Posted 05/14/2007

Text of Hooding Ceremony address by Dr. Lonnie King

Columbia, SC
May 10, 2007

Thanks very much for your kind introduction Dean (Donna) Richter.  Ladies and gentlemen good morning.  It is an honor and privilege for me to be here to offer my personal congratulations to this distinguished group of new graduates.      

Some years ago John Cougar Mellencamp sang a song that stated, “Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone.”  The good news for you is that these lyrics should never pertain to you.  The thrill of public health is timeless; you will be learning, growing, honing your skills and delivering remarkable services for perhaps the next 4 or 5 decades.

Society needs you like no other time in the history of public heath.  You are about to experience extraordinarily fulfilling lives by making significant contributions in public health, over your entire lifetime.  The thrill is just beginning and the living is abundant and rich with unprecedented opportunities to improve human health.           

Someone once asked a commencement speaker, what’s the real world of tomorrow really like?  The speaker thought and then replied, “The foods better, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”  Well on the contrary, I do recommend it!  As a matter fact, I know that you will flourish, grow and contribute in untold ways.

INCREDIBLE POSSIBILITIES

It has been said that the real purpose of an education is that you evolve to the point where you shift from looking at a mirror just focusing on your world in academe to now looking out a window and considering, anew, those you will need to serve.  As you now peer out that window, you do so with the knowledge, experiences, and competencies gained at this prestigious public health institution, that will indeed enable you to lead lives of incredible possibilities.           

Dr. Bill Foege, past CDC Director, recently said that the greatest gift in public health that we can leave today is that of a rational health future.  You are part of a generation who has the tools and knowledge to help improve and plan good health across all life stages of life from prenatals to senior citizens.

Thanks to your hard work that brought you here today and the equally hard work of an outstanding faculty and staff at this school, you can now look out of your new window and consider how your contributions will help achieve the goal of a rational health future for populations and communities of hundreds and even thousands.  Indeed, life does go on but now with the thrill of a making a difference in people’s lives which will assure that you will enjoy a career of significance, fulfillment and personal satisfaction that those in other careers can only dream of. 

Your academic careers here span across 6 departments and have positioned you for excellence in research, policy, education, communication, health promotion and working as public health practitioners in a diverse array programs and activities. You understand that health is not just the absence of disease but rather the optimization of a state of health and well being leading to enhanced productivity over a lifetime. Your understanding and management of the dynamics of the critical determinants and appropriate interventions will lead to a rational health future, is really your life’s work.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

While you individually, and this class collectively, has unprecedented opportunities, you will also face unprecedented challenges.  In the first 24 hours after your official ceremony this morning: 

• 1,301 children will suffer traumatic brain injuries
• 1,901 children will be admitted to emergency rooms with acute asthma
• 13 million children are overweight
• 1,294 teens will attempt suicide requiring medical care
• 3,800 teens will start using tobacco
• 134 people will die of work related injuries
• 2,370 people will suffer heart attacks
• 583 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed
• 888 people will be hospitalized with food borne illness
• 4,100 people will be diagnosed with diabetes
• 42 million Americans will get their drinking, water from potentially unsafe sources 
• 3,402 seniors will be hospitalized with pneumonia
• 4.5 million seniors will continue to live with Alzheimer’s
• And, worldwide:
• 3,562 people will die of malaria
• 5,479 will die of TB (that’s 4 people every minute of every hour of every day and we have an estimated 1/3 of the world’s population or 2 billion people infected)
• 8,219 will die due to HIV/AIDS (part of 40 million cases and still growing dramatically)
• you will work in an extraordinary era of new emerging zoonotic diseases found at the interference of human and animal health; such as, Rift Valley Fever, Ebola virus,  Lyme Disease, avian influenza or West Nile Virus. In 2002, the U.S. experienced SARS, Monkey pox, and West Nile Virus concurrently – none of which had ever previously been found in the Western hemisphere.

The impact of a deteriorating environment, climate change, and chronic diseases will challenge you for decades, and if we actually experience a serious H5N1 pandemic event, perhaps as many as 90 million could become infected, 10 million hospitalized and 1.5 million in ICUs. Life goes on, the thrill of living and working on these challenging times is your obligation and destiny. 

SHIFT OF FOCUS

Hippocrates stated that “The function of protecting and developing health must rank even above that of restoring it when it is impaired.”  You are part of the critical public health team that must shift our focus from treating disease and adverse health events to preventing them. 

Today, we spend between 90-95 per cent  of all our health care funds on care for the infirmed and treating disease and conditions that are largely preventable; and only 5-10% on prevention, early intervention and public health education. A rational health future cannot be based on a health care system that is essentially dysfunctional. 

Your challenge to help achieve a rational health future is further complicated by poverty and health disparities.  Too often the impoverished, neglected, and marginalized populations share an unequal burden, with poor environments and a 15 fold increase of being exposed to, and contracting infectious diseases. Millions of families struggle to just to survive. They lack clean water, sanitation, food or basic services that we enjoy daily and most just take for granted. Yet, they are our fellow human beings, a precious human capital, and you have the mission and moral obligation to improve their health.  Their rational health future must shift from only a dream and hope to a reality.  They await your help, attention and commitment.  

It has been said that “If you want to do significant work, work on significant problems.”  Well they are lined-up for you.  John Mellencamp’s protagonists in his song were Jack and Diane and they wanted to hold onto the present for as long as possible – the song lyrics state “Changes come around real soon … life goes on……”  Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that the real purpose of life is to find and enjoy a life of purpose.  

Let me congratulate you for selecting this life.  What a wonderful day for an outstanding group of new professional public health colleagues.  We celebrate this day in your honor and welcome you into the profession, and especially look forward to the many ways that you will enrich the tradition and heritage of both this outstanding school and the public health profession.

KODAK MOMENTS 

I have observed over the years that commencement days are full of delightful Kodak moments.  I’ve watched as mothers unwittingly cut the heads off everyone in the photos, Dad’s desperate to take charge, end up snapping a series of pictures with the lens cap still in place, and together, they seldom can get the flash to work.  It then follows that the new graduate seriously questions their potential because of perceived limitations based on their genetic pool.  Don’t worry- they are just excited and beaming with pride! 

I wish to thank the friends, and especially the parents, who are with us this morning. You have been a critical factor in the success of our newest graduates.  You are to be congratulated, as well, and we salute you.  I did receive a note from one of your parents this morning before coming on stage.

 It said “Please remind the graduates that when you say go forth, it doesn’t mean to come home again and live in the basement.” (From Bill Cosby’s Speech) – it really means to go forth and out of here! 

As a class you have also been well served by a distinguished faculty and staff who have worked hard and dedicated their lives on your behalf.  Most of your knowledge, competencies, and professional behavior come from them.  Most of the faculty and staff are here this afternoon to celebrate this special occasion and I want to salute and thank them as well for their invaluable roles in preparing you for this day and beyond. 

Gary Hamel said, “The gap between what can be imagined and what can be accomplished has never been so small.”  What a fantastic time to be graduating!  Life goes on and the thrill will be in the knowledge that you will change countless lives for the better here in South Carolina, across the U.S. and, indeed, in our global communities.   

You have a personal commitment to ensure a rational health future and a new sense of purpose.  Put your heart into it, be passionate about it, see further, go farther, do more, and imagine the unimaginable and close the gap and find the thrill in it. 

 It is with honor and satisfaction that we turn over part of the future of public health to such capable hands.  We are enormously proud of your accomplishments today but as life goes on, we take even greater pride in what you have yet to do and yet to become.

Congratulations!