Conservation Job Corps Graduation
Edgemore, MD
August 5, 2011
As Delivered
I’ve had occasion to be in many graduations. There isn’t a graduation that I enjoy quite so much as this graduation ceremony. I am so proud of you guys. I really am. I love you very much. Your state needs you, and that video was awesome.
I love the video. I love the rendition at the end. All the credits of all the tremendous building up and the great work that you did, including the very last one, the one turtle enclosure.
Who did the one turtle enclosure? That was you all who did the one turtle enclosure. Was the one turtle in it? Or was it just big enough for one turtle? There were two turtle in the one enclosure.
Alright, well look there are many people here who need to be thanked and I want to thank – this program did not happen by itself. There are people like Delegate Mary Washington and others who even in a time of budget cuts said, you know what this is important, were going to do this.
And especially over the last few years as we’ve been weathering this recession as our president tries to move us forward, other people want to tear down and bring us back. There are very few things that we have been able to do that I can say are new, but this was one of those new things that we have chosen to do. And it could not have happened unless Mr. John Griffin worked hard every year to defend it and make it happen. Delegate Washington knows you go to a Legislature at a time of huge budget cuts and you say we need you to protect this new program, it’s easy for people to say, “Oh no, no, no, we can’t afford to do something new.”
Also want to thank Captain Peyton Taylor. What a tremendous leader she is. I also want to thank Mr. Fred Banks. I also want to thank all of the many agencies and organizations from around the state who supported the Conservation Job Corps this year. And they include Parks and People Foundation, the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the Harford County Public Schools, the Harford County Department of Social Services, Chesapeake Bay Trust, State Highway Administration, the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and the local workforce investment boards.
And we are very pleased to have from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, Mr. Lamar Gore. Where’s Mr. Gore? And please tell President Obama about the good stuff were doing up in here. Mr. Gore has been vital to advancing the program that recruits traditionally underrepresented students for summer internships in the conservation field. Stated in clear and concise, plainer English – if that’s proper English – it’s an opportunity for a lot of people who live in the cities, to actually experience the great outdoors and appreciate what we have in nature.
There is such a tremendous healing force that God has given us in the natural beauty of this earth: in the land, in the water, in the elements, in the forest, in the trees, in the rivers, in the sound of the wind, and the flight of the birds. And far too many of us ever experience that. I’m guessing – I’m only guessing – that for many of you as it was when I was your age or younger, this summer might have been the first time you had the opportunity to be out there and actually experience that revelation of God in nature.
It is a powerful thing and you should never lose your connection to that, because in this world of ours most of our woes come from disconnection, right? … Come from alienation, come from feeling not a part of things. Whether we don’t feel a part of our families, or maybe we don’t feel a part of our neighborhood. Maybe we don’t feel a part of our state, of our country, of our world. Maybe we don’t feel a part of our generation. And that alienation, that disconnection is probably the most important healing that each of us has to do in our own lives. It is a healing that this entire world needs very, very much.
I think that Captain Peyton probably said it best when she said that you know, there’s demolition, you know, the tearing down, and there is the building up. And tearing down is easy. Building up, healing, making whole again and especially with the problems we face in this world, with climate change, the rapid pace which our population is growing. Especially when you look at, too sadly, the tragic loss of life that happens in Baltimore, that happens in Washington, D.C., that happens in neighborhoods all across our country. You know, Mr. John Griffin up here tipped me to a tremendous Native American proverb, and I want to close by sharing it with you.
It is this: “How we treat one another is reflected in how we treat the earth.” How we treat one another is reflected in how we treat the earth. Well, I submit to you that the reverse of that is also true. And that is, how we treat the earth just might usher in a new era in how you treat one another.
We are all involved in a story. It is an emerging story of this universe, it is an emerging story of this country. And each of us writes an important and indispensible part in that story. And is it up to each of you as individuals, each of you as individuals to determine whether you’re part of that story – that is, the part of the story that makes it a better story or a worst story.
You have done so much good work this summer. It’s work that you will always be able to be proud of. It’s work that other people will enjoy and it makes this world a better place. You’ve chosen in your story to make it a story of healing, not of hurting. Your story has been a story this summer of restoring and not destroying. It has been a story of renewing, rather than depleting. It has been a story of rebuilding rather than taking down. And it will continue, if you choose, to be a story of giving rather than taking … day by day, step by step.
