The Mission of Preserving the World Peace
演讲人：William Jefferson Clinton威廉·杰斐逊·克林顿
I was privileged to study here for exactly one percent of Yale"s three hundred years.I loved the law school.I liked my professors，and have stayed in touch with many of them over all these long years.One of them I was able to put on the Court of Appeals.One of them I tried to torment in class with disagreements and he lived to torment me-my constitutional law professor，Robert Bork.We had great debates 30years ago.Now that I replay them in my mind，they seem flesh today.I was fortunate enough to be here at Yale Law School with a phenomenal number of outstanding men and women who were my fellow students.One of them did become the United States senator from New York.Senator Schumer went to Harvard.Meeting Hillary was the best thing that happened to me at Yale，and maybe the only thing that really stuck over all of these 30years.
Marking three hundred years of learning at any time would be a significant event.But marking it at this time，with a commitment to be a truly global university，is obviously profoundly impor tant.For three hundred years，beginning three quarters of a century before the Declaration of Independence，Yale has taught young people the wisdom of the past，the analysis of the present and the importance of looking to the future.Yale has asked hard questions and looked for honest answers.That is what I found here 30years ago，and that is what I see when I look out on this vast array of faces today.
America is full of hard questions now.I have spent a great deal of the last three weeks in Manhattan，visiting the crisis center，ground zero，fire stations and police headquarters，and three schools-two of them double schools because half the children were blown out of their own schools by the events of September the 11th.And I have found so many questions.Hillary and I went to an elementary school in lower Manhattan，where nine and ten-year old students asked me these questions："Why do they hate US so much anyway？""How did that guy get all those people to commit suicide？"I never thought I would hear a nine year old ask a question like that.
The other day，I had a conversation with Mack McLarty，who was my first chief of staff and my oldest friend of fifty years.We were talking about the events of September the 11th.We had a conversation I believethousands and thousands of Americans our age have had in the last three weeks.I said，"Mack，if we had been on that plane over Pennsylvania，do you think we would have had the guts to take it down？"He said，"I think so，and I hope so."I have gotten calls from women friends of Hillary"s and mine，who are mothers of young children from all over America with a simple question："Bill，is it going to be all right？Tell me it"s going to be all right."Well，first of all，it"s going to be all right.I can tell you that.
Terrorism-the killing of innocent people for political or religious or economic reasons is as old as organized combat.It"s been around a very long time.If we look through history honestly，we find it in uncomfortable places.In the crusade in which the European Christians seized Jerusalem，they burned a mosque，slaughtered three hundred Jews and killed every mother and child on the Temple Mount who was a Muslim.But no campaign of terror standing on its own，without organized military combat，has ever succeeded in all of human history.Indeed，it is not the purpose of terror to succeed militarily.It is the purpose of terror to terrify，and I would guess that a lot of young people in this audience today who have never lived through such a difficult crisis have been understandably terrified.
Our country is highly diverse-we have people here today from just a bout ever y count r y，ever y racial and ethnic group and every religious heritage.
What terrorists seek，first of all，is to make US afraid of each other.And secondly，to make US afraid of the future；afraid to plan；afraid to invest，afraid to trust.That is what they seek.Therefore，terrorism cannot prevail unless we cooperate.It is not a military strategy；it is a psychological and human one.We have to give the people who attacked US permission to win，and I do not believe we are about to grant them that permission.
Mr.Bin Laden and his allies misjudge America.They think we are fundamentally a weak greedy，selfish，materialistic people.They think we are weakened by our lack of a national religion and imposed social order.But they are wrong.All Americans have been proud in these last days of the performance of our leaders，from the President，to the governor，to the mayor of New York；and yes，to the senators.I am very proud of my wife and her colleagues in the House and the Senate，and especially proud of the people.
Hillary and I went to a Rosh Hashonah service the other night in our own little village of Chappaqua.We lost a person out of the temple on September the 11th.I met one of the two men there who escaped from the 84th floor of the World Trade Center carrying a disabled woman all the way to safety.When I went into the family crisis center at Pier 94，a mancame up to me and said to me："Why Mr.President，I haven"t seen you sinceOklahoma City."And I said"，How did I see you there？"He said"，You came to console me.My wife was blown up in the bombing of Oklahoma City and I had no one to talk to.So when I saw that this happened，I told my boss I was taking two weeks off，and I got in my car and I drove here.I sit here all day，every day talkingto people.I had no one to talk to and I thought I might be of help."I have visited many of the firemen.
