Today, I’d like to talk about “miracles”. Of course I realize that many, maybe most, people in this modern, scientific world don’t believe in “miracles.” Maybe, many people here today, members of Civitan, don’t believe in “miracles”. But, friends, let me tell you that after a lifetime of experience in business, journalism, law, diplomacy, philanthropy, politics, and government I believe more in miracles than ever before in my whole life.
To me “Civitan” is a miracle. Yours was not the first fraternal, or civic, or benevolent organization started in the USA. Kiwanis and Rotary, The Odd Fellows, The Knights of Pythias, The Lions Clubs, The Knights of Columbus, all the numerous fraternities and sororities preceded Civitan. Let’s admit that many skeptics believed Civitan could not grow or succeed with so many well-established, even famous, existing organizations.
But, Civitan has grown and prospered. Five years ago I spoke before Civitan at your annual convention in Oslo, Norway! That’s a long way from the land where you started. Yet, you have continued to grow in numbers and in vision. You picked Atlanta for your Convention long before The International Olympic Committee discovered Atlanta! And you continue to grow while some of your competitors stagnate, or actually decline, in numbers and in influence.
I congratulate you -- all of you -- women and men – officers and members -- citizens from foreign nations and from the USA. You are truly a miracle.
And so is “Special Olympics”. No one, not even my wife, ever believed, when she started “Special Olympics,” that in 23 years her organization would be operating in 106 countries, on every continent, with all races of peoples, with all ages of people, in Communist and capitalist nations, within dictatorial and democratic societies, in Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Shintoist, and pagan lands.
Just 10 years ago we couldn’t get on television.
Now, we are not only on TV, but on prime-time TV, on the ABC network from 8 to 10 p.m., Thursday, August 15th. They are pitting us against The Bill Cosby Show and The Simpsons!! The “experts” say we can’t compete for ratings against them, but listen to the list of “stars” who will be on our show:
Warren Beatty, Marlee Matlin, Fred Savage, Randy Travis, Frank Gifford, Chris Burke, Melanie Griffith, “Prince”, Patti Austin, Bog Seger, and Arnold Schwarzenegger -- all these and even more “stars” will perform -- free-of-charge -- for Special Olympics.
Twenty-eight Olympic Medal winners from a dozen or more countries are forming a “Cordon of Honor” to greet our athletes as they enter The Metrodome stadium in Minneapolis where 50,000 spectators will cheer, among them 10,000 parents and family members of our athletes!
That’s more spectators, and coaches of athletes, more family members, witnessing and participating in one athletic event than ever before in history!!!
That’s a miracle if I’ve ever heard of one.
And, think of this, The President of our country, George Bush; The President of the Soviet Union, Michail Gorbachev; The President of Greece, birthplace of The Olympics; The President of Brazil, Fernando Collor de Mello; The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabwe; the President of Singapore, and The Prime Minister of Japan -- famous political leaders from every continent on earth will send televised greetings. This, too, is a miracle, -- a phenomenon unprecedented in the history of philanthropy and sports.
“Special Olympics” has become the only philanthropy ever “invented in America” to be accepted world-wide. In fact, we are the only philanthropy invented in this century to gain acceptance and approval everywhere!!
Can you believe we are operational in every part of the Soviet Union? We are the only Western philanthropy ever admitted to that country, and to the People’s Republic of China, and to Cuba. Even in Muslim countries, even in Saudi Arabia, we are welcomed with our title “Special Olympics”, -- not even translated into Arabic, not even with the star and crescent insignia. That has never happened to any Western, non-Muslim philanthropy, - not even to the Red Cross!
Aren’t these miracles?
I assure you no one anticipated or planned for or paid anything for any of these happenings. They just happened, without human inspiration or suggestion...
Fifteen major American corporations have purchased advertising time on our TV broadcast: --
Coca-Cola, Kodak, Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Federal Express, VISA, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss, J.C. Penney, I.B.M., Nabisco, Time-Warner, Universal Films, Hardee’s, -- with Kraft Cheese, Red Lobster and American Express, we hope, about to do so.
Isn’t it a miracle that all these “bottom line” corporations are spending more than $3,000,000 to appear with the mentally handicapped on TV!!!
