ANN ARBOR—The following is an excerpt from the address delivered by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to the University of Michigan graduating class of 2003 during the spring commencement ceremony at Michigan Stadium on April 26:

“Out of this cultural and intellectual maelstrom, you have been putting together your own world view, or as the profs like to say, your weltanschauung. Your truths have been tested by complexity, and by diversity. You need to go out and embrace that complexity.

“For in the world you enter, complexity abounds. Take the war. Fifteen miles away in Northville, elementary students formed a giant American flag and sang their hearts out for America. Then, here in the great city of Ann Arbor, voluble protesters sang their hearts out for a different America. Still 15 miles in a different direction, Dearborn Iraqis—Chaldean, Shiite, Suni or other—still struggle nobly and peacefully to understand their relationship to America, to Iraq, and to the calls for justice and for freedom. We all struggle with this question of complexity. The complicated and fractious views—even in our own state—only grow more so when you read the papers from abroad.

“In the midst of the war last month, outside of my window at work, one band of passionate protesters had erected tents on the lawn of the capitol and they were objecting loudly to the war. On the opposite side of the street, another small knot of people with a bullhorn voiced support for the President and for the war. At one great moment, both sides began fervently to chant in unison, their voices braided together. They chanted: ‘USA! USA!’ It was beautiful, this complexity.

“Indeed, gratefully, this is no simple world.

“In just such times, I say, trust yourself and the ways you have learned of diverse thought, of openness to ideas and respect for others. The stronger minds and stomachs that you have acquired here for complexity, and the courage to ask tough questions and peel the layers of onion, will build your capacity to lead.”

For details on the ceremony, go to http://www.umich.edu/news/Releases/2003/Apr03/r042603.html