特拉华州纽瓦克。-总统乔·拜登周六，他在母校特拉华大学对毕业生说，“现在是你们的时候了”，他鼓励美国年轻人帮助这个国家实现其理想。
向6000多名毕业生发表讲话，全国哀悼两周内两起大规模枪击事件的受害者。拜登哀叹他所治理的国家的分裂和仇恨。他哀叹美国机构的“信仰危机”,并敦促毕业生努力包扎国家的伤口。
“你们这一代人，比任何人都更需要回答这个问题，我们是谁?我们代表什么?我们相信什么?我们会是谁?”拜登说。“你可以有所作为，你可以提升这个国家，你可以迎接我们这个时代的挑战。”
“我希望你今天从我这里得到一个信息:现在不是袖手旁观的时候，”他补充道。“我们需要你们所有人参与公共生活和这个国家的生活。”
拜登告诉毕业生要记住“民主是人类的事业。”
“我们很多事情都做得很好，”总统说。“有时我们会失败。在我们自己的生活中也是如此。这在国家生活中是真实的。然而民主使进步成为可能。当我们不再把对方视为敌人，而是邻居时，进步就来了。"
拜登谈到了美国痛苦的分裂越南总统说，在20世纪60年代，以及“英雄”——肯尼迪夫妇和马丁·路德·金被杀后的悲痛，但通过那些动荡的时代，公民权利和投票权等方面取得了进展。
“好吧，现在该你了。挑战是巨大的，来自国内外，但可能性也是巨大的。“在美国，一切皆有可能，”他说。对美国来说，这是决定性的十年，我们可以选择我们想要的未来，我们必须决定黑暗不会战胜光明。'
总统说，今年的毕业生有一个良好的开端，代表了美国历史上“最慷慨、最宽容、最少偏见、受过最好教育”的一代。
“保持信仰，把它带回来，”他劝诫道。“请吧。这是你的。把它拿回去。我们需要你。”
拜登还提到了最近的大规模枪击事件:周二，德克萨斯州乌瓦尔迪的一所小学有19名儿童和两名教师被杀，5月14日，一名宣扬种族仇恨的枪手在纽约布法罗的一家超市杀害了10名黑人。
“暴力太多了。太多的恐惧。太多的悲伤，”拜登在他的毕业演讲中说。“让我们明确一点:邪恶来到了德克萨斯州的小学教室，来到了纽约的杂货店，来到了太多无辜者死去的地方。”
总统说，“我知道我们不能取缔悲剧，但我们可以让美国更安全。”他呼吁“所有美国人在这个时刻携起手来，让你们的声音被听到，共同努力，让这个国家成为它能够成为和应该成为的样子。”
拜登在发表讲话前被授予大学杰出奖章。他曾于2004年获得荣誉学位。
拜登1965年从大学毕业，获得历史和政治学双学位，在成为副总统之前，他在特拉华州担任了30多年的参议员。这是他在这所大学的第五次毕业演讲，这所大学的公共政策与管理学院以他的名字命名。他还在1978年、1987年、2004年和2014年对毕业生发表了演讲。他的妹妹瓦莱丽·拜登·欧文斯和妻子第一夫人吉尔·拜登也毕业于该大学。
“这感觉就像回家一样，因为这就是家，”拜登说，反映出“我生命中最美好和最重要的几年都是在这里度过的。”
Biden tells Delaware grads to step up, 'now it's your hour'
NEWARK, Del. --PresidentJoe Bidentold graduates Saturday at his alma mater, the University of Delaware, that “now it's your hour,” as he encouraged young people in the United States to help the country live up to its ideals.
Speaking to more than 6,000 graduates, and with the nation mourning victims of two mass shootings in as many weeks. Biden lamented the division and hatred in the country he governs. He bemoaned a “crisis of faith” in U.S. institutions and he pressed graduates to work to bind up the country's wounds.
“Your generation, more than anyone else will have to answer the question, Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we believe? Who will we be?" Biden said. “You can make the difference, you can lift the country up, you can meet the challenges of our time."
“There’s one message I hope you take from me today: This is no time to be on the sidelines,” he added. “We need all of you to get engaged in public life and the life of this nation.”
Biden told graduates to remember that “democracy is a human enterprise.”
“We do many things well,” the president said. “Sometimes we fall short. That’s true in our own lives. It’s true in the life of the nation. And yet democracy makes progress possible. And progress comes when we begin to see each other again not as enemies but as neighbors.’"
Biden spoke of the country's bitter division overVietnamin the 1960s and the grief that followed the killings of “heroes” — two Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr. But through those tumultuous times came progress on civil rights and voting rights, for example, the president said.
“Well, now it’s your hour. The challenges are immense, foreign and domestic, but so are the possibilities. … Everything is possible in America,’’ he said. ”This is a decisive decade for America at a time when we can choose the future we want, at a time when we must decide that darkness will not prevail over light.’
The president said this year's graduates have a head start, representing a generation that “is the most generous, the most tolerant, the least prejudiced, the best educated” in American history.
“Keep the faith and take it back," he exhorted. “Please. This is yours. Take it back. We need you.”
Biden also referred to the recent mass shootings: 19 children and two teachers were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, and on May 14, a gunman espousing racist hatred killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
“Too much violence. Too much fear. Too much grief,” Biden said in his graduation speech. “Let’s be clear: Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died.”
The president said that "we cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer." He called on “all Americans at this hour to join hands and make your voices heard, to work together to make this nation what it can and should be. ”
Biden was presented with the university's medal of distinction before his remarks. He had previously received an honorary degree in 2004.
Biden, who graduated from the university in 1965 with a double major in history and political science, served as a senator in Delaware for more than 30 years before becoming vice president. It was his fifth commencement address at the university, where the school of public policy and administration bears his name. He also spoke to graduates in 1978, 1987, 2004 and 2014. His sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, also graduated from the university.
“It feels like coming home because this is home," Biden said, reflecting that “Some of the best and most important years of my life were spent here.”
