it, as I keep saying, in keeping the American Dream alive. We must honor the spirit of the great motto of this university, it’s fabulous: “Knowledge that works.” … Right now, the doors of opportunity are closed to many in our society. We must restore confidence in our economy, this is one of our challenges—to restore confidence in our economy by creating good-paying jobs for our workers, by making it in America and reigniting the American Dream. We must address this challenge, but I think it’s important for us to recognize that it is the issue of income disparity. We must
close the gaping hole—40 years ago, those who measure such things determined that the average CEO ... made about 40 times what the average worker made. ... Today, the average CEO ... makes about 350 times the average worker. ... Productivity continues to increase, but the workers do not get the rewards. So, this is something that we have to address because income disparity undermines the middle class. … And one of the ways that we can address the disparity in income is to address the disparity in education. To make sure that every person can participate in our country’s prosperity, we must end disparity in education by supporting our teachers, by supporting education and by making college more affordable to many more people. … We must decrease the deficit. But nothing brings more money to the Treasury than investing in education. […] So, it’s up to you to have the courage to stand up for our values and keep the doors of opportunity open to all. Throughout our history, from the Bill of Rights to Brown v. Board of Education to the present, the realization of individual, political and economic rights has been central to the strength of our democratic ideals. My charge to you today is to build on that tradition and to make that legacy your own; to know that you have the confidence, you have the legal education … and the moral wherewithal to pursue the work of justice.
From left: Marie Van Deusen, J.D. ’89; USMD Regent Thomas Slater; UB Provost Joseph Wood; UB President Robert L. Bogomolny; U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; and UB School of Law Dean Ronald Weich.
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