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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY, May 13, 1968 (Speech not delivered)
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY, May 13, 1968 (Speech not delivered)
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The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Wagner College, Staten Island,
NY, May 13, 1968 (Speech not delivered)" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press
Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D24 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
WAGNER COLLEGE, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.
8 P.M. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1968.
"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"
WE LIVE IN A FRIGHTENING AGE--AN
AGE WHEN VIOLENCE IS BROUGHT INTO THE LIVING
ROOM OF EVERY AMERICAN HOME WITH A TELEVISION
SET.
THIS IS NOT THE HEALTHY VIOLENCE
OF THE COWBOY WESTERN, WITH THE GOOD GUYS AND
THE BAD GUYS FIGHTING IT OUT AND THE GOOD
GUYS NATURALLY. WINNING EVERY TIME.
NOW IT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING. IT'S
THE RIOTS WHICH HAVE GUTTED PARTS OF MORE THAN
100 AMERICAN CITIES. IT'S THE ACTION SHOTS OF
A BLOODY WAR BEING FOUGHT BY AMERICANS IN A
LITTLE RICE-GROWING COUNTRY HALFWAY ACROSS THE
WORLD. IT'S A GROUP OF RADICAL STUDENTS
SEIZING UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS AND PRODUCING
FORD LIBRARY 07
-2-
CHAOS, ANARCHY, FIST-THROWING AND HEAD-
CRACKING AT ONE OF THE NATION'S OUTSTANDING
SCHOOLS.
H. RAP BROWN, THE NEGRO MILITANT
NOW UNDER INDICTMENT FOR INCITING TO ARSON
AND CARRYING A RIFLE ACROSS STATE LINES, ONCE
REMARKED THAT VIOLENCE IS AS AMERICAN AS
APPLE PIE.
I DISAGREE. I THINK NEARLY ALL OF
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE APPALLED BY VIETNAM,
THE RIOTING IN OUR CITIES AND THE VIOLENT
STUDENT PROTESTS.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE A DEEPLY
MORAL PEOPLE. THEY ARE VERY MUCH CONCERNED
WITH RIGHT AND WRONG. AND THEY ARE VERY MUCH
CONCERNED THAT THIS BE A NATION OF LAWS. OURS
IS THE PURITAN TRADITION, WITH AN OVERLAY OF
THE DEEPLY RELIGIOUS FEELING IN THOSE EUROPEANS
WHO EMIGRATED TO AMERICA IN GREAT WAVES DURING
THE LATE 19th AND EARLY 20th CENTURIES.
-3-
AMERICANS TODAY ARE DEEPLY DISTURBED,
AND THEY ARE CONFUSED. THEY ARE ASKING WHY?
WHY?...AND WHAT'S TO BE DONE?
I DON'T THINK ANY ONE INDIVIDUAL
IN AMERICA HAS THE ANSWERS. BUT PERHAPS ALL OF
US TOGETHER DO
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESPERATELY
WANT THE RIOTING TO END
THEY
WANT
THE
RICTING
$
TO ENDE
THEY WANT TO "MAKE THINGS RIGHT."
THE QUESTION AWAITING ACTION AND AN ANSWER IS
"HOW."
WHEN THE RIOTING FIRST BEGAN IN THE
CENTRAL CITIES, MANY AMERICANS SAID: "THIS IS
NOT THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AT WORK; THIS
IS THE END OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT."
THEY WERE RIGHT, AND THEY WERE
WRONG.
IT WAS THE END OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT AS WE HAD KNOWN IT
PEACEFUL
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
PROTESTS, NON-VIDLENT DEMONSTRATIONS,
-4-
PETITIONS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ECONOMIC
BOYCOTT.
THE WEAPONS OF NON-VIOLENT PROTEST
HAD PRODUCED CONSIDERABLE SUCCESS FOR THOSE
SEEKING SOCIAL CHANGE AND LEGISLATION
GUARANTEEING CERTAIN CIVIL RIGHTS.
LANDMARK CIVIL RIGHTS BILLS WERE
PASSED, AND MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR ECONOMIC
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS WERE LAUNCHED.
THIS PUSH FOR PEACEFUL CHANGE HAD
THE BACKING OF A MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE-WHITE AND BLACK.
