Address at The Jewish Foundation for Group Homes 14th Annual Scholarship Gala

"All of us as citizens are called upon to provide adequate care, appropriate education, and economic opportunities for persons with mental retardation. They are creatures created by God, His children. He expects us to be our brother’s keeper. So we have responsibility, a huge responsibility."
McLean, VA • June 22, 1997

Charles Lee Eisen, President of JFGH
Senator Ida Rubin
Senator Leonard Teitlebaum
Delegate Jean Kryer
Beth Sloane, Director of Development
Ruth Bescher and her family
Melba Moore, your “star” of “The Lights of Broadway”

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Shriver Family is honored to receive the S. Robert Cohen Award. We are honored to join the distinguished group of previous winners, -- especially Joy and Robert Cohen themselves, two of the best people in the entire USA!!! We are glad also that two other Winners of The Cohen Award, Bill Marriott and Steny Royer are both friends of ours and exemplary citizens.

With just those four people you have the endorsement of the Jewish people, the Mormon people, the Christian Community. Maybe you also have agnostics and atheists! Together these leaders prove that J.F.G.H. is one of the best leadership groups in our country today.

But you will need all the help they and others can give you.

Tonight J.F.G.H. is reaching almost 120 persons successfully -- But 200 individuals remain on “the waiting list” for help from J.F.G.H. That’s proof of your success. But it’s also a huge challenge!

All of us as citizens are called upon to provide adequate care, appropriate education, and economic opportunities for persons with mental retardation. They are creatures created by God, His children. He expects us to be our brother’s keeper. So we have responsibility, a huge responsibility.

On the whole earth today there are 170,000,000 persons with mental retardation. In our country alone there are 7,000,000. And in our country, less than one-half of those with mental retardation are receiving the attention and care they deserve to receive from us.

So we need, you need, to double the size of your programs right now. So do all the other groups trying to help persons with Mental Retardation in the USA. So, my friends let us rejoice in what we have done. But let us never forget we still have miles to go before we sleep.

We have to work night and day to fulfill our responsibilities to those with mental retardation. The U.S. Government is not going to do the job. Our representatives in Washington are struggling to reduce the size and cost of Government, -- despite unprecedented prosperity. The Congress is saying, in effect, the persons with mental retardation are yours, ours, to care for. The new Social Security Regulations are designed to eliminate help for approximately 250,000 persons with mental retardation. Those people will add to our responsibilities.

So, I say again we need to work harder than ever before. Only organizations like your J.F.G.H., can meet the challenge facing us all. Your hour of greatest challenge has arrived. Thanks be to God that you are ready and able to meet it.

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.
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Sargent Shriver
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