Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) delivered the following remarks at the Graduate School commencement speech at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, on Friday, December 12, 2008.

 

Thank you.  I’m very grateful to have been invited to share your celebration with you, and join in the congratulations to the Texas Tech University Graduate School Class of 2008.  You’ve earned the congratulations and praise you enjoy today.  All of you have succeeded in a demanding course of instruction.  Life seems full of promise as is always the case when a passage in life is marked by significant accomplishment. And, today, it might seem as if the world attends you.

 

But as I often do on such occasions, I ask you to spare a moment for those who have truly attended you so well for so long, and whose pride in your accomplishments is even greater than your own, your parents. When the world was looking elsewhere, their attention was one of life's certainties. As I commend the Class of 2008, I offer equal praise to your parents for the sacrifices they made for you, for their confidence in you and their love. More than any other influence in your lives they have helped make you the success you are today and might become tomorrow.

 

As you know, I recently concluded a political campaign that didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped.  Nevertheless, it was an honor to be nominated by my party for the highest public office in the greatest country on earth, and I am grateful to have had the privilege.  In the course of two long years, I had a great many experiences I would have never otherwise enjoyed.  Not all of them were ones I’d care to repeat, but most were memorably rewarding, and quite often inspiring, and I will remember them with fond appreciation for the rest of my life.

 

It is, of course, one of the chief responsibilities of a presidential candidate to speak incessantly on a broad variety of subjects to anyone who will spare a little time to listen or, at least, pretend to.  I cannot imagine there are many people in this country who escaped the reach of my rhetoric, or many who would welcome another dose of it.  But here you all sit, politely, listening to a politician, whom you might or might not have supported, give yet another speech, when the thought has probably crossed your minds that, given the election’s outcome, I might be better off just shutting up for a while.  It’s a great country, isn’t it?  You might respond that your patience is involuntary; my presence came with your diploma.  But I appreciate the courtesy, nevertheless.

 

As you will probably understand, I had some difficulty imagining what I could say to you today that might sound original and provocative after having delivered thousands of speeches in the course of a long career, quite a few of them at commencements like this, and commandeering countless hours on public airwaves to unburden myself of thoughts, comments and insights on every conceivable topic known to man, some of which, no doubt, made some sense and, some of which, might have made no sense at all.  And after hours of careful consideration, I gave up.  Instead, I decided to return to a topic I’ve never tired of, and has been the object of my affection and the subject of my service for a half century: our country.

 

In appreciation for your courtesy and in deference to your eagerness to commence the other activities of the day that should prove more enjoyable than listening to me, I promise to be brief.

 

I just returned this week from a trip overseas to countries very different and less fortunate than ours; an experience I found inspiring.  In Iraq and Afghanistan, I had reason to marvel again at the courage and patriotism of American servicemen and women.  In the former, the progress we have made from the days when failure seemed almost inescapable is astonishing, and I am very encouraged that the end of our difficult, costly mission there is, if not imminent, within sight, though our success will still depend upon the perseverance, bravery and professionalism of our soldiers, and their commandeers.  In the latter, we face a longer road, and one that will probably become more difficult, and more costly, before it gets any easier.  But, again, we can count on the courage and skill of Americans who risk their lives in that distant and difficult country to see it through to a successful conclusion, if their civilian commanders order it.

 

I briefly visited several other countries on my trip, two of which reaffirmed in different ways my faith in the wisdom inherent in our Constitution and the power of our enduring democratic example to the world, a power that persists even when popular majorities in other countries disparage American statecraft or commerce or culture.  I went to India just after the terrible attacks in Mumbai.  And I was struck, not for the first time, by how offensive and alien it is to American values even to consider slaughtering innocent lives over sectarian or cultural differences.  Religious differences among Americans might sometimes lead some to make intemperate comments or act insensitively to others, but the idea of resorting to terrorism to prosecute those differences is, blessedly, inconceivable to all but a very few mentally instable souls.  It is not chauvinistic or false to claim, without any embarrassment, we are better than that.  We are not only governed by a Constitution that forbids such depravity.  We are the heirs of generations of practice and improvement of the principles of our democracy.  They are the habits of our hearts and minds.  We could live no other way.

 

The other country that encouraged my appreciation for our own is Bhutan, a small, isolated, and landlocked nation in the Himalayas, which until recently had little experience of modernity.  Bhutan had been governed for many years by kings who possessed absolute power.  In 1998, the reigning monarch, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, freely gave many of his powers to a council of ministers, and gave Bhutan’s national assembly the power to impeach him.  Not long after that, he lifted the national ban on television and the internet.  Three years ago, he introduced a constitution that would make Bhutan a constitutional monarchy, with elections and all the attributes of democracy placed in the hands of his people.  But the people of Bhutan were quite pleased with their king, and weren’t as enthusiastic about governing themselves as you might have expected.  So the king campaigned throughout the country to encourage his subjects to ratify the proposed constitution, and take control of their own destiny.  They did, and after the election, the king abdicated.  It is a very touching and encouraging story, and I wish the people of Bhutan Godspeed in their new lives in freedom.