THERE SEEMS NO QUESTION THAT THE
ENACTMENT OF CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION AND OF
MASSIVE SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS CAUSED A
MAJORITY OF AMERICAN NEGROES TO BELIEVE THEIR
LIVES WOULD SOMEHOW BE MIRACULOUSLY CHANGED.
GREAT HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS WERE AROUSED.
BUT THE PROMISE INHERENT IN SUCH
LEGISLATION WAS INCAPABLE OF SHORT-TERM
GERALD
LIBRARY
-5-
FULFILLMENT--IF INDEED THE PROMISE COULD BE
REALIZED WITH THE MEANS AT HAND.
THE RHETORIC OF THE PROMISSORY
POLITICIAN HAD MISLED SLUM DWELLERS INTO
BELIEVING THERE WAS HOPE FOR EARLY ELIMINATION
OF ALL THE INEQUALITY AND IMBALANCE IN THE
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SPHERES OF
AMERICAN LIFE.
THIS PRODUCED A TERRIBLE FRUSTRATION,
FED BY BLACK MILITANTS WHO HATE THE WHITE MAN
AND SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO ASSUME POSITIONS OF
LEADERSHIP AMONG THEIR PEOPLE. AND SO THERE
EMERGED A NEW MOVEMENT AMONG THE AMERICAN
NEGRO--THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT MARKED BY
VIOLENCE, ARSON, LOOTING AND DEFINITE LINKS
WITH COMMUNIST THOUGHT AND LEADERSHIP.
I DO NOT THINK IT IS INACCURATE TO
LINK, ALSO, THE BLACK MILITANTS IN THE CENTRAL
CITIES WITH THE BLACK MILITANTS ON SOME COLLEGE
RARY
CAMPUSES WHO HAVE CREATED ANARCHY AND CHAOS
-6-
AT SOME SCHOOLS. THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT MOST
OF THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE BLACK MILITANTS ON
COLLEGE CAMPUSES ARE SEEKING THE OVERTHROW OF
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.
BUT THE BASIC TACTIC IS THE SAME--
VIOLENCE EMPLOYED TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE THROUGH
TERROR AND COERCION.
THIS IS ALIEN TO THE AMERICAN
CHARACTER. THIS IS ALIEN TO THE AMERICAN
SYSTEM. THIS IS TERRORISM. THIS IS WHAT
STOKELY CHARMICHAEL MEANS WHEN HE CALLS FOR A
VIETNAM IN AMERICA.
A WAVE OF LAWLESSNESS HAS SWEPT
ACROSS THIS COUNTRY. WHILE THE NON-VIOLENT
PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES CONTINUES--
AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE POOR PEOPLE'S MARCH ON
WASHINGTON--THE CONSTANT FEAR NOW IS THAT
OSTENSIBLY NON-VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS WILL ERUPT
INTO VIOLENCE.
THE REPEATED RESORT TO VIOLENCE IN
-7-
THE CENTRAL CITIES AND ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
CANNOT BE TOLERATED IN AMERICA. LAWBREAKERS
MUST BE DEALT WITH FIRMLY BUT FAIRLY. IT IS
WRONG TO ACCEPT WRONGDOING. THAT WAY LIES
DISASTER.
YET REPRESSION ALONE IS NOT THE
ANSWER. THE PARALLEL NEED IS FOR A NEW
PROGRAM OF EDUCATION IN THIS NATION--A DIALOGUE
BETWEEN THE HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS, COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN THOSE IN POWER AND THOSE WITH REAL OR
IMAGINED GRIEVANCES. THE BEST PRESCRIPTION FOR
PEACE, WHETHER IN THE HOME, ON THE CAMPUS, OR
IN WORLD COUNCILS, HAS ALWAYS BEEN: LET'S TALK
THIS OUT.
WE MUST TALK WITH EACH OTHER AND WE
MUST TALK WITH THE MILITANTS, AS DIFFICULT AS
THE LATTER MAY BE.
THERE ARE MANY DEFECTS IN OUR
SOCIETY. THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT CHANGES
MUST BE MADE, IMPROVEMENTS ACHIEVED, ADVANCES
-8-
REALIZED. BUT THE CHANGES MUST BE MADE ON THE
BASIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION, CAREFUL
CONSIDERATION AND THOUGHT, AND INTELLIGENT
DECISIONS--NOT BECAUSE SOME BLACK MILITANT
URGES NEGROES IN THE CENTRAL CITY TO GO GET
THEM A GUN.
