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This pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare a lot of our country's deep-seated problems, from massive economic inequality to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it.
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It's woken a lot of young people up to the fact that the old ways of doing things just don't work.
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That it doesn't matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick.
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And that our society and our democracy only work when we think not just about ourselves but about each other.
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You know all those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing?
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Turns out they don't have all the answers.
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A lot of them aren't even asking the right questions.
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So if the world's gonna get better, it's gonna be up to you.
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Because with so much uncertainty, with everything suddenly up for grabs, this is your generation's world to shape.
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America's gone through tough times before—slavery, Civil War, famine, disease, the Great Depression, and 911.
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And each time we came out stronger, usually because a new generation, young people like you, learned from past mistakes and figured out how to make things better.
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Doing what feels good, what's convenient, what's easy, that's how little kids think.
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Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way, which is why things are so screwed up.
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But if we're gonna get through these difficult times, if we're gonna create a world where everybody has an opportunity to find a job and afford college, if we're gonna save the environment and defeat future pandemics, then we're gonna have to do it together.
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So be alive to one another's struggles.
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Stand up for one another's rights.
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Leave behind all the old ways of thinking that divide us—sexism, racial prejudice, status, greed—and set the world on a different path.
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The truth is you don't need us to tell you what to do because in so many ways, you've already started to lead.
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Congratulations, class of 2020.
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Keep making us proud.