Thank you very much. Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, Member of the Board of Trustees and Faculty and most importantly, graduates, friends and family of the Class of 1999. I am honored to be in your company and I am especially grateful to have been given the privilege of addressing the last class of graduates who will don their caps and gowns in this century. In fact, let's be generous and call this the last class that will graduate in this millennium.

As is the case with many of those who have spoken at Commencement before me my ties to the University of Illinois are a real family matter. I attended school here my wife Priscilla graduated from here, as did her sister, Karen, two of our nephews Maury and Jason and our oldest daughter, Robyn. And today my godchild, Stephanie sits amongst you. You might say Illinois has been very very good to us! And if you'll allow me to take some personal privilege here: I want to take note of the fact that my younger daughter Alexis is with me today. And although she is a sophomore at a University other than Illinois, I want you all to know, that I could not be prouder of her, or the work she is doing. And while I'm on proud, my wife, Priscilla, is also here with me and I promise, if not for her, I would never have been the kind of person who would even have been considered, to stand before you today.

Now, back to the matter at hand. It seems to me that when you write a Commencement address you have two choices. You can write for the ages or you can talk to the graduates. My hope is I will accomplish the latter. Over the years I've been in enough lecture halls around here, seen enough of those glazed expressions. I've looked out at students I thought I was mesmerizing, only to see that fixed stare the head then starts bobbing. You know what I mean. So let me try to set you at ease, you won't need a box lunch to get through this. I subscribe to a piece of advice handed out by the former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, who said: "Commencement speakers need to think of themselves as bodies at an old-fashioned Irish wake you are needed to have the party, but no one expects you to say very much!" I'll do my best.

And I think that will please my good friend, Chancellor Michael Aiken. A rather direct fellow in his own right: I don't want him to feel too cheated he didn't get Colin Powell today, and had to settle for me. So to begin understanding comedy can be a serious business and with apologies to David Letterman I have a Top Ten list. The top ten things to remember when looking for your first job:

Number 10: Employers may not consider "shotgunning a sixpack" a "special skill."

Number 9: And this is for the women in the audience. Berets and thong underwear are not appropriate office attire.

Number 8: Seeing every episode of Ally McBeal does not automatically make you a lawyer.

Number 7: Unless your interview is with the National Guard, don't show up in camouflage fatigues.

Number 6: And this is for the men in the audience. Derets and thong underwear are not appropriate office attire!

Number 5: And this is for the Business Majors, you know how many never forget the question: 'Hey, ya want fries with that?'

I know that was a cheap shot but life can be harsh! Get used to it!

Number 4: Think twice about using Vernon Jordan as a reference.

Number 3: When asked, "Where do you want to be in 10 years?" A bad answer would be "In Brazil with most of your corporate funds!"

Number 2: Keep career goals like "Tearing down the system from within" to yourself.

And the number 1 thing to remember when looking for your first job:

I'm sorry, but there's nothing open at CNN right now. I don't mean to make light of the task that lies before you in fact I'm counting on you to keep my Social Security benefits flowing.

So here's a few facts meant to ease your mind. On average, you're going to change jobs at least eight-times in your professional life. So my advice before you take a job you're not wild about, in a field you aren't all that charged up about, think about following your heart. On average you're going to be a part of the workforce for the next 40 years. Remember how difficult it was to sit through a boring lecture for 40 minutes? Well 40 years is a lifetime. At your tender ages, taking a shot is advisable to settling for second best. Finding the right field is more important than securing a responsible salary, at least in the beginning.

I started out thinking I'd have a career as an architectural engineer. Went to a special high school for it came to Illinois to study it but it was not my passion. I loved politics. My friend's father was a Chicago Alderman. I got a precinct job in Richard J. Daley's Democratic Party. By the way, it was there that I learned the practical use of "New Math". But I dare not digress! That's a comment you can only make in Illinois. And in 1968, I went on to be a 20-year-old speech writer and advance-man for Senator Eugene McCarthy in his challenge to President Lyndon Johnson. But the turbulence of the times the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy saddened me soured me. I went through a period of uncertainty. I tried promoting rock concerts. I actually lost money on a show starring Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas and Junior Walker and the All-Stars. Ask your parents who they were. How was I going to spend the rest of my life? My father would later refer to this time as my age of stupidity.

But my year on the McCarthy campaign gave me a great appreciation of what journalists did and what they could mean to our lives. It quickly became my passion and I scored a job as a copy-boy at WBBM-TV in Chicago paid the princely sum of $83 a week no overtime. It was not glamorous but it set me on a career path where I can honestly say, I would have done nearly every news job I've ever had, for next to nothing. That by the way is off the record! I had started out thinking about architecture and in the space of two years and four careers, I ended up in journalism.

You, too, will have time to change directions time to change your goals. Being happy at your work makes up for thousands of dollars in the bank. Now I said thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands. We all have different needs and varying amounts of financial support to go with them. Some of you will probably go off on what I've heard called a "Victory Tour of Europe." Trust me, it's more fun to have some money and stay at a real hotel once in a while. I know others of you will want or need to quickly get down to work. I hope you can start by "taking a shot." But whether you've earned a Bachelors or a graduate degree today, the environment will be the same. You are going to enter a tough, competitive, evolving workplace. Where you will be expected to first pay your dues!! Now if you're the Illini who invented Netscape it's easier. But the rest of you will need to show the kind of commitment and dedication, employers and colleagues expect, in fact demand, to see. You will have to prove you are not only worthy of promotion, but of keeping the entry level job you talked yourself into.

