“Peace is not just the absence of fighting; a phoenix does not rise out of the ashes of bomb craters or out of the wastelands of want. Peace — if it is to be lasting — must be based on economic prosperity coupled with justice.”
Our Quote of the Week links three crucial concepts for Sargent Shriver: prosperity, justice, and peace. With his words, he reminds us that achieving a peaceful, prosperous society requires daily efforts in multiple areas. Those efforts will have great payoffs: “Prosperity, like justice,” he said, “liberates creativity. It gives hope and incentive ... Prosperity with justice creates harmony between nations and removes the causes of war.”
Running as the Vice Presidential candidate on the George McGovern ticket, Sargent Shriver gave this speech towards the end of the 1972 Presidential campaign. He focused on the imbalances in domestic and foreign policies that were robbing Americans of a prosperous society. He pledged that a McGovern/Shriver administration would tackle trade imbalances caused by US protectionism and isolationism, and growing hostilities between the US and other countries that were being exacerbated by an out-of-control war in Vietnam, among other issues.
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