[Pages S5630-S5634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TRIBUTE TO GRAY MAXWELL

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise today to share news with the
Senate. Dennis Gray Maxwell--Gray to all of us--my floor director and
most senior legislative adviser since I arrived in the Senate almost 17
years ago, is retiring at the end of December. For many of us, Senators
and staff alike, this is heartbreaking news, as we will miss Gray's
good counsel, impeccable speechwriting skills, remarkable knowledge of
Senate history, and award-winning home brew. He always has a relevant
story, whatever the circumstance. And, of course, Gray was the one who
got us to finally put the Senate Democratic Conference rules in
writing, so it is no wonder that he knows them inside and out better
than any Senator or parliamentarian.
Gray loves the Senate. He loves it for all it was meant to be, as
drafted by the Founding Fathers, and all that it should be in modern
times--a respected

[[Page S5631]]

entity dedicated to upholding the values and ideals that drive this
great Nation forward. Year after year, Gray has dedicated himself to
finding ways to preserve the Senate's role as the world's greatest
deliberative body, which has not always been easy. It pains him to see
the rules abused or when 10 years of work to pass a significant law,
like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, is undone in 10
minutes. But he does cherish the days when we finally clear a record
vote-a-rama or come together in a landmark bipartisan vote.
Gray has worked for so many Senators over the years that his love of
this institution should not surprise anyone. Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
John Heinz, Jim Jeffords, Bill Cohen, Moynihan again, Dianne Feinstein,
Carl Levin, Frank Lautenberg and, since 2007, he has been part of Team
Cardin. This impressive list, nearly 40 years in the making, is why I
jumped at the opportunity to hire Gray.
A registered Independent his whole life, Gray lives the words of John
F. Kennedy: ``Men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite
regardless of party or politics.''
I hired Gray because, on January 3, 2007, despite being a State
delegate, including speaker, for a total of 20 years, and a Member of
the House of Representatives for 20 years, I had zero direct experience
in the U.S. Senate. Gray Maxwell had more than two decades of
legislative service in the Senate with some of the most consequential
Senators to walk these halls. I wanted to learn from him. I had brought
over some core staff from my House office, but I knew that if I had
Gray on my team, he would help me quickly translate my previous
legislative experience into this new arena. Today, I love being a
Senator, and I credit Gray for sharing his fever for the institution
and showing me what great things we could accomplish.
Gray's path to public service perhaps was unexpected. The summer
after he graduated Stanford University, he came to Washington, DC, to
work at a branch of his father's law firm before starting law school.
His life would change though, when his roommate, who worked for Senator
Moynihan, told Gray there was an opening as a legislative
correspondent, or LC. Gray loved everything about the job and the
position. He was promoted quickly within the office and even met his
future wife, Eileen, during this time. Eileen, a fifth-generation
Washingtonian, came from a long line of public servants and had joined
the Foreign Service. Some may not know this, but Gray passed both the
written and oral Foreign Service exams in an effort to join his wife
for her new posting in Bolivia. In the end, they decided to stay in
Washington, and Gray's long career in the Senate would take off.
I have been told that there were quite a few conversations with
Gray's dad to explain that he would not be returning home to
Connecticut or going to New York to become a lawyer. But life would be
okay. His dad came around eventually. He would become one of Gray's
greatest cheerleaders and immensely proud of everything his son would
accomplish--despite not being a lawyer.
During the late 80s, Gray worked for Senator John Heinz and served as
legislative director of the Northeast-Midwest Institute, of which Heinz
was a cofounder. Gray was serving as the Senator's legislative director
at the time of his tragic plane crash in 1991. He went on to work for
Senator Jim Jeffords as his legislative director and then worked for
another Republican who made a career working across the aisle, Senator
Bill Cohen. He later would rejoin Senator Moynihan's staff as
legislative director.
Gray and Senator Moynihan had a close, almost father-son
relationship. This is obvious to anyone who has heard Gray tell a story
