(no subject)
Nov. 15th, 2004 02:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
benchiladaAh, thank you, Scott Mann, for the bit that follows...
CURRENT MUSIC: "Stand By Me" -- Anita Mui
> The New Frontier:
>
> “I think the American people expect more from us than cries of
> indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge
> too urgent, and the stakes too high—to permit the customary
> passions of political debate.
>
> We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle
> that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.
>
> Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is
> changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
>
> Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and
> more terrible weapons—new and uncertain nations—new pressures
> of population and deprivation. One-third of the world, it has
> been said, may be free—but one-third is the victim of cruel
> repression—and the other one-third is rocked by the pangs of
> poverty, hunger, and envy. More energy is released by the
> awaking of these new nations than the fission of the atom itself.
>
> The world has been close to war before—but now man, who has
> survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into
> his mortal hands the power to exterminate the entire species
> some seven times over.
>
> An urban population explosion has overcrowded our schools,
> cluttered up our suburbs, and increased squalor of our slums.
>
> A peaceful revolution for human rights—demanding an end to
> racial discrimination in all parts of our community life—has
> strained at the leashes imposed by timid executive leadership.
>
> There has also been a change—a slippage—in our intellectual
> and moral strength. Lean years of drought and famine have
> withered a field of ideas. Blight has descended on our
> regulatory agencies—and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is
> seeping into every corner of America—in the payola mentality,
> the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is
> legal and what is right.
>
> Too many Americans have lost their way, their will, and their
> sense of historic purpose.
>
> I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last
> frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles
> behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their
> comfort, and sometimes their lives to build a new world here
> in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts,
> the prisoners of their own price tags.
>
> Their motto was not “every man for himself”—but “all for the
> common cause.” They were determined to make that new world
> strong and free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to
> conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
>
> Today some would say that those struggles are all over—that
> all the horizons have been explored—that all the battles have
> been won—that there is no longer an American frontier.
>
> The problems are not all solved and the battles are not all
> won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—a
> frontier of unknown opportunities and perils—a frontier of
> unfulfilled hopes and threats.
>
> The New frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it
> is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer
> the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It
> appeals to their pride, not their pocketbook—it holds out the
> promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
>
> But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or
> not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science
> and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered
> pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of
> poverty and surplus.
>
> I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier.
> My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age—to all who
> respond to the Scriptural call: “be strong and of good
> courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
>
> For courage—not complacency—is our need today—leadership—not
> salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the
> ability to lead, and lead vigorously.
>
> Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That
> is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we
> carry through in an age where we will witness not only new
> breakthroughs in weapons of destruction—but also a race for
> the mastery of the sky and the rain, the oceans and the tides,
> the far side of space and the insides of men’s minds?
>
> Are we up to the task—are we equal to the challenge? Or must
> we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present?
>
> That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice
> our nation must make—between the public interest and private
> comfort—between national greatness and national
> decline—between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank
> atmosphere of “normalcy”—between determined dedication and
> creeping mediocrity.
>
> All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to
> see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust. We cannot
> fail to try.”
>
> John F. Kennedy
CURRENT MUSIC: "Stand By Me" -- Anita Mui
> The New Frontier:
>
> “I think the American people expect more from us than cries of
> indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge
> too urgent, and the stakes too high—to permit the customary
> passions of political debate.
>
> We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle
> that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.
>
> Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is
> changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
>
> Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and
> more terrible weapons—new and uncertain nations—new pressures
> of population and deprivation. One-third of the world, it has
> been said, may be free—but one-third is the victim of cruel
> repression—and the other one-third is rocked by the pangs of
> poverty, hunger, and envy. More energy is released by the
> awaking of these new nations than the fission of the atom itself.
>
> The world has been close to war before—but now man, who has
> survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into
> his mortal hands the power to exterminate the entire species
> some seven times over.
>
> An urban population explosion has overcrowded our schools,
> cluttered up our suburbs, and increased squalor of our slums.
>
> A peaceful revolution for human rights—demanding an end to
> racial discrimination in all parts of our community life—has
> strained at the leashes imposed by timid executive leadership.
>
> There has also been a change—a slippage—in our intellectual
> and moral strength. Lean years of drought and famine have
> withered a field of ideas. Blight has descended on our
> regulatory agencies—and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is
> seeping into every corner of America—in the payola mentality,
> the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is
> legal and what is right.
>
> Too many Americans have lost their way, their will, and their
> sense of historic purpose.
>
> I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last
> frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles
> behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their
> comfort, and sometimes their lives to build a new world here
> in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts,
> the prisoners of their own price tags.
>
> Their motto was not “every man for himself”—but “all for the
> common cause.” They were determined to make that new world
> strong and free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to
> conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
>
> Today some would say that those struggles are all over—that
> all the horizons have been explored—that all the battles have
> been won—that there is no longer an American frontier.
>
> The problems are not all solved and the battles are not all
> won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—a
> frontier of unknown opportunities and perils—a frontier of
> unfulfilled hopes and threats.
>
> The New frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it
> is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer
> the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It
> appeals to their pride, not their pocketbook—it holds out the
> promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
>
> But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or
> not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science
> and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered
> pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of
> poverty and surplus.
>
> I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier.
> My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age—to all who
> respond to the Scriptural call: “be strong and of good
> courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
>
> For courage—not complacency—is our need today—leadership—not
> salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the
> ability to lead, and lead vigorously.
>
> Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That
> is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we
> carry through in an age where we will witness not only new
> breakthroughs in weapons of destruction—but also a race for
> the mastery of the sky and the rain, the oceans and the tides,
> the far side of space and the insides of men’s minds?
>
> Are we up to the task—are we equal to the challenge? Or must
> we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present?
>
> That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice
> our nation must make—between the public interest and private
> comfort—between national greatness and national
> decline—between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank
> atmosphere of “normalcy”—between determined dedication and
> creeping mediocrity.
>
> All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to
> see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust. We cannot
> fail to try.”
>
> John F. Kennedy