THE MILITANTS, THE RADICALS, THE
NEW LEFT SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO OFFER
WHEN THEY DEMAND CHANGES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY
AND THEY SHOULD MAKE A CASE FOR IT.
IT IS NOT HELPFUL FOR A NEGRO
STUDENT TO ASK, AS ONE DID OF ME DURING A VISIT
TO MY CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE: "WHAT WILL YOU DO
IF WE JUST KEEP ON BURNING DOWN YOUR CITIES?"
IT IS TRULY IRONIC THAT THE CAMPUS
RADICALS WHO SHOUT DOWN SPEAKERS AND SEIZE
UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS PRETEND TO BE LIBERALS.
RADICALS ARE NOT LIBERALS. THEY ARE THE THIEVES
OF FREEDOM, THE DESTROYERS OF DEMOCRACY, THE
TRAMPLERS OF RIGHTS.
-9-
AS NEWS COMMENTATOR AND COLUMNIST
ERIC SEVAREID PUTS IT:
"OUR FREEDOM WILL BE IMPERILED ONLY
IF IT TURNS INTO LICENSE, SERIOUSLY IMPAIRING
ORDER. THERE CAN BE NO FREEDOM IN THE ABSENCE
OR ORDER. THERE CAN BE NO PERSONAL OR
COLLECTIVE LIFE WORTH LIVING IN THE ABSENCE OF
MODERATION."
ONE OF THE SHOCKING ASPECTS OF THE
RECENT RIOT IN WASHINGTON, D.C., WAS THE
CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE AMONG THE LOOTERS AND THE
SIGHT OF POLICEMEN MERELY STANDING BY WHILE
CELEBRANTS MADE OFF WITH STORE ITEMS.
THE STRANGE ELEMENT IN THAT RIOT
IS THAT SOME OF THE LOOTERS WERE GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYES WHO WERE MAKING FAIRLY GOOD MONEY.
ACCORDING TO NEWS STORIES, THESE
PEOPLE FELT ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES AFTER THE
RIOTING HAD STOPPED AND ORDER RETURNED TO THE
NATION'S CAPITAL. IN FACT, SOME OF THE LOOTERS
-10-
WANTED TO BRING ITEMS BACK IF NO QUESTIONS
WOULD BE ASKED.
THERE IS HOPE, THEN, FOR SOME SELF-
DISCIPLINE IN THIS SITUATION IN FUTURE.
EDMUND BURKE ONCE WROTE: "MEN ARE
QUALIFIED FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES IN EXACT
PROPORTION TO THEIR DISPOSITION TO PUT MORAL
CHAINS UPON THEIR OWN APPETITES. SOCIETY
CANNOT EXIST UNLESS A CONTROLLING POWER UPON
WILL AND APPETITE BE PLACED SOMEWHERE, AND THE
LESS OF IT THERE IS WITHIN, THE MORE THERE
MUST BE WITHOUT. IT IS ORDAINED IN THE ETERNAL
CONSTITUTION OF THINGS THAT MEN OF INTEMPERATE
MINDS CANNOT BE FREE. THEIR PASSIONS FORGE THEIR
FETTERS."
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR VIOLENCE--
EITHER IN THE STREETS OR ON THE CAMPUSES.
OUR SYSTEM PROVIDES A VARIETY OF
AVENUES TO CHANGE, METHODS TO BRING ABOUT
REFORMS AND IMPROVEMENTS IF THEY ARE NEEDED.
-11-
PEACEFUL PROTESTS, PETITIONS AND DISCUSSION,
PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS AND THE USE OF ECONOMIC
AND POLITICAL POWER ARE THE PROPER INSTRUMENTS
OF CHANGE. LAWLESSNESS IS NO SHORTCUT, ONLY
THE ROAD TO DESTRUCTION.
OURS IS A FREE SOCIETY BASED ON
LAW. TO PRESERVE THAT SOCIETY WE FOLLOW
CERTAIN PROCEDURES WHICH GUARANTEE THE RIGHTS
OF OTHERS AND PRESERVE THEIR FREEDOMS. ORDER
IS THE BAISS OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM--AND
NONE OF OUR SYSTEM'S IMPERFECTIONS JUSTIFY
TEARING IT DOWN. LET'S BUILD ON IT.