from his Moynihan days. Every tale, even something that might seem
embarrassing, like slipping on the floor while walking with the Senator
through the Senate, is coated with a sense of care and respect for the
man and lawmaker. I know it was a difficult task for Gray when he had
to call the then-recently retired Senator on September 11, 2001, to
tell him that New York and our Nation was being attacked.
Gray has been a witness to history during his nearly 40 years in the
Senate, and he has done his part to make history, as well. As a
lifelong public servant, Gray has become one of the most vociferous
champions for public service unions and Federal workers, generally. He
meticulously combs through data annually from the Office of Personnel
Management and other official sources to create the most accurate
snapshots of Federal workers in every State and the District of
Columbia. Among other uses, these charts have been invaluable each time
one of my colleagues dares to attack Federal workers or attempts to use
veterans and civil servants as pawns in yet another partisan game or
government shutdown. Gray relishes every opportunity to lift up stories
about Federal workers, serves as a watchdog for attacks on well-earned
benefits, and consistently advocates for the rights of all Federal
employees and retirees.
During the Trump years, Gray led the charge to pass S. 24, the
Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which guarantees back pay to
Federal workers furloughed during a government shutdown. Thanks to
Gray's doggedness, if and when we have another shutdown of the Federal
Government, no longer will hundreds of thousands of Federal workers
have to wait and see if Congress will provide relief to those workers
caught in the crossfire.
Another project Gray helped carry over the finish line was the
National Memorial to Fallen Journalists. Based on his work and
coordination with stakeholders, days before the 1-year anniversary of
the fatal ``Capital Gazette'' shooting in Annapolis--the most deadly
newsroom shooting in American history--Gray helped finalize legislation
I introduced with Senator Rob Portman. Our bill authorized a privately
funded memorial within the District of Columbia to honor journalists,
photographers, broadcasters, and media workers killed in the line of
duty. In later stages, he would identify the ultimate location of the
memorial, across the street from the Voice of America and,
coincidently, across the street from the National Museum of the
American Indian, where Gray's wife Eileen would work until her
retirement in December 2022.
Far too many pieces of legislation that have become law have Gray
Maxwell's fingerprints on them for me to name every one. But let me
talk briefly about one recent bill that goes to the heart of Gray's
integrity and strong belief that Congress should be a leader in
protecting civil rights and values. Back in 2020, Senator Chris Van
Hollen and I introduced legislation in the Senate that would remove
from the U.S. Capitol a statue of fellow Marylander and Supreme Court
Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. Taney was the author of the infamous
Dred Scott decision that ruled that African-Americans were not U.S.
citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery. In addition to
removing the Taney bust, our bill authorized the placement of a new
bust of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-
American to serve on the Nation's highest Court, and also a Marylander.
The bill was reintroduced this Congress and approved unanimously by the
Senate in 2022. Following House passage, President Joe Biden signed the
measure into law, and the massive Taney bust was removed in February of
this year. If not for Gray's legislative acumen and pure persistence,
the bust of a man who actively helped prolong slavery would still greet
visitors to the Old Supreme Court Chamber.
I am thankful that Gray shared his knowledge of the Senate with me. I
also am grateful that he shares this bounty with every new staffer and
intern that walks into our office. Capitol Hill can be a magnet,
attracting young people. If we want them to stay, we need more people
like Gray to share their experiences and adventures. He is teaching the
next generation about how they fit into the history, and the future, of
our legislative branch of government. He also is constantly learning,
with an understanding that these young people bring with them new
perspectives and different ways of solving age-old problems.
I would ask unanimous consent that, after my remarks, the full text
of Robert F. Kennedy's ``Ripple of Hope'' address, which was delivered
June 6, 1966, at the University of Capetown, South Africa, be entered
into the record. Gray

