Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

An Exemplary Life:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Remarks

Thank you, Dean Elmore , for your kind introduction. Let's also thank Kemi

Alabi, assistant provost Coelho, assistant Dean Newsome-Camara, Jeff Stein, Sarah

Sullivan, and Dean Coleman for sharing their thoughts and gifts of insight. Thank you as

well to those sharing their creative gifts today: Joshua Reynolds, Rooki Behari and of

course, the Inner Strength Gospel Choir. And thank you all who have come to reflect on

a day that holds meaning to all of us. In doing so, we come to embody the strongest type

of community: one that is bonded not by geography or coincidence, but one held tight by

shared values. So thank you for your presence, and thank you again to Dean Elmore, Kat

Cornetta, and Ms. Kennedy for giving us the opportunity to ask uncommon questions.

About a month ago, I was asked to address here the question, "Can this be the

next great generation?" In the spirit of a student, I immediately took to reading; and in

the spirit of an idealist, I immediately took to King. I read through everything, looking

for the hymns of our generation. But King had no words for us. I searched for our

mission in the pages of his speeches, listened for our calling in the sounds of his

booming voice. He spoke of drum majors and dreams. He described to us visions of a

great world house, of a mountaintop; of truth crushed to earth, rising again. But he

didn't say anything about us.

What King did do was leave some parting gifts to help us find our way:

assurances that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice;"

promises that "this is a law-abiding universe, one with moral laws which are just as
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binding as physical ones;" assertions that "it's not enough to know all about our

philosophical and mathematical disciplines, but that we've got to know the simple

disciplines of being honest and loving and just with all humanity." But on the issue of us,

he was silent.

So where does that leave us? Can this be a great generation? Yes, of course it can.

Greatness has never been a result of circumstance or fortune. It is not an inherited trait

or a function of destiny. Greatness dresses in humble clothes, emerging from tested

integrity, unwavering belief, and unshakeable commitment. Greatness is the long haul.

So I'd like to respectfully defer the question, "Can we be great?" for perhaps the more

pressing question, "How can we be great?" And it seems as though the first step is a

choice.

King made a conscious decision. Interestingly, at Morehouse, he leaned his

studies towards medicine and law. It's strange to think of a different kind of Dr. King,

no? But it wasn't until his senior year of college that he decided to commit to the

ministry. In his own words, "As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided

early to give my life to something eternal and absolute."

This generation does not consist of people currently between the ages of 18 and

35; no, it certainly does not. This generation consists of all people who choose to be

young. It is a much smaller group. As they say, it is far less work to curse the rain than it

is to sow a seed. Giving up is easy; it is living out our imaginations that takes work. But

to live in that world is to be young. And just like greatness, the root of youth is not a

circumstance, but a choice. There are no chosen ones, there are only the ones who

choose. It is never too late. We can choose to be great. We can choose to be young. For
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greatness is reserved for the delinquents, the combatants of the status quo - the

Ghandis, the Cleopatras, the Kings. It is reserved for those who know that humanity and

spirit are matters far too important to remain in the confines of what is; that they must

be liberated to the expanse of what can be.

Now, at times it is hard keep a steady course on a renegade path. But this much is

true: at the moment we discover the brilliance of our individual faculties, at the instant

we feel the slightest unease that life as it is "supposed" to be is not life as we intend it, we

are obligated to leap into the shelter of our creative genius. To do otherwise, to yield to

the forces of circumstance, guarantees a death far worse than that of a beatless heart:

that of a subordinate spirit. So we must choose to be whole in our commitment and

fresh in our thoughts.

That being said, it is important to look at the environment in which we make

these decisions. We live in interesting times. Encouraging times of opportunity.

Challenging times of setbacks. We meet at an inflection, and this time is a cusp. From

newfound modes of art to the dawn of technology and the wide open plains of economic

growth and innovation, there are so many possibilities to take stake in at this very

moment. In many ways, it is not only us who are young. The world is young as well.

Banana farmers in the rural congo can testify that in a text message. A five year old in

Boston can easily connect with another in Calcutta. 500 million people are all connected

to one virtual social network. This is what the dawn of an era looks like. These are our

victories. However, the challenges of our world today are also easy to see. They occur in

the denial of freedoms, typically those excused as circumstances out of our control. They

appear in Bronx children who cannot count by coincidence of their zip code, where

Virginian couples are turned from courthouses by chance of their gender, when the
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ideas of Plato and Jefferson becomes as attainable as the items in a Park Avenue

window -- these are our defeats. Because we are in control of these things. But we have

chosen defiance. We have chosen to part the sea of explanations and pools of facts that

attempt to obstruct our need to say, "This I believe."

To say, "I believe that the ability of a child to learn should be a function of their

curiosity and not of their income."

To say, "I believe that marriage should be a function of one's commitment and

not of one's gender."

To say, "I believe that the greatness of our actions can be measured by how

aggressively we build, how deeply we love, and how creatively we imagine new

possibility."

To say, "I believe that people, all people, belong to one another."

We must say it, despite jaded charges of foolishness or naïveté. And here, we find

yet another gift from King: "If we are to go forward, if we are to make this a better world

in which to live, we've got to back. We've got to rediscover these precious values that

we've left behind."

The issues of our time are complex. Poverty is complex. Education is complex.

Disease is complex. They are not as crisp as the lines of black and white. It isn't as easy

to see anymore who suffers consequences and who holds responsibility; when

ultimately, unknowingly, it is us who bear both.

We should not shy from what we find to be true. We must commit what we

believe on the inside to what we observe on the outside. We must choose to be young.
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We must say, "this I believe." And ultimately, we must act, however modestly, however

great.

Whatever we do -- whatever books we write, whatever businesses we build,

whatever schools we construct -- must be done in the likeness of our beliefs, as a

reflection of our greatness. Now my training is in economics, so naturally I will attempt

an equation. A life of greatness is equal to the sum of many days of greatness. So every

day we must ask ourselves the question, "Today, how will I be great? Tomorrow, how

will I be great? In this very moment, how am I being great? As a learner, a mother, a

friend, a brother, how am I great? As a woman, as a man, as a person belonging to

others and as a person belonging to myself, how am I being great?"

On the question of greatness, King left us one last parting gift. It was actually a

request regarding how he would like to be remembered. He said:

"I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give

his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr.,

tried to love somebody. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the

hungry. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity."

"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for

justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I won't have any money to leave behind. I

won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a

committed life behind."

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Such is our example of greatness: to lead lives committed to things eternal and absolute;

to understand our beliefs and create in their light; and to actively choose the exemplary

life.