(AP).Today's college graduates must face change with confidence in a "highly unstable, unequal and unsustainable" world and help others do the same, former President Bill Clinton said Sunday at West Virginia University.
In previous generations, Clinton said, young people needed only to get an education, land a job, pay taxes and vote intelligently to be a good citizen.
"Today, we also have to do what we can as private citizens to tackle public problems and advance the public good," he told more than 1,000 graduates of WVU's Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. He urged them to embrace change and get in "the future business."
The 21st century is an exciting time to enter adulthood, he said.
"When I became president, believe it or not, there were only 50 sites on the entire World Wide Web. There've been more than that added since I started talking," Clinton said. Mobile phones once weighed 5 pounds, and now "people with big hands have a hard time dialing numbers."
But not everyone is in a position to take advantage of change, technological or otherwise.
"Change falls unevenly in our country and in our world, and for all of its benefits, the time you live in is highly unstable, and unequal and unsustainable," he said.
He urged graduates to focus instead on finding common ground and solutions that work for everyone.