You may be familiar with the story. It is as wonderful as it is true. A successful businessman was invited, over 30 years ago, to give a commencement address to a group of 61 sixth graders. The youngsters were about to graduate from an elementary school in a very poor part of one of our major cities.

If these boys and girls followed in the footsteps of the school's other alumni/ae, only about six or seven of them would graduate from high school and it would be remarkable if any went on to college. The business executive began to gather his thoughts in order to compose the customary commencement address. You've heard it: the one that goes, "Work hard, keep your nose clean and your shoulder to the wheel and -- with a little bit of luck -- you can make it just as I did."

But the speech had …