Kaine to Grads: Be Humble and Give to Others

Kaine is not only a great Democrat, but a great Virginian, a great American, and a great man.  We are profoundly fortunate to have him as our Governor and a leading light in American politics today.

BLACKSBURG -- Gov. Timothy M. Kaine told nearly 3,600 graduating students at Virginia Tech last night that the best advice he could give them is to be humble and give to others.

Speaking at Tech's 134th commencement, held at Lane Stadium, Kaine said he received that advice when he was 22, and he has thought about it "virtually every day for the last 25 years."

"We all have to be humble," he said. "No matter how much we've done in life, or how many skills we have, none of us can do it by ourselves. We have been helped along the way by others, some of whom we know, like our parents and teachers, and some we don't, like those taxpayers all over Virginia whose taxes partly funded your schooling.

"We were helped yesterday, we are helped today, and we will be helped tomorrow. And help often comes from unexpected places."

More than 15,000 family and friends of the graduating seniors attended the ceremony. The university honored about 3,590 students who received their bachelor's degrees. Earlier in the day, about 1,150 graduate students received their degrees.

Kaine's appearance was part of a Virginia tradition in which first-year governors give the commencement address at Tech.

Almost the entirety of Kaine's speech was a recounting of his time in Honduras helping Catholic missionaries. Kaine had left Harvard Law School temporarily to do mission work, and he told the Tech students of how he once grew angry at a priest for accepting a gift of food from a destitute family.

The priest, Kaine said, told him "you have to be really humble to accept a gift of food from a poor person."

Kaine said the priest's words taught him a lesson in humility, and in the importance of giving.

"Everyone -- even a poor family in a most-isolated mountain village -- has the ability to give something," Kaine said. "And giving to someone else is the most noble and elevating thing about being human.

"If you organize your life around using your talents to the benefit of other people, and do what you can to encourage others to do the same thing," Kaine told the graduating seniors in conclusion, "you're going to have a very happy life."

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