AS PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY SAID:
"WE MUST MOVE THIS COUNTRY AHEAD."
THIS MEANS THAT WE SHOULD NOT ACT
OUT OF FEAR BUT NEITHER SHOULD WE FEAR TO ACT.
WE MUST ACT NOT BECAUSE OF MARCHES ON
WASHINGTON OR RIOTS IN THE CITIES BUT BECAUSE
FORD
THERE ARE PROBLEMS WHICH FOR TOO LONG HAVE
LIBRAR
CRIED OUT FOR A SOLUTION AND NEEDS WHICH FOR TOO
-12-
LONG HAVE GONE UNANSWERED.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE CONFUSED
AND TROUBLED. THEY ARE ASKING INSISTENTLY..
WHAT SHALL WE DO.
I THINK THE NATIONAL ADVISORY
COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS HAS PROVIDED US
WITH A BASIC GUIDE TOWARD THE RESTORATION OF
PEACE AND THE MAKING OF PROGRESS IN OUR CENTRAL
CITIES.
I DO NOT ACCEPT ALL OF THE
COMMISSION'S CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
BUT THE COMMISSION'S REPORT POINTED THE WAY TO
A COMMON-SENSE ACTION PROGRAM FOR THE CITIES.
FOR THE GOOD OF ALL THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE, WE MUST GET ABOUT A TASK TOO LONG
NEGLECTED--THE REBUILDING OF OUR CITIES.
I BELIEVE WE CAN ONLY REBUILD OUR
CITIES IF WE BUILD THE PEOPLE OF THE CENTRAL
CITIES INTO SELF-RELIANT INDIVIDUALS WITH THE
FORD
SELF-RESPECT THAT BRINGS RESPECT FROM OTHERS-
GERA
-13-
HELP THEM TO HELP THEMSELVES AND TO LIVE BETTER
LIVES FROM A SENSE OF PERSONAL PRIDE.
THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS
SAID THE BASIC PRESCRIPTION FOR CURING THE
SICKNESS OF THE CITIES IS JOBS. I AGREE. I HAVE
LONG URGED THE CONGRESS TO OFFER INDUSTRY TAX
CREDITS SO AS TO TRIGGER A NATIONWIDE PROGRAM
OF ON-THE-JOB TRAINING FOR CENTRAL CITY YOUTHS
AND TO GET INDUSTRY TO BUILD INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
IN THE CENTRAL CITY. THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL
DISORDERS HAS ENDORSED SUCH A PLAN--BUT THE
PRESENT ADMINISTRATION IS OPPOSED.
COUPLED WITH A NATIONWIDE PROGRAM
OF ON-THE-JOB TRAINING BY INDUSTRY I SEE A PLAN
TO LAUNCH A MASSIVE, GOVERNMENT-UNDERWRITTEN
PROGRAM OF MORTGAGE FUNDING FOR LOW-INCOME
FAMILIES--A NATIONAL HOME OWNERSHIP FOUNDATION--
TO PROVIDE PRIVATE HOUSING FOR THOSE OF LOW
INCOME AND GIVE THEM THE TREMENDOUS PERSONAL
PRIDE THAT GOES WITH HOME OWNERSHIP. THIS
-14-
WOULD HELP KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER AND THUS
STRENGTHEN THE ENTIRE FABRIC OF OUR SOCIETY.
WE NEED AN ENTIRELY NEW APPROACH
TO AMERICA'S SOCIAL PROBLEMS TODAY--NOT AN
EXPANSION OF THE TRADITIONAL TOTAL GOVERNMENT
PROGRAMS WHICH HAVE PROVED SO INADEQUATE. WE
NEED TO BRING BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY INTO A
LEADERSHIP ROLE IN PROBLEM-SOLVING, ALONG WITH
GOVERNMENT, AT ALL LEVELS.
AND WE MUST CULTIVATE A NEW MEASURE
OF UNDERSTANDING AMONG THE AMERICAN PEOPLE--
THE REALIZATION, AS ABRAHAM LINCOLN EXPRESSED
IT, THAT A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT
STAND.
I SAID AT THE OUTSET THAT I BELIEVE
ALL AMERICANS WORKING TOGETHER CAN SURMOUNT
THE TERRIBLE PROBLEMS WHICH BESET US TODAY. I
FIRMLY BELIEVE THIS.
THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS
DID THIS COUNTRY A SERVICE WHEN THEY WARNED
-15-
THAT WE WERE MOVING TOWARD TWO WARRING
SOCIETIES-ONE WHITE AND ONE BLACK. THIS IS A
SICKNESS. IT IS A SICKNESS WHICH ARISES NOT
ONLY FROM MISUNDERSTANDING, HOSTILITY AND HATRED
BUT FROM APATHY AND ALOOFNESS.
YOU CAN HELP TO CURE THE SICKNESS
THAT INFECTS AMERICA TODAY IF YOU WILL ALWAYS
REMEMBER THAT EVERY MAN WANTS TO FEEL HE COUNTS
FOR SOMETHING. THAT EVERY MAN WANTS TO BE
RESPECTED AND LOVED.
THE WAY FOR AMERICA TO SOLVE ITS
PROBLEMS IS TO GET ALL AMERICANS INVOLVED IN
SOLVING THEM. WE CAN ACHIEVE MIGHTILY IF WE
CAN ONLY TAP THE GREAT WELL OF COMMITMENT AND
IDEALISM THAT IS JUST WAITING TO BE DRAWN UPON.
ARE YOU CONCERNED? THE CRISIS OF THE
CITIES TELLS US THAT WE SHOULD ALL BE CONCERNED.
THE AFFLUENT HAVE FLED THE CTIES, LEAVING THEM
TO SIMMER WITH THEIR SLUMS AND THEIR SEETHING
RAL
LIBRARY
DISCONTENT. IF OUR CITIES DIE, ALL AMERICANS
-16-
WILL BE AFFECTED.
WE ARE ALL A PART OF HUMANITY; WE
MUST NOT FAIL EACH OTHER.
AS THE BRITISH POET JOHN DONNE SO
NOBLY EXPRESSED IT:
"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, ENTIRE OF
ITSELF; EVERY MAN IS A PIECE OF THE CONTINENT,
A PART OF THE MAIN.
"ANY MAN'S DEATH DIMINISHES ME,
BECAUSE I AM INVOLVED IN MANKIND, AND THEREFORE
NEVER SEND TO KNOW FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS; IT
TOLLS FOR THEE."
ANOTHER GREAT BRITISHER, WINSTON
CHURCHILL, ONCE SAID: "GIVE US THE TOOLS, AND
WE WILL FINISH THE JOB."
YOU HAVE THE TOOLS TO DO THE JOB--
YOU AND OTHER AMERICANS WHO ARE WILLING AND
EAGER TO GET INVOLVED IN YOUR COLLEGE'S
PROBLEMS, IN YOUR COMMUNITY'S PROBLEMS, IN
V8817
YOUR COUNTRY'S PROBLEMS. YOU HAVE TALENT; YOU
-17-
HAVE BRAINS. GIVE OF YOURSELF TO AMERICA.
WITH YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE YOU, WE
CANNOT HELP BUT SUCCEED.
-END-
Distribution 20 Capies Mr. Ford
M affice Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH., AT WAGNER COLLEGE, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.
FOR DELIVERY AT 8 P.M. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1968.
[Note= Speech not
For Release in Tuesday AM's
Deliverd]
"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"
We live in a frightening age--an age when violence is brought into the
living room of every American home with a television set.
This is not the healthy violence of the cowboy Western, with the good guys
and the bad guys fighting it out and the good guys naturally winning every
time.
Now it's what's happening. It's the riots which have gutted parts of more
than 100 American cities. It's the action shots of a bloody war being fought
by Americans in a little rice-growing country halfway across the world. It's
a group of radical students seizing university buildings and producing chaos,
anarchy, fist-throwing and head-cracking at one of the Nation's outstanding
schools.
H. Rap Brown, the Negro militant now under indictment for inciting to arson
and carrying a rifle across state lines, once remarked that violence is as
American as apple pie.
I disagree. I think nearly all of the American people are appalled by
Vietnam, the rioting in our cities and the violent student protests.
The American people are a deeply moral people. They are very much concerned
with right and wrong. And they are very much concerned that this be a Nation of
laws. Ours is the Puritan tradition, with an overlay of the deeply religious
feelings in those Europeans who emigrated to America in great waves during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Americans today are deeply disturbed, and they are confused. They are
asking why? why? and what's to be done?
I don't think any one individual in America has the answers. But perhaps
all of us
together
do.
