Karen Hughes: International Youth Democracy Summit

International Youth Democracy Summit Karen Hughes,Under Secretary Rosetta Stone outlet for Public Diplomacy and Public AffairsRemarks at the University of VirginiaCharlottesville, VA August 8, 2006 Thank youall. Please sit down, please sit down. Well, thank youall so much. Good evening. Your enthusiasm is certainly contagious even for someone who is a little jetlagged as Iam. Thank you, Tim, for that kind introduction. I'mhonored to be here this evening, on the "grounds" of Mr.Jefferson's University. Did I get that right? I've beentold that "campus" is a six letter word around here. So Ishouldn't use it. And I want you to know I'm keeping goodcompany tonight. I'm here with Katye Balls from mycommunications office and she is a UVA graduate and alum.This is a University with a rich history and traditionand I'm so glad to be with you all as you host theInternational Youth Democracy Summit. What better place tohost the first conference of this series than thisUniversity founded by one of our Nation's founding fathersand greatest leaders -- our first Secretary of State andthird President, Thomas Jefferson. You heard a little bitfrom [Thomas Jefferson] tonight, but I am going to give youa little more. He well understood the indispensable role ofthe people -- and of educated people -- in the developmentand safe keeping of a just society. "I know of no safedepository of the ultimate powers of the society but thepeople themselves," he said, "and if we think them Rosetta Stone Arabic notenlightened enough to exercise their control with awholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from thembut to inform their discretion by education." Early on he was making the argument for the case for democracy and forthose who would seek to undermine him by saying "well, themasses may not know enough." President Jefferson'sdedication to education underlies why UVA students call themselves "First-Year, Second-Year, Third-Year, andFourth-Year" rather than the traditional "Freshman,Sophomore, Junior, and Senior." Because he understood thatlearning lasts not just during our high school or college years, but throughout our lifetime. And of course, one ofthe joys and privileges of my job is I travel the worldwith the opportunity to learn and I find that I learnsomething new in every country, every city, every place thatI visit as I travel the world. I am especially delighted,as Tim mentioned, to meet with young people here tonightbecause you are our future. There are young people here, Iunderstand, not only from across America but from more than40 states and 22 countries, including Argentina, Bulgaria,China, India, Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. It wasfun to hear your points of view. It was very refreshing andit makes me very optimistic about the future. And ofcourse, you all represent that future -- the future ofAmerica, and the future of our increasingly global world.As the theme of this conference says, I think very aptly,"Democracy. It's up to you." I'm reading a great book rightnow. I highly recommend it. It's called1776 by DavidMcCullough. I don't know if any of you have heard of it.It's about the birth of America's independence. It has awonderful line about the collection of diverse, and oftenquite colorful citizens who made up our initial army which,if any of you are familiar with the initial American army,was kind of a rag tag bunchxC2, -- no uniforms, not muchdiscipline -- all kinds of diverse citizens. But there is a great line in the book about them and it says "as worthypeople as ever marched out of step." Now I love Rosetta Stone French thatthinking about democracy being a worthy group of citizensmarching out of step. I love that because somehow we aremarching together even as we are frequently out of step witheach other. In a democracy, we are such differentindividuals and we disagree and you hear our political debates.