A Few Words About Your Duties...

Since we are, sadly, in the middle of another Presidential campaign I thought it might be nice to quote from five extraordinary men and their most famous speeches. I think you will see a link between all of them.... '' Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that a nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-- we can not consecrate-- we can not hallow-- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consegrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last measure of devotion-- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth''--- Abraham Lincoln, ''The Gettysburg Address'', November 19, 1863.....'' But, as you already know your rights and privileges so well, I am going to ask you to excuse me if I say a few words to you about your duties. Much has been given to us... And we must take heed to use the gifts entrusted to our care. It is not what we have that will make us a great nation, it is the way in which we use it. I do not undervalue for a moment our material prosperity, like all Americans, I like big things. Big prairies, big forests and mountains, big wheat fields, railroads and big factories, steamboats, and everything else. But we must keep steadfastly in mind that no people were ever yet benefitted by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue.''--- Theodore Roosevelt, July 4, 1886..... ''What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace-- the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living-- the kind that enables man and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children-- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women-- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all of the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by the wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations unborn. Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles-- which can only destroy and never create--- is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace. I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war-- and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.... Our problems are manmade-- therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.... So, lets not be blind to our differences--- but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breath the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal''----- President John F Kennedy, American University, June 10, 1963.... ''Hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be heard, to share in the decisions of government which shape men's lives. Everything that makes man's life worthwhile-- family, work, education, a place to rear one's children and a place to rest one's head-- all this depends on decisions of government, all can be swept away by government which does not heed the demands of its people. Therefore, the essential humanity of men can be protected and preserved only where government must answer-- not just to the wealthy, not just to those of a particular religion, or a particular race, but to all its people. And even government by the consent of the governed, as in our Constitution, must be limited in its power to act against its people, so that there may be no interference with the right to worship, or with the security of the home, no arbitrary imposition of pains and penalties by officials high or low, no restrictions on the freedom of men to seek education or work or opportunity of any kind, so that each man may become all he is capable of becoming... I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ' We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.... And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ' Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' ''- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, ''The March On Washington, August 28, 1963... '' It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance... But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.... Some men see things as they are and say 'Why?'... I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?' ''---- Robert Kennedy, ''Day Of Affirmation Speech'', June 6, 1966...... And, so, those are the words. The men who spoke them were not saints-- notice that they say '' men '' in these speeches, but, not ''women''. However, the overall feeling of these speeches is of human understanding. As we follow the tragic comedy of the upcoming Presidential election it is nice to remember that there were giants who walked among us at one time. Brilliant men who preached peace. Brilliant men who preached togetherness of human beings. Brilliant men who wanted a better, non-violent world. That is the link of all of them..... Oh, and one more link, ---- all were shot not many years after these speeches. Roosevelt survived, but, the other four went down in death to violence......