Like Civitan, we now have programs in Hungary, East Germany, Pakistan, and Thailand. True, we do not have a Research Center like yours at the University of Alabama. We envy and admire you for that far-sighted initiative.
But, we haven’t been just adding to the number of countries in Special Olympics. We are constantly trying to improve our training, and adjust our programs to meet the needs of persons with mental retardation.
We’ve introduced three new programs in the last five years.
Our Motor Activities Program has been inaugurated. This Program is the only sports program in the world with competition for persons of such low intellectual ability they are able to perform only in walking, or jumping, or rolling a ball on the ground. But they are training and performing and enjoying themselves more than ever in their lives.
Our new Unified Sports Program combines athletes with mental retardation and persons of normal intelligence on the same teams. Just think of it! Phi Beta Kappas and mentally retarded persons, playing together, in team handball, basketball, bowling, football/soccer, and volleyball. Special Olympics is the only sports program in the world which incorporates persons of normal intelligence with persons with mental retardation, playing together, in regular competition, and in leagues.
And, we have started what we call “Lifetime Sports”. They are Demonstration Sports. We will hold competition in badmitton, bocce, horseshoes, and croquet at our upcoming International Summer Special Olympics Games in Minneapolis, St. Paul. Because of these programs, our older athletes can participate, compete, and taste victory! As a matter of fact, our oldest competing athlete in the Summer Games will be 80 years old.
Just as we have proven that our athletes can be successful in sports competition, -- they can even surpass the records established in the regular Olympic Games held in 1896, in 1911, and in the 1920s, -- just as we have succeeded on the playing field, -- we have proven that persons with mental retardation can be employed in regular jobs. They earn their own living. They go to work from their own homes. They can use ordinary transportation. They ride to work on buses or trolley cars or subways. At home, they can help to clean the house, make the beds, work in the kitchen, wash the family automobile. They are full citizens of their community.
Yes, just as we have shown them that they can run; they can swim; they can jump; they can skate on ice; they can ski down mountains; they can play on teams with persons of normal intelligence, -- as well or better than their teammates with normal intelligence...Just as we have proven all those things, we have used training in sports to raise the confidence and coordination of persons with mental retardation. We have made millions of persons with mental retardation happier human beings, more self-sufficient persons. We now have hundreds of Special Olympics athletes who can give a speech before large audiences of persons just like ourselves. And, I might add, I have learned from personal experience that to be on the same platform with one of these athletes is a humbling experience for any speaker. It’s hard to match their eloquence, their sincerity, and their commitment. We have no better spokespersons for Special Olympics than these Special Olympics athletes.
Since 1986, we have established what is now an extremely important component to our mission -- A Families Program. Under the direction of Jim Santos, a former United States Olympic Track and Field Coach, who is himself the parent of a Special Olympics athlete, we now have 375,000 registered family members in the United States, and active family groups in 42 countries! Families are a most valuable resource. Families of our athletes help us coach, transport the athletes, raise funds, officiate, chaperone, and train other volunteers, as well as being highly motivated and enthusiastic good-will ambassadors. A parent who 20 years ago would have felt shame, can, with the help of our Sports Skills Guide, coach their mentally retarded child after work and on weekends, so that the child can climb the winner’s podium and receive a medal! Whole families can join together to be a part of the Special Olympics movement. They can all feel the sense of accomplishment which their son, daughter, sister, brother, receives through Special Olympics.
Finally, in 1988, Special Olympics was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Ours is the only organization in the world authorized by the I.O.C. to use the word “Olympics”. We are now invited to participate regularly in the International Olympic Academy activities in Olympia, Greece, site of the original Olympic Games.
And, now to the future: --
On July 20th, there’s that date again! -- yes, five years to the day when I stood before you in Oslo, Norway, a Special Olympics athlete, carrying the Olympic torch which was lit in Greece last month, will enter the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, pass through a “Cordon of Honor”, composed of 30 former Olympic Medal winners, and light our Special Olympics cauldron which will burn throughout the next 6 days of competition.
These Opening Ceremonies and highlights from the competition will be broadcast in prime-time over the ABC-TV network on Thursday, August 15th, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.. And, because I know yours is a world-wide organization, I want to let you know that this show will also be broadcast in Canada, in Mexico, all across Europe, including the Iron Curtain countries, and the entire Soviet Union. The show will run in all of the countries of Latin America, in many of the African countries, and in the Far East, in Korea, Japan, the PRC, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Nepal.
