Today was Commencement at Grove City College where I teach psychology. We had a super graduating class of Seniors who are going to do great things in their professions and graduate schools around the world. It was a good day for them, even with all of the extra security measures designed to keep us and Vice President Pence safe. My appreciation goes out to the secret service and other law enforcement agencies who participated.
Vice President Pence gave a motivational speech with the theme of leadership. He exhorted the graduates to be leaders. Then, contrary to what I thought his speech was going to be about, he invoked Donald Trump. Watch:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/DEM68v9NPO8[/youtube]
Transcript:
You know, you need to look no further than a friend of mine as an example of leadership and perseverance. The 45th president of the United States of America, President Donald Trump.
Since the first day of our administration, and in the great tradition of this college, our president has been freeing the American economy by rolling back the hand of big government, he’s been expanding educational choice opportunities to some of our most disadvantaged children. He’s been rebuilding our military, restoring safety to our streets and I can’t tell you how proud I am to be Vice President to a President who stands without apology for the sanctity of life and all of the God given liberties in the Constitution of the United States.
And as the president said just about a week ago in a ceremony just like this, and I quote, ‘nothing worth doing ever came easy, following your convictions,’ he added, ‘means you must be willing to face criticism from those who lack the courage to do what’s right.’ So I say to all the graduates here today, don’t fear criticism. Have the humility to listen to it, learn from it, and most importantly, push through it.
I am not going to editorialize much; I think this speaks for itself. I also trust our graduates to compare what was said today with what they have been taught over the past four years and choose well.
The entire speech has been posted on Youtube:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8-S-EDuYd4[/youtube]