Chief Justice Moyer addresses approximately 800 graduates May 3.

Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court Thomas J. Moyer delivered the commencement address Saturday, May 3, 2008.

Moyer has had a distinguished career in public service, including 20 years as chief justice, 10 years as a judge on the tenth district court of appeals in Columbus, and executive assistant to the governor of Ohio. He has had a leading role in state and national efforts to strengthen our justice system.

Following are the words from his keynote address:

Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer
The University of Findlay
May 3, 2008

President Freed, Dr. Beckett, faculty, families, guests, and most of all, the graduates of the class of 2008…

Today is about celebration and all that goes with it: Flips of the tassel and pats on the back. Allow me to say to all of you—students and parents alike—congratulations.

What you have accomplished at The University of Findlay is no small matter. In today’s world where there are so many distractions you have seen it through.

You have taken on the responsibilities to prepare yourselves for the demands each of you will face in the future.

Looking out in the audience, I can see all the cameras. Take those pictures and capture all the smiles. But remember, this is more than a Kodak moment (maybe with today’s technology I should say this is a YouTube moment).

The effort you put forth to reach this point is impressive. You attended classes, studied for tests and applied your writing skills to countless written reports. And along the way, I trust, you learned.

Today, I would like to give you a little encouragement, a little advice on the next round of demands in your life---your participation in civic society. Some of you already participate in political and social groups—and that’s great. Keep it up.

But to be a citizen your responsibility is much broader. Politics is politics, but to live in a constitutional democracy, to fully participate as Americans—requires knowledge and commitment … dedication and compassion.

It requires that you know the American story, the story of our founding fathers who, for the first time in mankind, created a nation based on principled ideas.

The idea that men and women are able to govern themselves. No monarch. No bloodlines.

The idea that freedom and liberty are the guiding lights of a free nation. No cast system. No religious persecution.

The idea—the unheard of idea in the late 18th century—that all men and women are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights.

Too few of us know this story. We forget what revolutionary soldiers fought for and why our ancestors took up arms at Shilo and Gettysburg … in Flanders Fields and Normandy and Omaha Beach.

Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton has called on all of us to re-learn the American story. Hamilton was vice-chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States … known as the 9-11 Commission. He now serves as director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

He says, “Belief is an essential part of what it means to be an American. We believe in reasoning together, working and building a consensus so we can live together peacefully and productively in this huge and diverse country. And we believe that with freedom comes obligation and with liberty comes duty—because a democracy is always building a more perfect union. “

Today, American troops face hostile fire in distant countries … fighting for our beliefs---
the same beliefs that led our founding fathers to adopt the rule of law as the cornerstone of our nation--the same beliefs that reunited north and south after the Civil War.

These beliefs … more than two and a quarter centuries in the making … are a central fiber of our public discussion.

In America, a person accused of committing a terrorist act and a person arrested for exceeding a speed limit have the same expectation—due process of law, an impartial fact-finder, independent judgment and a penalty that is appropriate to a finding of guilt.

Often in our history, partisans have called on the courts to consult popular opinion, rather than our constitutions.

These critics seem to be calling for a particular outcome, namely one that favors their view on an issue.

They often forget that in a democracy, the justice system draws its strength from constant principles and consistent practice; everyone is subject to and protected by the same rules.

Predictability and consistency are basic elements of the rule of law.

The great crises in American history have tested the boundaries of those beliefs. When President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus … when President Roosevelt ordered the detention of Japanese civilians … they did not sound the death knell for our civic faith in liberty and freedom. Quite the opposite. These contentious times demonstrate the enduring relevance of the Bill of Rights … the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

They also bare witness that the Bill of Rights is one of our most important secular documents.

No other civilized nation has been able to celebrate more than 200 years of life in a constitutional democracy founded upon the fundamental rights of mankind.

Following the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, Alexander Hamilton observed regarding the significance of the Constitution and its first ten amendments.

He said, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam and the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

The Bill of Rights enumerates our most important personal rights and liberties without which the United States Constitution would be only a blueprint for the establishment of the government.

In his advanced age, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of America’s greatest jurists, was traveling from Washington on a train.

The young porter asked Justice Holmes for his ticket. The Justice fumbled through his coat and vest and could not find the ticket.

At which point the young porter, recognizing the distinguished jurist, said to him, “Oh, that’s all right, Justice Holmes, we are very pleased to have you riding on the train. If you find your ticket, please send it to the railroad office.”

Justice Holmes looked irritatingly at the young porter and said, “Young man, the question is not where is my ticket.

“The question is where is it I am going.”

Where is it I am going? As each of you asks that question in a personal sense,
I would hope you would ask it also in a collective sense.

Will Americans 20 years or 200 years from today still revere their Constitution and its Bill of Rights?

We are free not because we revere pieces of parchment safely locked in glass cases at the National Archives. America has succeeded because we have responded to the caution of Judge Learned Hand.

In 1944, he said:
“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women: when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.”

Hopefully, each of us is asking the question -- What does this legacy mean to me? Where do I fit? What can I contribute? What are my responsibilities?

Some observers of our society conclude that one of America’s problems is that too many of us are now averse to undertaking any project that has risk -- that we, in fact, seek a risk-free world.

Most of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 left their farms, their shops, and their families to struggle for 4 months in a cramped, steamy building called Independence Hall to draft a Charter for a new nation.

The Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, those who fought to preserve the Union, the Wright Brothers, our astronauts, Martin Luther King, the citizens marching through a neighborhood to reclaim it from drug dealers, the men and women who volunteer to protect us as members of the armed services, all may have been tempted by the lure of security, but they chose responsibility.

Each of us is aware of our own shortcomings. As a consequence, we hold back, speaking by neither voice nor deed of those values that we hold so dear, and that are so essential to a just society.

It is as if such people live by the vision of Isaiah, who upon finding himself in the temple where the Lord was sitting, was keenly aware of his own shortcomings and the shortcomings of his people.

He lamented that because he was a man of unclean lips and because he dwelled in the midst of people of unclean lips, he could not do the Lord’s work.

But when he heard the voice of God saying, “Whom shall I send and who shall go for us?” Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me.”

Isaiah did not say when called upon, “I will find someone to work on it,” or “I don’t risk doing something I have never done.” He simply said, “Here am I. Send me.”

Our world -- your world -- desperately needs more risk takers. Take the risk… preserve your values….. defend the truth when those around you are dishonest.

Take the risk to become involved in a campaign for a ballot issue or a candidate --or be a candidate -- speak up -- take action -- challenge a meaningless convention at the risk of being embarrassed.

And, remember, you don’t have to be James Madison, Martin Luther King, or a war hero to say, “Here am I.”

When you: serve food in a homeless shelter, act as a foster parent, report serious wrongdoing in your workplace or school, or respond to a call for jury duty,
you are acting to preserve the values that have driven our country for 200 years.

Where is it we are going? We live in an age in which each day can be the first day of a new legacy.

The human rights of mankind will be preserved for us and for future generations if, when our fundamental values and our institutions ask, “Who will go for us,” you, and you, and you, and I, one by one, by one, will answer with a strong voice, “Here am I, send me.”