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Our young people - their capacities to think, understand, investigate, and innovate - are America's future.

We must reflect on the kind of country that we want to build and the kind of society which we are choosing to pass on to our children.

What has made America amazing has been the fact that throughout our history, throughout the more than 200 years of our history, there have been men and women of courage who stood up and decided it was more important to look out for the future of their children and their grandchildren than their own political futures.

I hope that the families will understand that the contribution of women is important and can be more powerful for building a greater country.

Our Nation is in great need of young men and women of character to lead in every arena of our society.

When we fail to include diverse, talented faces, reflecting both today and tomorrow's America, we send a poor message to our youth and the world.

In the United States, nobody needs to remind people of their own role or their own power in creating the future they want to see. Perhaps it is something that is almost written into your cultural DNA: a desire to answer your Founding Fathers' call to create a 'more perfect union.'

If our nation is to rebuild opportunity for future generations, it will require our elected leaders to realize that their responsibility lies not with their political party, but rather with the American people that they have been chosen to represent.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don't invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don't invest in them, we lose.

As an older generation, we need to give all our young people love and the possibility of realizing their dreams. For instance, if I get really political, the fact that some people can't go to college, can't even think about college, that's not American; that's not right.