[[Page S5632]]

gives a copy of this speech to every new intern in our office and takes
time from his hectic schedule to discuss it with each group. Anecdotes
and surveys from interns year after year mention this discussion and
how it stays with them long after their semester is complete. RFK's
words echo throughout our work.
He said: ``It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief
that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a
million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a
current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and
resistance.''
Gray is proof positive that one person can make a difference.
Finally, I would like to thank Gray for being there for me and for
the Senate even when everyone else was home or working elsewhere. Maybe
they were asleep because the Senate was voting at 2 a.m. Maybe they
were teleworking because of the pandemic. Yes, as media reports have
recounted, Gray was one of the few people who worked in his Senate
office throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He actually insisted that he
come in so that his wife could be comfortable teleworking from their
apartment. Truth be told, traffic was easier, and there were very few
people around at that time, so it was seemingly a safe thing to do. We
still took precautions. Even if he and I were in the office at the same
time, he stayed in his office, and I stayed in mine, and we talked by
phone. We wore facemasks and used antibacterial wipes on every door or
item we touched.
In another extreme case, Gray was one of only two staffers who were
in our Hart office on January 6, 2021. He and our chief of staff, Chris
Lynch, sheltered in place together all day while the Capitol was being
overrun. Gray charged through the Trump years and the pandemic, but the
days and months after January 6 definitely took their toll. I can
understand why he and Eileen began to spend more and more time out in
rural Rappahannock County, Virginia, where they rented a cottage during
the pandemic. They now have a beautiful home on 6 acres of land and are
surrounded by wheat and cornfields and dairy farms. I would try to
entice them to Maryland, but they have been visiting this area for 40
years, ever since Gray bought Eileen her very first riding lesson as a
birthday gift. Even from Virginia, he will forever be a part of Team
Maryland and the Cardin family.
I wish Gray all the best in his retirement. He is a good man with a
good heart, who has done phenomenal things for the Senate and our
Nation. He will be missed, especially by this Senator.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

[From University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966]

Day of Affirmation Address, University of Capetown, Capetown, South
Africa

(By Robert F. Kennedy)

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Vice Chancellor, Professor Robertson,
Mr. Diamond, Mr. Daniel, Ladies and Gentlemen: I come here
this evening because of my deep interest and affection for a
land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century,
then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a
land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued,
but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land
which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has
tamed rich natural resources through the energetic
application of modern technology; a land which was once the
importer of slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the
last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to
the United States of America.
But I am glad to come here, and my wife and I and all of
our party are glad to come here to South Africa, and we are
glad to come here to Capetown. I am already greatly enjoying
my visit here. I am making an effort to meet and exchange
views with people of all walks of life, and all segments of
South African opinion--including those who represent the
views of the government. Today I am glad to meet with the
National Union of South African Students. For a decade, NUSAS
has stood and worked for the principles of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights--principles which embody the
collective hopes of men of good will around the globe.
Your work, at home and in international student affairs,
has brought great credit to yourselves and your country. I
know the National Student Association in the United States
feels a particularly close relationship with this
organization. And I wish to thank especially Mr. Ian
Robertson, who first extended this invitation on behalf of
NUSAS, I wish to thank him for his kindness to me in inviting
me. I am very sorry that he can not be with us here this
evening. I was happy to have had the opportunity to meet and
speak with him earlier this evening, and I presented him with
a copy of Profiles in Courage, which was a book written by
President John Kennedy and was signed to him by President
