UF00083774_00002.pdf

UF00083774_00002.txt

UF00083774_00002_pdf.txt

ADDRESS TO FLORIDA SOUTEBRH COLLEGE

Fe r ar 14 1968

I am glad for the privilege of being here today.
At an institution so blessed by leadership
and so rich in promise:
On an occasion so full of sentiment and
thanksgiving:
With President Thrift. who has done so much
with the talents entrusted to him. and with
his colleagues and admirers. Indeed. I never
visit Florida Southern without experiencing
a renewal of faith in our country -- our
church and our future.
It is tempting to spend these few minutes indulging in
the satisfaction of looking back: of recounting the victories --
and the failures which became victories -- which are the history
of this institution: of trying to verbalise my affection, admira-

tion, and appreciation tor Dr. Thrift and are. Thrift.

This is Valentine's Day. Ycu are our Valentines. We

shall try to match your leadership with our follouship.

-2-
. And this is also a time for looking ahead. In the long
upward climb from ignorance we have not yet arrived at a point
where we can rest on our laurels. This institution -- this
nation -- has a long way to go.

Paradoxically, we have further to go now to achieve our
institutional and national goals than ever before in history.
not because we have achieved so little but because we demand
so much. One of the frustrating characteristics of progress is

that it never satisfies.

Some statesmen have called the turbulence in our society
and around the world a revolution of rising expectations,

. intending by this to include principally the poor and less

privileged who are confronted by television and radio with
new visions of what might be. But that revolution is not
confined to the poor. Expanding horizOns are products of
expanding knowledge. and the greatest expansion is among
those who already have a broad base of knowledge.

In my boyhood a familiar saying was, Them as has, gits.
Thats true of knowledge. too. Just as it is easy for wealthy
people to make money it is easy for wise people to learn. And
to grow in knowledge is to grow in demands -- on yourself, and

on the world.

-3-

One of the interesting things which public Opinion polls
repeatedly reveal is that there is a remarkable similarity of
attitudes on many subjects by the best educated and the least
educated. I can't really conclude why that is so. unless it
is that the fellow in the middle. mentally -- the mental
middle class -- is tied to the status quo, while those
who have little, and those who have much. demand a change.

Be that as it may. almost all Americans are dissatisfied.

Is there an American parent who doesn't demand for his
child today the opportunity for a college education? What a
short time that has been true.

Is there an American who doesn't demand that his country
explore the mysteries of space? How few years ago president
Kennedy started us on that quest.

was there ever before in our history a time when Americans
were willing to send 1% million of their young men around the
world in search of an orderly and just society?

Was there ever a time when the church was more dissatisfied
with the role it plays?

Has this nation ever before committed itself to the abolition
of poverty? Have the people of America ever before insisted
that part of its wealth be spent to see that every child has a
good basic education, a sound body, free from crippling disabilities

and properly nourished? Has any nation. at any time, set

beauty as a national goal?

Let me tell you what you already know: That the young
people in Florida Southern and in all the other institutions
from Amherst to Yenkton are not satisfied with the world as
it is -- and I thank God for it.

We have more freedom. more power, more education, more
wealth, better health. than any other people at any other
time or place -- but it is not enough. This pinnacle that
we have reached merely pushes our horizons farther away.

80 this sweet moment, when we gather to express our regard for
Dr. Thrift and all he has done, is an appropriate moment for
reflecting upon our world. upon its values. its conflicts, its
promise and upon the place and part of tlorida Southern in the
whole vast scheme.

Our nation is going through such a period of reflection. At
Punta del late, at Saigon. at Detroit -- in the stock market, on
the streets, in colleges across the land, in the minds of young
people everywhere.

What do we seek? What is the common denominator which gives
some order to our turbulence or at least makes it rational.

A few years ago a theme that ran through uost of my speeches
and thoughts was the influence in our society of the force of
change -- Accelerating, regenerating change. changes in science..

and economics.. and politics! Yes, and in religion!



-5-

The world is caught up by this force. Whether ignorant
or learned. rich or poor, black or white, we are caught
up in the paroxysm of change. We want to be part of it --
we demand that this change he progress for us. for our
nation, for our children.

Such a short time ago the great bulk of mankind was
committed to the status quo. The carpenter wanted his
son to he a carpenter: the storekeeper wanted his son to
go into the store: the farmer wanted his boy to take
over the family farm.

But the status quo is no longer precious. It is change --
progress -- new horizons -- bigger faster -- better --
that characterizes this age.

In a world committed to the status quo, with its leisurely
and comfortable evolution from one stage to the next, there
was a time to gather around the pot bellied stove to discuss
the few changes that the next decade might bring, time to
debate pros and cons of different courses of action. But in
this day in which intercontinental missiles and transplanted
hearts are only a little unusual -- in which the great
antagonist is changing conditions for which we are not
prepared our world is in ferment because we are not

prepared to live with change. We need not just a hot line

to Moscow, to deal with change in the minds of a few men:

-6-

we need a vision of tomorrow. A world of change. where
today is yesterday's tomorrow and tomorrow has dawned
before the sun has set today. can be mastered only by
a mind which has already assessed today's failures and
achievements and grappled with tomorrow's.

That is why Florida Southern is so precious to the
world. Knowledge is not moral. It can be used to
kill or cure. And change is not moral. It can be
destructive or divine. Knowledge in the possession of
Christian young peOple can be the force that shapes
tomorrow.

Our one resource other than the Love of God is the

educated mind. stimulated by educated leadership and committed

to enabling man to live abundantly in this new environment.

nan lives today on an escalator.
He goes to sleep in one world and wakes up in another.

He graduates from college in one world but the worlds in

which he must live are far different -- and always changing.

Life's targets are no longer bull's eyes, but bird's eyes.

and the birds are in flight.

For today is yesterday's tomorrow and tomorrow has already

dawned.






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