Editor, Gazette-Journal: I’m pretty sure it was exactly 40 years ago that a young lawyer walked into my office in Richmond and offered legal representation to victims of housing discrimination. His name was Tim Kaine, he said, and he had just graduated from law school. Over the years, many young lawyers walked into my office and announced their commitment to civil rights, only to discover that the demands of the new jobs and the bills they had to pay made those intentions hard, even impossible, to realize. But there was something different about Tim Kaine. He had already interrupted law school for a year of charity work in Honduras for his church. Before accepting the job in Richmond, he had the foresight to obtain permission to pursue cases that mattered to him personally. He also spoke with an insight and empathy for others that seemed far beyond his years. Over the next 20 years, Tim and I crossed paths many times, as he litigated civil rights cases and donated his services to peopl...