Commencement Address to Wallace State College, Hanceville
Governor Bob Riley
May 15, 2003

Commencement Address to Wallace State College, Hanceville

Good evening.

First and foremost, on behalf of the citizens of the great State of Alabama, it is my distinct honor and privilege to congratulate you all for your hard work, for your sacrifices, for your dedication, and for what you’re about to receive:

A college degree.

When you awake tomorrow morning, you’ll be distinctively different from when you awoke this morning.

That distinction is what you have strived for.

And tonight, you have succeeded.

Your final lesson learned here at Wallace State Community College is a simple yet timeless fact:

Hard work pays off.

Let that be a memorable lesson, for it will serve you well during life’s many hardships, both personal and professional.

Perseverance is a virtue that cannot be understated.

But allow me to speak to the audience for just a moment.

As a parent of four college graduates, allow me to offer a special thanks and appreciation to your families.

Seldom, if at all, can such an undertaking as a college education be realized through the efforts of a single individual.

It takes mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, family and friends, all working in a combined effort.

The graduates here tonight remember all those who helped them, in ways large and small, and you’ll soon see the affect of your assistance when they walk across this stage and receive their degrees.

But before they do, I’d like to offer a few brief remarks about the process you’re soon to undertake.

Change.

You all are embarking on a new stage in life, and change will mark every step of the way.

Your daily schedule will change.

Your goals will change.

And I know you’re looking forward to this . . .

Your paycheck will change too.

You must embrace that change, the easy parts and the tough parts, or be left behind in its wake.

Shortly before the American founding, one of its principal architects, President John Adams, wrote to a fellow patriot that, “All great changes are irksome to the human mind.”

I agree.

I myself am resistant to change, as we all are from time to time.

I’m sure many of you are reluctant to change as well.

Change makes us confront the great unknown.

It introduces different things into our lives.

Different places. Different ideas. Different people.

It’s all hard to accept at times, and change can often be a little scary.

But if there’s one fact that I’ve learned from raising a family, from running several businesses, from serving in Congress and now as Governor, it’s that nothing has ever grown without changing.

When he wrote that sentence, President Adams was witnessing the timidity, the reluctance, to change that was sweeping the colonies during the years preceding the Declaration of Independence.

Nearly everyone recognized the problem, but only a few were willing to face the facts and make the necessary changes.

Many were uncertain.

Many were protecting their self-interests.

Many lacked the courage.

Many were simply scared of the great unknown.

The same can be said today in regards to state government.

I ran for governor promising to change the way Montgomery functions.

And I will soon spark a great debate within the chambers of the state House and Senate.

And one of the principal topics will concern an essential characteristic of our government – judgment.

I am urging our lawmakers to adopt a system that will ensure greater responsiveness and accountability within government.

However, there will be a vocal minority who will seek to protect the status quo of inflexibility and to further conceal the irresponsible elements of the bureaucracy.

At this topic’s epicenter will be a process called “earmarking,” which is a system of predetermining where tax dollars go long before we even judge where they’re actually needed.

For instance, if you deposit a portion of your monthly wages into a vacation account, you ‘earmark’ those dollars for the trip.

But what if you lost your job?

Common sense says to use the vacation money for utility bills and house payments, but the earmarking system of fixed budgeting wouldn’t allow you to withdraw that money for anything other than a vacation.

I know that seems ridiculous, but that’s how your tax dollars are budgeted in Montgomery.

That would be a foolish way to run your personal budget, and it’s a foolish way of running a state budget.

This restriction has tied our collective hands and reduced decision-making within the budgeting process to near irrelevancy.

But it’s always been done like that.

Governors in the past, and lawmakers too, could always shrug their responsibility, because the constitution relieved them from much of the burden of making tough decisions.

We could just go home and say we didn’t have a choice.

A politician sees the safety in that.

Our restrictive governing document is one monstrous excuse for not doing the right thing.

So, from the establishment’s point of view, changing that process is tantamount to self-elimination.

So be it.

You elected government officials to make decisions and it’s about time they started making good ones.

Change is, indeed, irksome to the human mind, but again, there can be no growth without change, and no change without the flexibility needed to adapt and overcome our challenges.

Sure, it’s always been done that way.

Which, as I see it, is the number one reason to stop doing it.

George Santayana, a notable philosopher, coined the phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

But we’ve been repeating the past year after year after year.

And our leaders would do well by heeding Santayana’s warning about the past while debating Alabama’s future in the chambers of our state Legislature.

Alabama must change, however irksome the growing pains may become.

And part of that change can begin here, tonight, when you receive your degree.

You’re the best chance Alabama has, because you’re on the verge of great personal change.

Please, allow that to translate into the public arenas you frequent.

Become an advocate for change.

Talk to your families and friends. Your coworkers.

Write a letter to your newspapers, or call a local radio show and voice your opinion.

One person can make a difference.

In fact, it’s not only possible for one person to make a difference, it’s essential that one person makes a difference.

And believe it or not, that person is you.

Never fear the horizon.

Never fear change.

And never give up.

Again, congratulations, and God speed down your new road in life.