Address at the 30th Annual Franklin County Democratic Party JFK Memorial Dinner

"No one since Kennedy has matched his eloquence, his vision, his courage, and his uncanny ability to arouse the best instincts in all of us. Our willingness to answer his call to change our jobs, our homes, and lives to serve our country in the 1960’s has not been matched at any time since then."
Benton, IL • October 09, 1994

My friend and your State Senator - Jim Rea
Leaders and Members of the Democratic Party in Illinois, especially
The Distinguished Senator Paul Simon and his marvelous wife, Jean
Congressman Poshard
Senator Penny Severns
Republicans and Independents who admire and respect the luminous legacy of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Young Democrats, and older Veterans of the 60’s.

Ladies and Gentlemen: --

I wish I were worthy of the honor you have bestowed on me. Invited by you to speak about President Kennedy at your 30th Annual JFK Memorial Dinner is a challenge and responsibility. No one since Kennedy has matched his eloquence, his vision, his courage, and his uncanny ability to arouse the best instincts in all of us. Our willingness to answer his call to change our jobs, our homes, and lives to serve our country in the 1960’s has not been matched at any time since then. In this Century only World War II, the era of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and possibly the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson have evoked patriotism, raised pride in our country’s destiny, and evoked self-sacrifice comparable to the spirit engendered by Kennedy. Thank you all for this event in his honor.

Congratulations also to everyone attending this banquet. Your very presence on a Sunday evening preceding a national holiday is a testimony, not only to Kennedy, but to your own spirit of self-sacrifice and service. I am honored to be with persons of your distinction, unselfishness, and courage.

What can we learn from Kennedy and his era useful for us Americans today?

First, I suggest that we stop complaining. Congress has just adjourned amidst an orgy of complaining and negativism. Republicans have led the way. They have rejoiced in doing nothing, except, perhaps, protecting the insurance industry from providing health and medical insurance for all!! Television today is full of Monday morning quarterbacks who complain about everything. Yet they have never done anything except talk!! Yet today -- tonight -- we have the largest population of poor people in our nation’s history. Almost 40,000,000 human beings -- almost the same as the entire population of France or The United Kingdom. But Republicans are rejoicing. They have stopped every effort to change this disgraceful situation. Those 40,000,000 will get no Health Service from them! But the poor don’t complain! Or even vote! That’s why they get nothing from Republicans.

Did Kennedy complain when he inherited from Eisenhower the full-blown plan to invade Cuba and depose Castro? He did not!!! He went ahead with Eisenhower’s plan, and when it blew up in his face, he took full responsibility for the mess. Nor did that failure stop him from moving ahead. He created “The Peace Corps”. He balanced the budget and put a Republican banker in charge of the Treasury Department.

When has a Republican President put any Democrat into the Cabinet? “Never” is the answer. Kennedy had three Republicans in top positions -- Dulles, Dillon, and Foley -- he had Independents like Bob McNamara and Dean Rusk; only his brother, Bobby, was a hard-charging Democrat at the highest level in Kennedy’s Cabinet.

Plenty of Republicans volunteered for Kennedy’s “Peace Corps”. Today there are six former Peace Corps Volunteers in the United States Congress -- five Members of the House of Representatives, one Member of the Senate. Three of them are Democrats. Three Republicans. Two members of the President’s Cabinet are former Peace Corps Volunteers. 60% of all the professionals working for the International program, “CARE”, are former Peace Corps Volunteers. 40% of all the professionals working in our Agency for International Development (AID) are RPCV’s. About 10% to 15% of all new Foreign Service officers these past 10-15 years are RPCVs!!

Why don’t we as a nation rejoice about this huge return on the dollars we have invested in The Peace Corps?

“Rejoice”, I say, “Rejoice” in Kennedy’s extraordinary vision and courage. He shocked and inspired all of Europe when in Berlin, Germany, before 500,000 Germans he said “Ich bin ein Berliner”. The ultimate collapse of Communist East Germany started at that very moment!

Or when he said in 1963 "...We will put a man on the moon in this decade...” And we did do so.

President Reagan on the other hand increased our national debt from approximately one billion in 1980 to 3.5 billion! A larger increase than all the Presidents of the USA since George Washington combined! That’s Republican economics! Why don’t we rejoice that President Clinton has reduced our deficit every year since his election? He’s doing what no Republican has ever done. Why don’t we rejoice?

Why don’t we rejoice in NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- which is pumping money into and increasing jobs in our country from our sales to Mexico and Canada? Only Vice President Gore’s vote in the Senate broke the tie and made NAFTA a reality...a reality which in its first year is generating more than $350,000,000 in sales of U.S. made products south of the border. And our Budget did not suffer. Nor did we have to spend billions on armaments to get results.

I’m not here trying to make a hero out of Bill Clinton. But, as a Democrat, I am saying that he has reduced our national debt...the first to do so in the memory of most of us. I am saying, as a Democrat, that our President even now, tonight, has the highest popularity of any political leader in “the First World”, that is, in those prosperous nations of the Northern Hemisphere. Look at France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Japan, Hungary, Greece, They all -- yes all of them -- have leaders with less than 35% approval. Prime Minister Major in the United Kingdom has about 20%; Mitterrand has about 15% in France; Lech Walesa in Poland can’t get a Prime Minister of his own political party in the nation he saved from Communism!!

Yes, like everyone here, I wish Kennedy were still alive and healthy. He would be about 75 years old. Maybe he would have been our Party’s candidate in 1992. For sure he could have beaten George Bush in 1992, and with Bill Clinton as Vice-President, maybe we Democrats would be anticipating a huge triumph next month.

But, why waste time dreaming? We have Bill Clinton, and in two years he has achieved greater success in more areas than George Bush achieved in twice that time!!

Let’s tell the voters the facts as Harry Truman did in 1948.

The facts are these: --

  1. Democrats have reduced the Federal Government budget and expenditures, more than any Administration since World War II.
  2. Jobs and prosperity are the highest level in this Century, and the stock market is also close to its highest point.
  3. The USA is maintaining peace in most of the world and getting very little help from any nation.
  4. Millions, tens of millions, want to come to live in the USA. They want to live as we live, enjoy the life we have been given by our fathers and grandfathers.
  5. No one wants to move to Russia, to Japan, to Germany, to Poland, to Italy, to Brazil. Everyone wants to come where we are. Despite Nixon and Agnew, Despite Bush and Quayle, they want to live in the land where. Kennedy lived and died for freedom and opportunity for all.

Let all of us, my friends, rejoice in our God-given good fortune that we live in the USA, that we have a President and a political party with an extraordinary record of accomplishment. Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Cleveland, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Carter, and now Clinton compare favorably with the leaders of all the nations of the world during the last 200 years. The Republicans have produced only Lincoln AND Teddy Roosevelt, and they would claim Reagan as a leader. But think of Coolidge and Hoover and Harding and the 19th Century array of Republican nonentities. Our Party is the best Party. Our Leaders are the best Leaders. Paul Simon is one of the best of all the living. And in Jim Rea you have an established leader here in Southern Illinois.

Let’s forget the fearful. Let’s silence the nay-sayers. Let’s work together to achieve the victory we Democrats deserve and our country needs.

Good luck to all...thank you for inviting me to Southern Illinois. I love this State and all of you.

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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