“Have we gone soft? Are we so nonchalant, so apathetic, so indifferent that our response to the magnificent challenge of world revolution is little more than a feeble echo of the past sacrifices we have made for freedom? I don’t think so.”
Our Quote of the Week reminds us that in moments of great transition, we must tap into the principles on which the United States was founded, and we must act in ways that allow us to finally fulfill the promise of a society in which individual rights are protected and a more peaceful world is achieved.
In 1961, Sargent Shriver gave this Address to the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago. He had been the head of the organization for much of the 1950s and was speaking to the council in his capacity as Director of the Peace Corps. This sweeping address connects the importance of civil rights at home with the urgent need for the US to do everything it can to forge peace internationally. As such, it is particularly relevant in this moment, as the US steps away from its role as an international leader and tears away at the rights of individuals within its borders.
Shriver makes powerful insights about the country’s founding and about the importance of finally living up to an ideal laid that has never been fully realized:
“When the Declaration of Independence was written these words were used: ‘All men are created equal...endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’ Ever since, the greatest hesitation of American democracy has been to apply that word ‘all’ regardless of race, religion, or region. It is a disturbing little word and it has irritated our souls for 200 years. It will not let us go and we cannot let it go. It has given us no rest nor will it until we can say ‘all’...with complete abandon.”
“America is an idea — an idea unique in the world. An idea of hope and opportunity, of possibilities, of giving everyone a fair shot, of leaving no one behind. We have never fully lived up to it [emphasis ours], but we’ve never walked away from it either. We will not walk away from it now.”
Shriver goes on to tie together the “idea” of America to a vision for the country to build peace around the world:
"[T]he Peace Corps is convincing the leaders and the people of the world that Americans can be as serious about peace as we can about war.”
He ends the address by saying:
“It seems to me a visitor from Mars said to an Earthman in a recent television play, ‘that your most serious business is the killing of your fellowman.’ If that has been true in the past, the future must be different. I believe the Peace Corps can be an important part of our effort to convince the world that our most serious business is to serve our fellowman and thereby help build a just and peaceful world.”
May Sargent Shriver’s words fuel the courage in each of us to insist that our leaders uphold our democracy and show that they be as serious about peace as they are about war.
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