Kennedy's widow, Mrs. John Kennedy. This is a Day of
Affirmation--a celebration of liberty. We stand here in the
name of freedom.
At the heart of that western freedom and democracy is the
belief that the individual man, the child of God, is the
touchstone of value, and all society, all groups, and states,
exist for that person's benefit. Therefore the enlargement of
liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal
and the abiding practice of any western society.
The first element of this individual liberty is the freedom
of speech; the right to express and communicate ideas, to set
oneself apart from the dumb beasts of field and forest; the
right to recall governments to their duties and obligations;
above all, the right to affirm one's membership and
allegiance to the body politic--to society--to the men with
whom we share our land, our heritage and our children's
future.
Hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be
heard--to share in the decisions of government which shape
men's lives. Everything that makes man's lives worthwhile--
family, work, education, a place to rear one's children and a
place to rest one's head--all this depends on the decisions
of government; all can be swept away by a government which
does not heed the demands of its people, and I mean all of
its people. Therefore, the essential humanity of man can be
protected and preserved only where the government must
answer--not just to the wealthy; not just to those of a
particular religion, not just to those of a particular race;
but to all of the people.
And even government by the consent of the governed, as in
our own Constitution, must be limited in its power to act
against its people: so that there may be no interference with
the right to worship, but also no interference with the
security of the home; no arbitrary imposition of pains or
penalties on an ordinary citizen by officials high or low; no
restriction on the freedom of men to seek education or to
seek work or opportunity of any kind, so that each man may
become all that he is capable of becoming.
These are the sacred rights of western society. These were
the essential differences between us and Nazi Germany as they
were between Athens and Persia.
They are the essences of our differences with communism
today. I am unalterably opposed to communism because it
exalts the state over the individual and over the family, and
because its system contains a lack of freedom of speech, of
protest, of religion, and of the press, which is
characteristic of a totalitarian regime. The way of
opposition to communism, however, is not to imitate its
dictatorship, but to enlarge individual human freedom. There
are those in every land who would label as ``communist''
every threat to their privilege. But may I say to you, as I
have seen on my travels in all sections of the world, reform
is not communism. And the denial of freedom, in whatever
name, only strengthens the very communism it claims to
oppose.
Many nations have set forth their own definitions and
declarations of these principles. And there have often been
wide and tragic gaps between promise and performance, ideal
and reality. Yet the great ideals have constantly recalled us
to our own duties. And--with painful slowness--we in the
United States have extended and enlarged the meaning and the
practice of freedom to all of our people.
For two centuries, my own country has struggled to overcome
the self-imposed handicap of prejudice and discrimination
based on nationality, on social class or race--discrimination
profoundly repugnant to the theory and to the command of our
Constitution. Even as my father grew up in Boston,
Massachusetts, signs told him that ``No Irish Need Apply''.
Two generations later, President Kennedy became the first
Irish Catholic, and the first Catholic, to head the nation;
but how many men of ability had, before 1961, been denied the
opportunity to contribute to the nation's progress because
they were Catholic, or because they were of Irish extraction?
How many sons of Italian or Jewish or Polish parents
slumbered in the slums--untaught, unlearned, their potential
lost forever to our nation and to the human race? Even today,
what price will we pay before we have assured full
opportunity to millions of Negro Americans?
In the last five years we have done more to assure equality
to our Negro citizens and to help the deprived, both white
and black, than in the hundred years before that time. But
much, much more remains to be done.
For there are millions of Negroes untrained for the
simplest of jobs, and thousands every day denied their full
and equal rights under the law; and the violence of the
disinherited, the insulted and the injured, looms over the
streets of Harlem and of Watts and Southside Chicago.
But a Negro American trains as an astronaut, one of
mankind's first explorers into outer space; another is the
chief barrister of the United States government, and dozens

