The following is excerpted from remarks made by Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid at the recent 19th annual Francis Wayland Parker Scholar Awards banquet in Manchester:

It should be a lesson to the students here tonight that expanding your horizons is a good thing.

It is not just good for you, however. I love New Hampshire. I think it is a special place and it will stay that way only if the best and brightest of succeeding generations work to keep it that way.

That doesn't mean you all have to come back after college and be the governor or the mayor. But you might. Or you might start or build a business that contributes to the economy. You might be a doctor or a banker or a craftsman or a police officer or even a teacher.

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you will add to the fabric of this state because you will have first increased your own knowledge and gained a better understanding of what I mean when I say New Hampshire is a special place.

We live in a great country but it has immense challenges. We are leaving you with a huge pile of debts and, in some respects, without a clear sense of why America is special. My hope is that you will help us rediscover that clear sense.

I spoke with a friend recently who was going to New York City to address some state attorneys general. Among their speakers is Eliot Spitzer.

Eliot Spitzer is a disgrace, a man who was governor of New York and who was forced to resign for what used to be called moral turpitude. His punishment? A national TV show and speaking engagements.

This is an example of what is going wrong with America, where wrong is either overlooked or even rewarded.

From the sports world, we have coaches and players for the New Orleans Saints being paid extra to seriously injure other players. They are being punished, but how did we get to a place in America where such things were allowed to happen?

On the other hand, this afternoon I was in Concord for our annual Heroes Awards program. There I met people who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives to save others, sometimes total strangers, sometimes loved ones.

To quote the Bible, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

We need to learn, re-learn, and repeat the Golden Rule and the 10 Commandments and simple principles of honor and integrity if we are to save this country, which was founded and has flourished like no other because of those principles.

Not to put any pressure on you students here tonight, but it's going to be up to young people just like you to do it. Good luck and God speed.