Everyone, almost everywhere, will be able to see and witness the excitement.
55,000 spectators will cheer at this event. There will be 30,000 Volunteers, -- among them 1,200 from Civitan -- Polly Mooney, Alvin Owens, Markham Howe, -- all helping in any way they can to give 6,000 athletes an experience which they will never forget.
Every one of these athletes will be fully equipped, fully coached, fully prepared -- because of volunteers! Because of organizations like Civitan. Think about that for a moment, if you will ... in these days of professional sports, huge salaries, major universities with large and expensive athletic programs ... the purest athletic challenges will be met by Special Olympics athletes from all over the globe, and all because of you and your fellow volunteers. Civitan families have conspired with Special Olympics to make this incredible dream come true.
Not one of the officials, coaches, referees, medical doctors, starters and timers, or you, the members of Civitan, work for monetary reward. Rather, you receive your reward in giving, in spirit.
Let me tell you a story about volunteering for Special Olympics. Just last week, I was talking with the Vice-President for U.S. Marketing at Levi Strauss. The Chairman of Levi Strauss had asked him to call me to talk about the possibility of Levi Straus becoming an advertiser on our ABC-TV Special. I started to tell this gentleman about Special Olympics. But, he quickly interrupted me, and said, “Mr. Shriver, I know about Special Olympics! My son, who just graduated from the 8th Grade, was a volunteer at the Special Olympics Games here in California. That experience changed him so much that I will tell you right now, -- despite the economy, despite the constraints on our advertising budget, - we will take one “spot”, and I will look throughout our divisions to try to come up with the money to buy more.”
So, Special Olympics continues to reach out, to change people’s lives.
As Steve Kelley, the sports columnist for “The Seattle Times” wrote, two weeks ago after he attended the Washington State Games: --
“The Special Olympics have opened doors that once were shut.
Opened eyes that once were closed.
Opened a world of competitive opportunity for a new and special generation of athletes”.
We have boosters throughout the world: --
Fidel Castro in Cuba; Queen Elizabeth in England; Queen Noor in Jordan; Communists in the USSR; Revolutionaries in the Baltic Republics; Pope John Paul II; the Crown Princess of Spain; Pele, the hockey great; Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
Vaclav Havel is sending the whole Czech team, and Mrs. Havel, from Prague in Czechoslovakia to New Prague, Minnesota via his private plane. The citizens of New Prague, Minnesota have opened their homes to the delegation from Czechoslovakia and will be their hosts during the Summer Games.
Special Olympics continues to bring people together:
Poor and Rich
Arabs and Jews
Communists and Capitalists
Southern and Northern Irish
Muslims and Christians
Powerful and Powerless
Old and Young
Fast and Slow
It is truly a New World Order, made by Special Olympics and by Civitan, and millions of unselfish, courageous people...a new World Order based, not on might, but on what’s right!!
We so-called “normal people” are called upon to prove by our actions that we practice what we preach...that all men and women are created equal...that they are all endowed by their Creator with infinite value, -- No matter how disabled they may be! In our sight, they are destined to live forever!
Civitan believes in those concepts and values. So does “Special Olympics”.
So, our mission remains as it was in Oslo five years ago: -- On that occasion I said: --
“May we together prove by our actions that nothing transcends the value of the individual human being made in the image of God -- worth more than all the gold in Africa, all the money on Wall Street, or all the oil spewing out of the Kuwait Desert.
Nothing, and no one, my dear friends, is more important than one Special Olympics athlete, or one member of Civitan, who gives of himself or herself to the service of humanity. That will never change -- and, for that, I thank God.”
I thank Him, too, for the miracle of Civitan, the miracle of Special Olympics, the miracle of life.
May we cherish and protect and develop human life in all its forms and shapes and stages.
Then we will surely be doing God’s work on earth...and that is the greatest miracle of all...the miracle that you and I -- weak though we are, prone to error as we all may be, fitful, inconstant, plagued by doubts, harried by financial concerns, as we are, nevertheless, we are called to do God’s work on earth. In Special Olympics, we are surely doing his Will. There is no other explanation of our success.