[[Page S5633]]

sit on the benches of our court; and another, Dr. Martin
Luther King, is the second man of African descent to win the
Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent efforts for social
justice between all of the races.
We have passed laws prohibiting discrimination in
education, in employment, in housing; but these laws alone
cannot overcome the heritage of centuries--of broken families
and stunted children, and poverty and degradation and pain.
So the road toward equality of freedom is not easy, and
great cost and danger march alongside all of us. We are
committed to peaceful and non-violent change and that is
important for all to understand--though change is unsettling.
Still, even in the turbulence of protest and struggle is
greater hope for the future, as men learn to claim and
achieve for themselves the rights formerly petitioned from
others.
And most important of all, all the panoply of government
power has been committed to the goal of equality before the
law--as we are now committing ourselves to achievement of
equal opportunity in fact.
We must recognize the full human equality of all of our
people--before God, before the law, and in the councils of
government. We must do this, not because it is economically
advantageous--although it is; not because the laws of God
command it--although they do; not because people in other
lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and
fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do.
We recognize that there are problems and obstacles before
the fulfillment of these ideals in the United States as we
recognize that other nations, in Latin America and in Asia
and in Africa have their own political, economic, and social
problems, their unique barriers to the elimination of
injustices.
In some, there is concern that change will submerge the
rights of a minority, particularly where that minority is of
a different race than that of the majority. We in the United
States believe in the protection of minorities; we recognize
the contributions that they can make and the leadership they
can provide; and we do not believe that any people--whether
majority or minority, or individual human beings--are
``expendable'' in the cause of theory or policy. We recognize
also that justice between men and nations is imperfect, and
that humanity sometimes progresses very slowly indeed.
All do not develop in the same manner and at the same pace.
Nations, like men, often march to the beat of different
drummers, and the precise solutions of the United States can
neither be dictated nor transplanted to others, and that is
not our intention. What is important however is that all
nations must march toward increasing freedom; toward justice
for all; toward a society strong and flexible enough to meet
the demands of all of its people, whatever their race, and
the demands of a world of immense and dizzying change that
face us all.
In a few hours, the plane that brought me to this country
crossed over oceans and countries which have been a crucible
of human history. In minutes we traced migrations of men over
thousands of years; seconds, the briefest glimpse, and we
passed battlefields on which millions of men once struggled
and died. We could see no national boundaries, no vast gulfs
or high walls dividing people from people; only nature and
the works of man--homes and factories and farms--everywhere
reflecting man's common effort to enrich his life. Everywhere
new technology and communications bring men and nations
closer together, the concerns of one inevitably become the
concerns of all. And our new closeness is stripping away the
false masks, the illusion of differences which is at the root
of injustice and hate and war. Only earthbound man still
clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world
is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ends at river's
shore, his common humanity is enclosed in the tight circle of
those who share his town or his views and the color of his
skin.
It is your job, the task of the young people in this world
to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from
the civilization of man.
Each nation has different obstacles and different goals,
shaped by the vagaries of history and of experience. Yet as I
talk to young people around the world I am impressed not by
the diversity but by the closeness of their goals, their
desires, and their concerns and their hope for the future.
There is discrimination in New York, the racial inequality of
apartheid in South Africa, and serfdom in the mountains of
Peru. People starve to death in the streets of India; a
former Prime Minister is summarily executed in the Congo;
intellectuals go to jail in Russia; and thousands are
slaughtered in Indonesia; wealth is lavished on armaments
everywhere in the world. These are different evils; but they
are the common works of man. They reflect the imperfections
of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, the
defectiveness of our sensibility toward the sufferings of our
fellows; they mark the limit of our ability to use knowledge
for the well-being of our fellow human beings throughout the
world. And therefore they call upon common qualities of
conscience and indignation, a shared determination to wipe
away the unnecessary sufferings of our fellow human beings at
home and around the world.
It is these qualities which make of our youth today the
only true international community. More than this I think
that we could agree on what kind of a world we want to build.
It would be a world of independent nations, moving toward
international community, each of which protected and
respected the basic human freedoms. It would be a world which
demanded of each government that it accept its responsibility
to insure social justice. It would be a world of constantly
accelerating economic progress--not material welfare as an
end in of itself, but as a means to liberate the capacity of
every human being to pursue his talents and to pursue his
hopes. It would, in short, be a world that we would all be
proud to have built.
Just to the North of here are lands of challenge and of
opportunity--rich in natural resources, land and minerals and
people. Yet they are also lands confronted by the greatest
odds--overwhelming ignorance, internal tensions and strife,
and great obstacles of climate and geography. Many of these
nations, as colonies, were oppressed and were exploited. Yet
they have not estranged themselves from the broad traditions
of the West; they are hoping and they are gambling their
progress and their stability on the chance that we will meet
our responsibilities to them, to help them overcome their
poverty.
In the world we would like to build, South Africa could
play an outstanding role, and a role of leadership in that
effort. This country is without question a preeminent
repository of the wealth and the knowledge and the skill of
the continent. Here are the greater part of Africa's research
scientists and steel production, most of its reservoirs of
coal and of electric power. Many South Africans have made
major contributions to African technical development and
world science; the names of some are known wherever men seek
to eliminate the ravages of tropical disease and of
pestilence. In your faculties and councils, here in this very
audience, are hundreds and thousands of men and women who
could transform the lives of millions for all time to come.
But the help and leadership of South Africa or of the
United States cannot be accepted if we--within our own
countries or in our relationships with others--deny
individual integrity, human dignity, and the common humanity
of man. If we would lead outside our own borders; if we would
help those who need our assistance; if we would meet our
responsibilities to mankind; we must first, all of us,
demolish the borders which history has erected between men
within our own nations--barriers of race and religion, social
class and ignorance.
Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The
cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet
will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It
cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is
already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the
excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful
progress. This world demands the qualities of youth: not a
time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a
quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over
timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of
ease--a man like the Chancellor of this University. It is a
revolutionary world that we all live in; and thus, as I have
said in Latin America and Asia and in Europe and in my own
country, the United States, it is the young people who must
take the lead. Thus you, and your young compatriots
everywhere have had thrust upon you a greater burden of
responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.
``There is,'' said an Italian philosopher, ``nothing more
difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more
uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order of things.'' Yet this is the
measure of the task of your generation and the road is strewn
with many dangers.
First is the danger of futility; the belief there is
nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous
array of the world's ills--against misery, against ignorance,
or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great
movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work
of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant
reformation, a young general extended an empire from
Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman
reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian
explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas
Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal.
``Give me a place to stand,'' said Archimedes, ``and I will
move the world.'' These men moved the world, and so can we
all. Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of
us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in
the total of all these acts will be written the history of
this generation. Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers are
making a difference in the isolated villages and the city
slums of dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and
women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many
died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of
their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of
courage such as these that the belief that human history is
thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts
to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against
injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing
each other from a million different centers of energy and
daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the
mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
``If Athens shall appear great to you,'' said Pericles,
``consider then that her glories

