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Speech to be Delivered at
JOINT CIVIC CLUB LUNCHEO): FOR
DISTINGUISHED CITIZBDI SERVICE AWKRD FOR 1970
At Johnson's neSteurant. Blant Cit]. Florida
Rednesdaz. Aarch 4. 1970
I am flattered to have been asked to speak on this
occasion when you pay honor to one of your number for the
quality of his life. There i; a great deal of discussion
about the "quality of life". and for the most part in using
that phrase we refer to man's environment: but the quality
of life is really a dividend of man's spirit. and I honor
You are saying by this annual ritual in the midst of
your strawberry festival that what really gives life meaning.
what really turns you on. what really is relevant in your life-
style. is not the qualities of your strawberries. but the quali-
ties of life as exemplified in this one life you have singled
out to honor.
If the world really wants to understand middle America.
if the dissidents really want to tune in" before they "freak
out". this is what they better listen to. for this is "where it's
at". If they want to conduct a sit-in. they had better sit
around these walls and listen to middle America hold up its
own ideals b/ honoring one man who best typifies them. and the
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generation gap will narrow, and maybe even close.
It's so important that you conduct these annual rites:
The vain: system which characterizes this nation:
The political principals which guide this nation:
The ideals which inspire this nation..
are not to be taken for granted.
They have been purchased at a dear price:
They are the product of countless trials and errors:
They are a good heritage..
And it is right that we should stop now and then to reflect
on these grecious qualities.
The unique qualities of America are not her strawberries.
nor her tomatoes, nor her oranges ..
but her commitment to freedom and dignity, and her constant
search for excellence.
Neither of these is a static concept. They grow. and
growth is change. For a nation, as for a man, where you are
is never a; important as where you're going.
A few years ago I was flying from Washington to Cape
Canaveral in the company of Walt Rostow, a distinguished
scholar who served as a special advisor to President Kennedy.
The discunsion was dsout America's decision to put men on the
moon in the 62's. Hr. Rostow pointed out that thih decision.
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was made like many really great American decisions:
we didn't really know here we were in the space race
with the Russians:
We didn't know how we were going to get to the moon:
we just settled on the highest goal of which we could
at that time conceive. committed ourselves to it, and set
off into the unknown.
That was in the tradition which opened up the frontiers of
thin nation. of Lindberg's flight across the ocean. and Byrd's
trip to the Antarctic.
Becau;e Sresident Kennedy set that high purpose. that
unattainable goal. the peogle of Florida themselves began
to reach for a star. In that very summer of 1961. with
little more substantial to zupport us than the inspiration
of that great national endeavor. the State scraped together
$25 million to start Florida's higher education moving.
Because of the inspiration of that high purpose we approved
a $300 million bond ieeue which is still being need to build
the univeri;ite1. junior colleges and technical schoola of
this state. The fallomt. not from fedeai aid, but from
President Kennedy's high purpose changed the history of Florida
and the ve; of thousands of its children -- and thats true
whether or not we had over reached the moon.
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I recall listening one night to General James Gavin at a
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dinner here in Florida when he first suggested a Peace Corps.
He recognized that young Avericans today. as always. resQOnd
best to same challenge the: cells for their total cemmitment --
that sets them on a journey with only the stars as their guide.
Today thOusands of these Americans are experiencing hardship
and lonlinews -- and fulfillment -- in many countries around
the globe because their nation called them to a high goal.
But the young have no monopoly on great adventures.
. All America. old and young, have made many new commit-
ments they don't know how to fulfill -- only that they must.
We are committed to the proposition that no child shall
be crippled if our national resources can make him whole.
It began to form at meetings like this. where civic clubs pooled
their funds to send acme helpless child to the finest hospital
and doctor they could find -- and than is no one in this room who
hasn't participated.
we are commited to the grapesition that no older person.
whom age or misfortune has robbed. shall live out his life in
lonliness and govertg. if we have the national resources to
prevent it. There are many things about the welfare program that
make us unhappy. but helping old people isn't one of them.
we are developing a commitment to the proposition that
this beautiful earth which God has given us for an inheritance
shall not be deserated b1 our carelessness orfgraed. Like our.
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decision to go to the moon. we dont know {at how to do it.
nor how the price is to be paid. but we have fixed on our
goal and we will achieve it.
I am sure no one in Florida had the remotest idea that we
could absorb hundreds of thousands of Cuban: as they fled from
Castro. But wr have: And still they come. Xow we take it
for granted. but trul/ Ploridlan¢ have written a shining chapter
in the histozl of freedom. and are ttill writing.
.we have dncied to bring the advantages of medical science
to the discaaed and the disabled. In a nation which began with
a commitment that no American should be imprisoned for debt,
nor without duo process. nor because of excessive bail. there
is gradually forming a commitment that no American shall be
imprisoned becnvle of disease if it is in the power of his
fellows to free him.
we have incided to give every child the opportunity to learn
and to develop to his full potential. It was Thomas Jefferaon.
not uey Long. Who first conceived that every American should
be a King, but it may be given to this generation to achieve
that goal.
It is natural and right that we should be repulsed b{ the
violent confrontations that radicals create as they try to sub-
vert our government. but we cannot and should not recoil or
retreat from the revolutionary spirit of these times. The
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values that we cherish are not 332123: forms. but 9:9:331
rights. Cur commitment 13 mat to anzien: forms. but to
eternal righta, and it hzs beam the genius of American society
that we han bzcn able to change thc forms ~h11e we enlarge
the rights. :& have been able to take the pragmatirm of
social and c:cnomic reform and fit it into the idealism of
political refcrm.
These commitment: form the other part of freedom -- they
They make a unique and special
are freeay obligations,
nation an: of the Amrican people.
Nb mau haw aescribcd anericanisn more aptly than DeTocqueville.
who as he narvallvd at our laboratory of liberty more than a
Century ago, 13 in thin "land of wonders a place where:
"so natural bonndry seam; to be set to the effort;
of man: and in his ages what 11 not yet done is only
what he has not yet attempted to do.
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