276 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

select group shares a single feature... it demands as much as it satis-
fies, it isolates as much as it enhances. Each minority possesses a special
beauty, wisdom and insight... but as is the case with all limited and
valuable commodities, these attributes cannot be purchased cheaply.

You may join the minority of people who find their own self-respect
in helping others to find theirs.

You may choose to become one of the few who prefer to ask ques-
tions rather than to be told answers; who are eager to match wits with
the world to make it and themselves the wiser.

You may become one of society's true leaders daring to speak the
unpopular thought if it is to defend the public good.

Many of you already comprehend the extraordinary gift granted to
members of a minority — compassion and courage; the ability to see
in every obstacle to progress, a spur towards progress; and to see in
every sign of intolerance or injustice, the incentive and determination
to defeat it.

Most of you also realize that this distinction cannot be overempha-
sized or romanticized; that minority rights are not at all times in-
compatible with the majority view. You recognize that in all debates
there are two sides, and that in some disputes, both sides may possess
a degree of validity and a measure of merit.

This ability — to reason without passion, to reject sentimentality
which obscures fact — is intellectual integrity.

This gift for clear and direct vision will admit you to the minority
of people who keep their dignity in the face of indignation, and re-
lease their indignation with a sense of dignity.

Above all, you are a member of the greatest minority... the minor-
ity of one. For there is no world but the one we see, no dream but the
one we dream and no road ahead but the one we choose to travel.

We are all very special throughout the journey of life. We only be-
come the same at the very end.

On this day of new beginnings, may each of you recreate the world
in your own image, make a career of its challenge and a profession of
its mystery. Let it be said of you that you were not one among many,
but to the many you were one.