It"s also an unsustainable world because of climate change，resource depletion，and the fact that between now and 2050，the world"s supposedto grow from six and a half to nine billion people，with most of the growth in the countries least able to handle it，undertoday"s conditions，never mind those.That"s all fixable，too.So is climate change a problem？Is resource depletion a problem？Is poverty and the fact that 130million kids never go to school and all this disease that I work on a problem？You bet it is.But I believe the most important problemis the way people think about it and each other，and themselves.The world is awash today in political，religious，almost psychological conflicts，which require us to divide up and demonize people who aren"t us.And every one of them in one way or the other is premised on a very simple idea.That our differences are more important than our common humanity.I would argue that Mother Teresa was asked here，Bono was asked here，and Martin Luther King was asked here because this class believed that they were people who thought our common humanity was more important than our differences.So with this Harvard degree and your incredible minds and your spirits that I"ve gotten a little sense of today，this gives you virtually limitless possibilities.But you have to decide how to think about all this and what to do with your own life in terms of what you really think.I hope that you will share Martin Luther King"s dream，embrace Mandela"s spirit of reconciliation，support Bono"s concern for the poor and follow Mother Teresa"s life into some active service.
Ordinary people have more power to do public good than ever before because of the rise of non-governmental organizations，because of the global media culture，because of the Internet，which gives people of modest means the power，if they all agree，to change the world.When formerPresident Bush and I were asked to work on the tsunami，before we did the Katrinawork，Americans，many of whom could not find the Maldives or Sri Lanka on a map，gave 1.2billion to tsunami aid.Thirty percent of our households gave.Half of them gave over the Internet，which means you don"t even have to be rich to change the world if enough people agree with you.But we have to do this.Citizen service is a tradition in our country about as old as Harvard，and certainly older than the government.When the human genome was sequenced，and the most interesting thing to me as a non-scientist-we finished it in my last year I was president，I really rode herd on this thing and kept throwing more money at it-the most interesting thing to me was the discovery that human beings with their three billion genomes are 99.9percent identical genetically.So if you look around this vast crowd today，at the military caps and the baseball caps and the cowboy hats and the turbans，if you look at all the different colors of skin，all the heights，all the widths，all the everything，it"s all rooted in one-tenth of one percent of our genetic make-up.Don"t you think it"s interesting that not just people you find appalling，but all the rest of us，spend 90percent of our lives thinking about that one-tenth of one percent？I mean，don"t we all？How much of the laugh lines in the speeches were about that？At least I didn"t go to Yale，right？That Brown gag was hilarious.
But it"s aIl the same deal，isn"t it？I mean，the intellectual premise is that the only thing that really matters about our lives are the distinctions we can draw.Indeed，one of the crassest elements of modem culture，allthese sort of talk shows，and even a lot of political journalism that"s sort of focused on this shallow judgmentalism.They tryto define ever ybody down by the worst moment in their lives，and it all is about well，no matter whatever"s wrong with me，I"m not that.And yet，you ask Martin Luther King，Mother Teresa and Bono to come here.Nelson Mandela"s the most admired person in the world.I got tickledthe other night.I wound up in a restaurant in New York with a bunch of friends of mine.And I looked over and two tables away，and there was Rush Limbaugh，who"s said a few mad things about me.So I went up and shook hands with him and said hello and met his dinner guest.And I came just that close to telling him we were 99.9percent the same.But I didn"t want to ruin the poor man"s dessert，so I let it go.Now we"re laughing about this but next month，I"m making my annual trek to Africa to see the work of my AIDS and development project，and to celebrate with Nelson Mandela his birthday.He"s 89.Don"t know how many more he"ll have.And when I think that I might be 99.9percent the same as him，I can"t even fathom it.So I say that to you，do we have all these other problems？
Is Darfur a tragedy？Do I wish America would adopt sensible climate change regulation？Do I hate the fact that ideologues in the government doctored scientific reports？Do I disagree with a thousand things that are going on？Absolutely.But it all flows from the idea that we can violate elemental standards of learning and knowledge and reason and even the humanity of our fellow human beings because our differences matter more.That"s what makes you worship power over purpose.Our differences matter more.One of the greatest things that"s happened in the last few years is doing all this work with former President Bush.You know，Iought to be doing this.I"m healthy and not totally antiquated.He"s 82years old，stilljumping out of airplanes and still doing stuff like this.And I love the guy.I"m sorry for all the diehard Democrats in the audience.I just do.And life is all about seeing things new every day.And I"II just close with two stories，one from Asia，one from Africa.And I"m telling you all the details don"tmatter as much as this.
