Today, President Clinton delivers a commencement address to the graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The President will discuss opportunity and responsibility in the Information Age and his vision for ensuring that the opportunities offered by the Information Age are available to all Americans. The Information Age is Transforming the Lives of All Americans The Information Age is creating a powerful and sweeping transformation across our nation, and is changing the lives of all Americans. Consider that: - The High-Tech Industry employs more people than the Automobile Industry did at its height in the 1950's.
- More E-Mail is sent in a day than postal mail.
- Information Technology has been responsible for one-third of our nation's total economic growth in the last four years.
In our changing society, information technology has the power to break down barriers of race, gender, geography, income, disability, and age -- or to widen the social divide. Our choice is clear. We must extend opportunity to all Americans, erase the lines of inequity, and accelerate the growth of the most powerful engine of prosperity the world has ever known. | |