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We are a people in a quandry about the
present. We are a people in search of our future.
We are a people in search of a national
community....
We believe that the people are the source of
all governmental power; that the authority of
the people is to be extended, not restricted. This
can be accomplished only by providing each
citizen with every opportunity to participate in
the management of the government. They must
have that.
We believe that the government which represents the authority of all the people, not just
one interest group, but all the people, has an obligation to actively underscore, actively seek to
remove those obstacles which would block
individual achievement... obstacles emanating
from race, sex, economic condition. The government must seek to remove them....
This, my friends, is the bedrock of our concept of governing....These are the
foundations upon which a national community
can be built.
Let’s all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is
all about. They are indigenous to the American
idea. And these are principles which are not
negotiable...
And now we must look to the future... If
we do not, we not only blaspheme our political
heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind
all Americans.
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Many fear the future. Many are distrustful
of their leaders, and believe that their voices
are never heard. Many seek only to satisfy
their private work wants. To satisfy private
interests.
But this is the great danger America faces.
That we will cease to be one nation and
become instead a collection of interest groups;
city against suburb, region against region,
individual against individual. Each seeking to
satisfy private wants....
For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee
the future. We must not become the new
puritans and reject our society. We must
address and master the future together. It can
be done if we restore the belief that we share a
sense of national community....
[W]e must define the common good and
begin again to shape a common good and
begin again to shape a common future. Let
each person do his or her part....
Let there be no illusions about the
difficulty of forming this kind of a national
community.... But a spirit of harmony will
survive in America only if each of us
remembers that we share a common destiny. If
each of us remembers when self-interest and
bitterness seem to prevail, that we share a
common destiny.
I have confidence that we can form this
kind of national community.
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