 

During my visit there, I had the opportunity to talk with people about their recent experiences with democracy.  And they were eager to talk with me about our recent election.  Like many people in other countries, they are intrigued by our new President-elect, and hopeful about the administration that will soon be inaugurated.  But the experience that seemed to intrigue them most about our election was that the loser, me, managed to concede defeat without promising violence to avenge the loss, or even betraying any bitterness about the outcome.  To you and to me, such a thing is unremarkable.  What was I supposed to do?  I lost.  But for people for whom majesty was so long invested in a single person and not the law, and who had never experienced the privilege of living in a country so long blessed with freedom, it is hard to understand that even those who are disappointed by a particular decision of a sovereign people can still accept with appreciation their judgment and their pride to have rendered it.

 

What a great country, indeed.  We are not a perfect nation. Our power and wealth might delude us into thinking we have achieved that distinction, but inequities and challenges unforeseen a mere generation ago command every good citizen's concern and labor. But what we have achieved in our brief history is irrefutable proof that a nation conceived in liberty, will prove stronger and more enduring than any nation ordered to exalt the few at the expense of the many or made from a common race or culture or to preserve traditions that have no greater attribute than longevity.

 

We have our disagreements, we Americans. We contend regularly and enthusiastically over many questions: over the size and purposes of our government; over the social responsibilities we accept in accord with the dictates of our conscience; over our role in the world and how to defend our security interests and values in places where they are threatened. These are important questions; worth arguing about. We should contend over them with one another. It is more than appropriate, it is necessary that even in times of crisis, especially in times of crisis, we fight among ourselves for the things we believe in. It is not just our right, but our civic and moral obligation.

 

But we deserve more than tolerance from one another, we deserve each other's respect, whether we think each other right or wrong in our views, as long as our character and sincerity merit respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the noisy debates that enliven our politics, a mutual devotion to the sublime idea that this nation was conceived in -- that freedom is the inalienable right of mankind, and in accord with the laws of nature and nature's Creator.

 

We have so much more that unites us than divides us. We need only to look to the enemies who now threaten us, and the benighted ideals to which violent extremists pledge allegiance -- their disdain for the rights of Man, their contempt for innocent human life -- to appreciate how much unites us.

 

As blessed as we are, no nation complacent in its greatness can long sustain it. We, too, must prove, as those who came before us proved, that a people free to act in their own interests, will perceive those interests in an enlightened way, will live as one nation, in a kinship of ideals, and make of our power and wealth a civilization for the ages, a civilization in which all people share in the promise and responsibilities of freedom.

 

Should we claim our rights and leave to others the duty to the ideals that protect them, whatever we gain for ourselves will be of little lasting value. It will build no monuments to virtue, claim no honored place in the memory of posterity, offer no worthy summons to the world. Success, wealth and celebrity gained and kept for private interest is a small thing. It makes us comfortable, eases the material hardships our children will bear, purchases a fleeting regard for our lives, yet not the self-respect that, in the end, matters most. But sacrifice for a cause greater than yourself, and you invest your life with the eminence of that cause, your self-respect assured.

 

All lives are a struggle against selfishness. I have often stood a little apart from institutions I willingly joined. It just felt natural to me. But if my life had shared no common purpose, it would not have amounted to much more than eccentricity. There is no honor or happiness in just being strong enough to be left alone. I have spent nearly fifty years in the service of this country and its ideals. I have made many mistakes, and I have many regrets. But I have never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I wasn’t grateful for the privilege.

 

When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest attainment, and all glory was self-glory. My parents tried to teach me otherwise, as did the Naval Academy. But I didn't understand the lesson until later in life, when I confronted challenges I never expected to face.

 

In that confrontation, I discovered that I was dependent on others to a greater extent than I had ever realized, but neither they nor the cause we served made any claims on my identity. On the contrary, they gave me a larger sense of myself than I had before. I discovered that nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone. Our cause was our country. And I have never found a better one.

 

Let us argue with each other then. By all means, let us argue. Our differences are not petty.  They often involve cherished beliefs, and represent our best judgment about what is right for our country and humanity. Let us defend those beliefs. Let's do so sincerely and strenuously. It is our right and duty to do so. Let us exercise our responsibilities as free people. But let us remember, we are not enemies. We are fellow Americans, and no association should mean more to us than that. We have nothing to fear from each other. We are arguing over the means to better secure our freedom, promote the general welfare and defend our ideals. It should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our conscience, and heed its demands; each of us, despite our differences, united in our great cause, and respectful of the goodness in each other. And when, in their wisdom, the people choose one argument over the other, let us lay aside for a time the differences we fought over, and stand together on the common ground of patriotism and work together to make this good nation, a stronger, better one than we inherited.  Thank you, very much.