A Congressman's Challenge to Grads

Sikorski challenged the Breckenridge grads that if justice was finally to be gained for the oppressed, it would be because their generation would give the world people like Martin Luther King Jr., who faced guns and police dogs because he believed injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

That if the hungry were to be fed, it would be because their generation would give the world people as committed as Harry Chapin, who gave the last years of his short life, not to the riches he could gain for himself as a singer, but to raising millions of dollars to help feed the hungry.

And that if their children were to have clean air, green trees and clean water, it would be because their generation would give the world more people like Lois Gibson, who risked her life to expose what the chemical companies had done at Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York.

He also challenged them to have a vision, for as the book of Proverbs says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." And he told them that, as they sought their way for themselves and for America, they had the tools needed to overcome great depressions and terrible natural disasters, like:

• the values of a just society
• the power of a free economy
• the muscle of a skilled workforce
• the talents of an educated people

In closing, he quoted these words of John Steinbeck: "I see us ... not in the setting sun of a dark night of despair ahead. I see us in the crimson light of a rising sun, fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead. Great days made possible by men and women of will and vision."

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Also check out 6 tips Sikorski gave to the Breckenridge grads.