Speech at the Special Olympics International Board of Directors Dinner

"Special Olympics Athletes have opened up the minds and hearts of people all over the globe. The capabilities of persons with mental retardation have been revealed everywhere for the first time in all of human history!"
Dublin, Ireland • June 22, 2003

Thank you, Taoiesch, for your warm words.

On behalf of the members of The Board of Directors of “Special Olympics International”, I want to say how pleased we are that the first “Special Olympics World Summer Games” of this, the 21st Century, are being held in your beautiful country.

My special thanks to Stacey and John for their eloquent introduction of that marvelous video.

What a joy it was for me to view this film! I could see once again many of the faces of those I met as I traveled around the globe over these last three and one-half decades to deliver the message of Special Olympics.

Last evening we witnessed the pageantry of Opening Ceremonies. Most impressive of all, we saw 7,000 “Special Olympics Athletes” march into Croke Park, all proud to participate in these Games, proud to do their best, and proud to show the world what persons with mental retardation can do!

At the beginning of the last Century that would have been impossible. But, “Special Olympics Athletes” have opened up the minds and hearts of people all over the globe. The capabilities of persons with mental retardation have been revealed everywhere for the first time in all of human history!

So, as we gather tonight in this, the third year of the 21st Century, we all must look forward, not backward. I, for one, hope and pray that we all shall continue to reach out to all families and athletes everywhere.

Let us work together and pray that together, we can make the 21st Century the first Century in human history where all persons of all colors, of all intellectual abilities, of all physical abilities, of all economic realities are united! May we produce the first generation of human beings living together everywhere without prejudice!

But that cannot happen, I fear, unless all of us individually and collectively, in all nations, and in all places, large and small, work together, play together, and pray together.

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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