Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Bright future ahead

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 8:22 a.m.

Editor's note: This is the second part of an address delivered by Brian Greenspun at Nevada State College's first commencement ceremony. NEVADA STATE COLLEGE is a reality. Now it will only get better.

It is easy for me to make this prediction. I have many decades of experience in this valley, watching those who lead our community and state, listening to the people who work in the trenches who actually get things done, and hearing the desires of the hundreds of thousands of people who have come here in recent years to make Las Vegas their home, to live and work here and raise their children. When Gov. Grant Sawyer gave the commencement address to that first class at Nevada Southern University, he predicted that what is now UNLV would take its place among the best universities in the West. At that time, his prediction was far more tenuous than mine. He had only hope and a determination to do what he could to make it happen.

I have the knowledge that Las Vegas is finally growing up to the point where money and other priorities must take a back seat to the responsibility the people of this community undertake to provide the best education to the people of this state that we possibly can. So, as you leave this beautiful resort and go out into a world that is begging for your help and desperately in need of your service, consider the responsibility each one of you has, knowingly or not, accepted by being who you are.

You are the standard bearers of the Nevada State College. As you perform your jobs, as you give back to this community, you will be judged not only by who you are but by what you are.

And what you are is the first class to ever graduate from what has to be the newest state college in the country.

I tell you this not to burden you unnecessarily but, frankly, to burden those who are here listening.

For they are the people whose primary responsibility it is to make sure that next year's class, and the next year's class, and on and on, will be bigger and better trained and equipped to do the jobs that this community so desperately needs.

Nevada State College is filling a need in this community that has not been met by the other institutions.

And without the graduates that it will turn out in first-class educational shape, those who will depend upon the teachers, the health care providers and caregivers in the years ahead will be disappointed and underserved. And that is no way for the fastest-growing and one of the most desirable cities on the planet to care for its future.

To those of you who are embarking on a career in teaching, you have my utmost respect.

I have always been a proponent of anyone whose desire it is to teach a young person. To help shape the inquisitive and curious mind into an instrument for community good is a task that is not easy but which is, at its best, the most rewarding of all careers. What you will do in the years ahead is contribute mightily and directly to the ideas that will direct the fortunes of this great country.

And while I know that many others pay only lip service to your profession -- rather than the hard dollars that show their gratitude in concrete terms -- the time will come when we will get our priorities straight and you will be properly rewarded in this life for your effort.

As for those who will travel down a path of giving care to others, I am of the age where I may be in need sooner rather than later. So I will thank you in advance as well as for all those whose lives will be made better for your having decided to travel this road.

And for the graduates who will use this education to better your own lives and those of your families and friends in other ways, welcome to the American Dream. Just remember in the years ahead where and how you got this opportunity and be willing to help the next person when it is your turn to propose rather than oppose making an education available to everyone. As for those of you who are taking pride not only in seeing these 13 graduates make the grade but in the satisfaction that comes with seeing your own hard work bear fruit, I have a little bit of advice.

This is just the beginning. You have chosen to be good citizens and that choice, while a very good and proper one, will now follow you throughout your lives.

We are all wedded to Nevada State College just as we are to UNLV, the Clark County School District and every other institution in this valley that gives hope to young people and the promise of success to those who are willing to take the chance.

That's because, as a man much smarter than I once said, "People interested in education are a dedicated breed."

It is incumbent upon each of us that we stay dedicated -- especially in the face of those whose dedication runs in an opposite direction -- because that is the way that we increase the "average mental power" of our citizens.

And that, my friends and you very special graduates, is the way we will keep this city and this country at the very top of its game.

Thank you and congratulations to all of you.