Phrases

All the phrases that have meant so much to Americans--peace and progress, justice and compassion, leadership and idealism--often sound not like stirring reminders of our nation, but call forth the cynical laughter or hostility of our young and many of our adults.  Not because they do not believe them, but because they do not think our leaders believe them...

This is not simply the result of bad policies and lack of skill.  It flows from the fact that for almost the first time the national leadership is calling upon the darker impulses of the American spirit--not, perhaps, deliberately, but through its action and the example it sets an example where integrity, truth, honor, and all the rest seem like words to fill out speeches rather than guiding beliefs.  Thus we are turned inward.  People wish to protect what they have.  There is a failing of generosity and compassion.  There is an unwillingness to sacrifice or take risks.  All of this is contrary to the deepest and most dominant impulses of the American character--all that which has characterized two centuries of history.

--Robert F. Kennedy, March 24, 1968