No matter the field, it is a workplace where technology is changing so rapidly that businesses find themselves scrambling for even the slightest peek at the future. You see the turmoil on Wall Street the wild trading in internet stocks the attitude seems to be, if you can't see what's next, buy a little of everything. You have to guarantee you don't miss the boat. So much is changing, so much is new one thing is not. Even though you have been virtually drowned in an ocean of tabloid news and at times irresponsible discussion, do not believe that the events of the past few years have somehow lowered the bar for honesty, decency or integrity. There is no question that the media, all kinds of media, have helped coarsen our society.

Lewinsky, Milosovich and Littleton sounds like a law firm but each story has in it's own way, raised questions about how we live, what we believe, and what we will allow. With Milosovich and the tragedy playing out in Kosovo, we are surrounded by news of man's inhumanity to man. We are ending our most violent century the same way it began with an ethnic war in Yugoslavia. But as terrible as the bombing is, especially for the innocent people of Yugoslavia what lesson will it teach future generations if Slobodan Milosovich gets away with his ethnic cleansing?

At Columbine High School we watched in horror as two high school students, who I cannot adequately characterize, destroyed countless families with their brutality. We have shared Littleton's pain and struggled to understand why. And although the shooters paid the ultimate price, did they actually get away with it? After years of fraying, are there now tears in our social fabric that families are loath to address? Then there's the hypocrisy. In the past 18 months we have seen a Congress damage itself in the shameless partisanship of the House. A Senate run from the light to debate the future of a President in secret. The Independent Counsel law seems destined to die, but Ken Starr is still around many believe still putting obsession ahead of the best interests of the nation. And then there's the President, who if not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, well, it may have been because our founding fathers never thought a president would get caught acting in such a manner.

Is there a lesson here? We learned about perjury, fidelity and the Presidency of Andrew Johnson. Our young children learned more about sex than I may know at this moment. But in the wake of this national tragedy how many of you now believe that with the right connections, you can get away with anything? The President got impeached, but he didn't lose his job. So did he get away with it? Well I am here to tell you there is always a price to be paid not always paid on demand, but paid in the end always! As many of you may know I have been privileged to be a friend of Bill Clinton for more than 20 years. Like so many, I had high expectations for his Presidency. His intellect, his heart, his drive to help people should have guaranteed his greatness. But as it now stands, when history writes this President's story, his accomplishments while noteworthy, even extraordinary will be listed after an explanation of who Monica Lewinsky was. He kept his office, but at a very high price. And I'm only talking about his public life! Well, before it's all over, others I trust will pay as well. There is always a price!

You're not going to be perfect. We all make mistakes. Last year we made the biggest mistake we've perhaps ever made at CNN. We aired a story that, in brief, charged the United States military with using deadly sarin gas in a successful rescue mission in Laos, during the Vietnam War era. The script was checked and approved. It appeared well sourced. Two of the journalists who worked on the story were my mentors, whom I had known and respected for more than 30 years. They believed in the story, and I trusted them. After it aired, there was a firestorm and when we finally determined that the story should not have aired, we acted quickly. Our chairman, Tom Johnson, issued a very public and prominent retraction and apology. We also held public meetings inviting our entire three-thousand-member CNN staff. As a person who hosted these sessions for a total of at least nine hours, I can tell you it was very painful, and the wounds remain with me today. They will be with me forever.

My reason for sharing this is to make a point. As I said, we're not perfect, but trying your best to be honest, fair and accurate in your life, no matter what you do and being dedicated to taking responsibility, for admitting a wrong when the train runs off the tracks, which it inevitably will, this is central to your being a person of good character. And that reputation will serve you well in business and in all aspects of your life. There is a haunting lyric in an Elton John song where he worries about being clean, and in touch with life. He laments: "I'm sleeping with myself tonight." You will be a far happier person if you set high standards, because living up to them allows you to sleep very well every night. And that is a future you can guarantee.

I'd like to share a piece of advice that as a father, I wish I had better heeded advice that I am certain is true. When all is said and done and when you look back on your years as you admire your family and appreciate their love you aren't going to wish you had spent more time at the office. And that brings me to a critical group of you whom I do not wish to overlook. For it is you that make up the backbone of our society it is in you that I place my trust for the good future of this country. I'm talking about those of you who will devote your lives primarily to your families. To raising your children, and to working within your communities to improve all our lives.

The idea that somehow the commercial workplace was the only great stage where you could achieve success and make your mark has, thank God, been thoroughly discredited. Dedicating your life to being a loving parent, a good citizen, a caring neighbor there is simply no higher calling and I congratulate you now. And recent events remind us no one can have a more positive impact on all of our futures.

Let me conclude by sharing something Garrison Keeler said at a Washington dinner earlier this year a dinner filled with journalists and big-shot politicians. He was pleading for a rebirth of civility in our society, and God knows we could use more of that. He said the need was especially great considering that so many people were already going through pre-millennial jitters, and though it was only March, folks were wondering what was going to happen on New Year's Eve. He said: "Of course it was probably worse with the Romans, every year getting smaller and smaller and you're in 20 BC and suddenly you're in 1 BC and what happens when you get to zero?" "Do you start counting up or go to a Jewish calendar what do you do?"

Well I know many, probably most of you have those pre-millennial pre-grown-up life jitters. You should. But you should also be confident. Sitting here under those mortarboards today means you have by accomplishment, or extraordinary dramatic skill, qualified for a shot at the best life has to offer. You will find that being a graduate of the University of Illinois means you are at least the equal of any other graduate from any other great institution. You are ready and I wish you a long, happy, healthy next millennium. Thank you.