United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley with Clemson board trustee E. Smith McKissick lll, left and Clemson President James Clements say the Pledge of Allegiance during the 2018 Commencement ceremony Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Clemson, S.C. Haley told students graduating from her alma mater in South Carolina that they should be thankful to live in America. Haley said in her Clemson University commencement speech Thursday that she had two “tips” to offer. One is to be wary of social media, which she says creates envy and destroys being gracious. The other: “Be thankful to live in America in 2018.” (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)
Republished May 10, 2018 - 2:37 PM
Original Publication Date May 10, 2018 - 1:26 PM
CLEMSON, S.C. - UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says today's college graduates should be grateful to live in America.
"As a country we are experiencing something of a gratitude crisis today," Haley said in her commencement address Thursday at Clemson University.
Haley, who was South Carolina's governor before President Donald Trump appointed her UN Ambassador, offered two tips for living a life of what she called "active gratitude."
First: Beware of social media. She said it makes people obsess with what they don't have as others post their fake lives.
Second: "Be thankful to be alive in America in 2018. Every day at the United Nations, I deal with nations where people are not free," Haley said.
"It is not that the United States is perfect. We're not. But we have been given a great set of tools -- freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights -- with which we can create a more perfect union."
Haley, who graduated as an accounting major in 1994, expressed pride that her daughter, Rena, will be studying nursing at Clemson.
And she joked that her parents, who immigrated from India, would be proud to call her "doctor," now that she's received an honorary doctorate of humanities degree.
"This one is fancier," she said, "but I have to say I worked a lot harder for the first one."
News from © The Associated Press, 2018