Humint Events Online: World Peace

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

World Peace

A speech by President John F. Kennedy.

What a RADICAL idea!

Try to listen to it, if you can, but here are the closing paragraphs:
Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our own society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives--as many of you who are graduating today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.

But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.

It is the responsibility of the executive branch at all levels of government--local, State, and National--to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.

All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights--the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation--the right to breathe air as nature provided it--the right of future generations to a healthy existence?

While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can--if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers--offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough--more than enough--of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on--not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

a very good post that stands out among your other very good posts!

""The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war.""

that is why there are now very convenient evil other bad guys causing the great moral force that is america to step in and mete out some moral justice.
poor america - we are simply left with no choice. right?

sorry if i spoil the moment by zeroing in on this aspect.
ha.

oh ya: the whole lot of you should fuck off.

12:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whirled peas! My fave!

Makes about as much sense as this blog.

8:47 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

"When I think of my brother John, I think of the poet Shakespeare when he said in Romeo and Juliet: When he shall die, take and cut him into little stars and he shall make the face of Heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish Sun".

RFK, at the 1964 Democratic Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey

10:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"How about that Marilyn Monroe, huh? What a rack on her! You know, Bobby, I might even try to sneak her into the White House for a quick bang! I can always have her killed and make it look like she died of a drug overdose if she tries to talk about it, so I'm not worried about any fucking reputation crap, ya know."

President John Kennedy to brother Bobby, Sept, 1961, Martha's Vineyard, MA

10:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"" Confident and unafraid, we labor on--not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.""

hooray for the ownership society!

1:24 PM  

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