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ELECTIONS
Biden spoke at Marshall's commencement in 1979
*** FILE *** U.S. Sen Joe Biden, D-Del., talks about his foreign policy positions at the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire at Southern New Hampshire University, in Manchester, N.H., in this Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006 file photo. Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with an older congressional veteran well-versed in foreign and defense issues. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, FILE)
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Likely Democratic Vice President nominee Joe Biden is no stranger to Huntington.
The longtime senator was the Marshall University commencement speaker in 1979 at the then-Huntington Civic Arena. Biden was joined at the ceremony by the late U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W.Va., Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and former Marshall President Robert B. Hayes.
Biden told the 1,900 graduates to be optimistic.
"Please care. Please dream. Please be involved. Please," he said.
"As this graduating class has grown into adulthood, the drummers of despair in this nation have come to monopolize our national dialogue," he said. "Optimism, hope, trust -- the lifeblood of a free society -- has been replaced in a large part by the doom and suspicion which exists in so many minds today."
He also said students were heading into a difficult time.
"And now for you, the graduating seniors today, things are not nearly as idyllic as they were two decades ago nor as embattled as they were 10 years ago.
"I believe the real test of this generation is whether or not we develop that maturity of which I think there are signs beginning to be shown -- whether or not we can be mature enough to strike a balance between the realism that has come upon us in the last 20 years and that idealism that we have seemed to have lost, but which has always been the moral basis of our national existence and upon which we have conducted our national affairs."
