In his famous speech“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”，Martin Luther King Jr.said：“Through our scientific and technological genius，we have made of this world a neighborhood.And yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make it a brotherhood.”Now with 50years of hindsight，I think it’s fair to say that Dr.King was a little premature in calling the world‘s a neighborhood.Back then Americans lumped whole continents into something they called the Third World as if what defined people on the other side of the planet was that they were not like us，but as a result of this ongoing communications revolution，your worlds really can be neighborhood.So that ethical commitment that Dr.King spoke out，it’s yours to live up to.
Now what does it mean to make this world a brotherhood and a sisterhood？That probably sounds like a lot to ask you as individuals or even as a whole graduating class，and I‘m pretty sure later this afternoon，when somebody asked you that really annoying question.“what are you going to do after graduation？”I doubt any of you are going to say I had a ethical commitment to make this world a brotherhood.But you can change the way you think about other people，you can choose to see their humanity first.The one big thing that you can find that makes them the same as you，instead of all the little things that make them different than you.It’s not just a matter of caring about people，I assume you already do that，but it‘s much harder to see all people，including those people and especially those people whose lives are very different from yours，to really see them as 3-dimensional human beings，who need and want and desire the same things that you do.But if you can really believe that seven billion people on the planet are equal to you in spirit，then you’ll take action to make the world more equal for everyone.
Paul Farmer，the Duke graduate I admire most，I think most of you know him.He is a doctor and a global health innovator.He spends his time between Boston，Haiti，Rwanda.He‘s now trying to fix or completely change the Rwandan health system.I first met Paul in 2003，I went to travel to his clinic in Cange，Haiti，and what struck me about that visit was，first of all，it took us so long to get the 100yards from the vehicle to his clinic and the reason for that was that Paul introduced me to every single person along the way，every single person.And he introduced them by first and last name，he told me something about their family.He asked them about their lives.And when we arrived at the clinic，on the outside，there was this beautiful little trellis with morning glories growing on it.When I asked Paul about it，he said，“Oh，I built that myself，I built it because I wanted the people here to see the beauty in the world that I see，and I also wanted them to have a little bit of shade in the sun while they wait to go in the clinic.”
The very next day，I traveled to another clinic in Haiti.It was in Port-au-Prince.It was set up for the same reasons as Paul to give great healthcare to the people of Haiti.The doctors there went for all the right reasons，I noticed something very different in that clinic.The doctors thought of themselves as health care providers and they thought of the Haitains as recipients，and consequently，even though healthcare was good quality，healthcare was going on there，there was a lot of resentment in that clinic between both patients and doctors.
And experiencing those two clinics one day right after the other taught me something，taught me that Paul had made the moral choice to do the deep connection，to do that hard work understand that love is part of healing.All those little small acts that Paul did and his staff，those are born out of a big idea and that is the dignity of all people.Of course，not everybody here is going to be Paul Farmer.Not all of you are going to dedicate you whole life to eradicating poverty，but just because you don’t qualify for sainthood，it doesn‘t mean you can’t form deep human connections or that your connections can‘t make a difference in the world.
And to me，that’s where technology comes in.If you make the moral choice to connect deeply with others，then your computer，your phone，the internet，it makes it so much easier to do today.In Africa，there are 700million cell phone subscribers.When I go to Kenya，I was in Nairobi，I was in a large slum there-Kibera.Some people consider it the largest slum in Africa.I was there last year.You know what I saw was unbelievable ingenuity.I saw a kiosk that had hundreds of phones，where young entrepreneur served the business of recharging people‘cell phones.When they got their cell phones back，you know what they were doing？Texting.Evidently their favorite way of communicating，is your favorite way of communicating，too.And what that allows you to do，though，is to connect directly with literally millions of people.On the internet，you can read what each other’s reading，you can share the same music，you can watch the same TV shows，you can immerse yourselves in one another‘s lives，learn one another’s languages，learn one another’s recipes and even cook the same food and take a picture and sent it to your friend across the world if you want.
Now I‘m not saying that you’re going to wake up tomorrow and automatically start Skyping with somebody in Nairobi.And it‘s probably wise to ignore those emails you get from somebody in Nigeria，saying they can help you make a large fortune.But over the course of your lives，I promise you，you will have so many opportunities to use technology to make the world bigger，to meet different kinds of people and to keep in touch with more people that you meet.