[[Page S5634]]

were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their
duty.'' That is the source of all greatness in all societies,
and it is the key to progress in our own time.
The second danger is that of expediency; of those who say
that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate
necessities. Of course if we must act effectively we must
deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But if
there was one thing that President Kennedy stood for that
touched the most profound feeling of young people across the
world, it was the belief that idealism, high aspiration and
deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical
and efficient of programs--that there is no basic
inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities--no
separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind
and the rational application of human effort to human
problems. It is not realistic or hard-headed to solve
problems and take action unguided by ultimate moral aims and
values, although we all know some who claim that it is so. In
my judgement, it is thoughtless folly. For it ignores the
realities of human faith and of passion and of belief; forces
ultimately more powerful than all the calculations of our
economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to
standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate
dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we
also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever
achieve greatly.
It is this new idealism which is also, I believe, the
common heritage of a generation which has learned that while
efficiency can lead to the camps at Auschwitz, or the streets
of Budapest, only the ideals of humanity and love can climb
the hills of the Acropolis.
A third danger is timidity. Few men are willing to brave
the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their
colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a
rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence.
Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek
to change the world which yields most painfully to change.
Aristotle tells us ``At the Olympic games it is not the
finest or the strongest men who are crowned, but those who
enter the lists . . . so too in the life of the honorable and
the good it is they who act rightly who win the prize.'' I
believe that in this generation those with the courage to
enter the conflict will find themselves with companions in
every corner of the world.
For the fortunate amongst us, the fourth danger is comfort;
the temptation to follow the easy and familiar path of
personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread
before those who have the privilege of an education. But that
is not the road history has marked out for us. There is a
Chinese curse which says ``May he live in interesting
times.'' Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They
are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the
most creative of any time in the history of mankind. And
everyone here will ultimately be judged--will ultimately
judge himself--on the effort he has contributed to building a
new world society and the extent to which his ideals and
goals have shaped that effort.
So we part, I to my country and you to remain. We are--if a
man of forty can claim the privilege--fellow members of the
world's largest younger generation. Each of us have our own
work to do. I know at times you must feel very alone with
your problems and with your difficulties. But I want to say
how impressed I am with what you stand for and for the effort
you are making; and I say this not just for myself, but men
and women all over the world. And I hope you will often take
heart from the knowledge that you are joined with your fellow
young people in every land, they struggling with their
problems and you with yours, but all joined in a common
purpose; that, like the young people of my own country and of
every country that I have visited, you are all in many ways
more closely united to the brothers of your time than to the
older generation in any of these nations; you are determined
to build a better future. President Kennedy was speaking to
the young people of America, but beyond them to young people
everywhere, when he said ``The energy, the faith, the
devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our
country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can
truly light the world.''
And, he added, ``With a good conscience our only sure
reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go
forth and lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His
help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be
our own.''
I thank you.

____________________