“For all Americans who feel politically powerless, here is something you can support: We must put the poor above politics. We must put community above chaos. We must put self-giving above self-service.”
Our Quote of the Week suggests that we can empower ourselves by focusing on something larger than ourselves: service to our communities and to those with fewer opportunities than ourselves. By empowering others, by investing in them, we commit fully to our society and strengthen our own sense of citizenship.
In 1968, Sargent Shriver addressed a student assembly at the University of Notre Dame, where he spoke these words. At the time, he had been leading the War on Poverty as Director of the Office of the Economic Opportunity for almost four years.
In the speech, he speaks of the “crisis” the country finds itself in, with an escalating war in Vietnam and civil and political unrest at home. It is in this context that he makes his call to service. He begins with these words:
“I think we need to do three things. First, we need to make a national examination of conscience. Second, we need to make a national pledge promising to take the $25 billion we’re now spending in Vietnam and use it here at home when the war is over. Third, we need a national program to create new careers not just for the poor, but for the middle class.”
The examination of conscience, says Shriver, must happen because:
“We are the cause of poverty. Because right now, poverty in the United States is a completely solvable problem. It would cost less than $11 billion to solve the problem. We could simply give that amount of money. We have the money to provide a handout to every poor person and family in America. I’m not saying we should end poverty this way. In fact, I’ve always been against such a handout program. I’m using this $11 billion figure just to show that American poverty is not so huge a problem. $11 billion is less than 1-1/2% of our GNP. It’s the cost of about five months in Vietnam.”
He goes on to say:
“Money alone can’t destroy poverty. That’s why I have always opposed a handout program. We have something deeper than a dollar problem. We have a human problem.”
He then shares an anecdote about when, in 1965, a civil war erupted in the Dominican Republic, and the only Americans who were allowed to remain on Dominican soil were Peace Corps Volunteers. Why was this true? Because the Volunteers lived and served their host communities on the locals’ terms. He quotes one Peace Corps Volunteer as saying: “The people liked us because we lived with them and knew them. A Dominican friend of mine put it this way, When we were hungry, you were hungry. When we walked in the mud, you walked in the mud.”
Fifty-eight years after Sargent Shriver spoke these words, many of us feel that we are again in a period of crisis and great uncertainty as a country. Once again, we see funds being diverted from domestic programs and billions being spent on an escalating international conflict. How can we deal with the powerlessness we may feel at this moment? Sargent Shriver suggests that we use our energy and our time to serve those around us who have less power and privilege than we have. And, when it comes time to vote, we support candidates who understand the importance of investing in our communities and in the well-being of all.
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