[excerpts] Trump's Speech vs Kennedy and Obama's

 

[excerpts] Trump's Inauguration Speech vs Kennedy and Obama's

January 2017

Having listened to Trump’s inauguration address the other day, and being reassured by the folks at Fortune media to only watch his actions and ignore his words- it’s interesting to take a look at some of the speeches made by other public servants. I’d like to think that there is still some deeper virtue that motivates our politicians beyond just material welfare.

“Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task. It is to confront the poverty of satisfaction…that afflicts us all.” Americans have given themselves over to “the mere accumulation of things.”

“Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.  It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them.  It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.  It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities.  It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.  Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.  It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.  It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.  And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

Robert F. Kennedy
University of Kansas
March 18, 1968

 https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-F-Kennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.aspx

 

“Each day, it seems, thousands of Americans are going about their daily rounds - dropping off the kids at school, driving to the office, flying to a business meeting, shopping at the mall, trying to stay on their diets - and they’re coming to the realization that something is missing. They are deciding that their work, their possessions, their diversions, their sheer busyness, is not enough.They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives. They’re looking to relieve a chronic loneliness, a feeling supported by a recent study that shows Americans have fewer close friends and confidants than ever before. And so they need an assurance that somebody out there cares about them, is listening to them - that they are not just destined to travel down that long highway towards nothingness.”

Barack Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/us/politics/2006obamaspeech.html