The American people desperately want the rioting to end. They want to
"make things right." The question awaiting action and an answer is "how."
When the rioting first began in the central cities, many Americans said:
"This is not the civil rights movement at work; this is the end of the civil
rights movement."
(more) FORD LIBRARY
-2-
They were right, and they were wrong.
It was the end of the civil rights movement as we had known it peaceful
protests, non-violent demonstrations, petitions, communications and economic
boycott.
The weapons of non-violent protest had produced considerable success for
those seeking social change and legislation guaranteeing certain civil rights.
Landmark civil rights bills were passed, and multi-billion-dollar economic
assistance programs were launched.
This push for peaceful change had the backing of a majority of the American
people--white and black.
There seems no question that the enactment of civil rights legislation and
of massive social welfare programs caused a majority of American Negroes to
believe their lives would somehow be miraculously changed. Great hopes and
expectations were aroused.
But the promise inherent in such legislation was incapable of short-term
fulfillment if indeed the promise could be realized with the means at hand.
The rhetoric of the promissory politician had misled slum dwellers into
believing there was hope for early elimination of all the inequality and
imbalance in the economic, social and political spheres of American life.
This produced a terrible frustration, fed by black militants who hate the
white man and saw an opportunity to assume positions of leadership among their
people. And so there emerged a new movement among the American Negro--the Black
Power movement marked by violence, arson, looting and definite links with
Communist thought and leadership.
I do not think it is inaccurate to link, also, the black militants in the
central cities with the black militants on some college campuses who have created
anarchy and chaos at some schools. This is not to say that most of those who
support the black militants on college campuses are seeking the overthrow of the
United States government.
But the basic tactic is the same--violence employed to bring about change
through terror and coercion.
This is alien to the American character. This is alien to the American
system. This is terrorism. This is what Stokely Carmichael means when he calls
for a Vietnam in America.
A wave of lawlessness has swept across this country. While the non-violent
petition for redress of grievances continues--as exemplified by the Poor People's
(more)
-3-
March on Washington--the constant fear now is that ostensibly non-violent
demonstrations will erupt into violence.
The repeated resort to violence in the central cities and on college campuses
cannot be tolerated in America. Lawbreakers must be dealt with firmly but
fairly. It is wrong to accept wrongdoing. That way lies disaster.
Yet repression alone is not the answer. The parallel need is for a new
program of education in this Nation--a dialogue between the haves and have-nots,
communication between those in power and those with real or imagined grievances.
The best prescription for peace, whether in the home, on the campus, or in world
councils, has always been: Let's talk this out.
We must talk with each other and we must talk with the militants, as
difficult as the latter may be.
There are many defects in our society. There is no question that changes
must be made, improvements achieved, advances realized. But the changes must be
made on the basis of knowledge and information, careful consideration and thought,
and intelligent decision--not because some black militant urges Negroes in the
central city to go get them a gun.
The militants, the radicals, the New Left should have something better to
offer when they demand changes in American society and they should make a case
for it.
It is not helpful for a Negro student to ask, as one did of me during a
visit to my congressional office: "What will you do if we just keep on burning
down your cities?"
It is truly ironic that the campus radicals who shout down speakers and
seize university buildings pretend to be liberals. Radicals are not liberals.
They are the thieves of freedom, the destroyers of democracy, the tramplers of
rights.
As news commentator and columnist Eric Sevareid puts it:
"Our freedom will be imperiled only if it turns into license, seriously
impairing order. There can be no freedom in the absence of order. There can be
no personal or collective life worth living in the absence of moderation."
One of the shocking aspects of the recent riot in Washington, D. C., was
the carnival atmosphere among the looters and the sight of policemen merely
standing by while celebrants made off with store items.
The strange element in that riot is that some of the looters were government
employes who were making fairly good money.
According to news stories, these people felt ashamed of themselves after
(more)
-4-
the rioting had stopped and order returned to the Nation's capital. In fact,
some of the looters wanted to bring items back if no questions would be asked.
There is hope, then, for some self-discipline in this situation in future.
Edmund Burke once wrote: "Men are qualified for civil liberties in exact
proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed
somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate
minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
There is no excuse for violence--either in the streets or on the campuses.
Our system provides a variety of avenues to change, methods to bring about
reforms and improvements if they are needed. Peaceful protests, petitions and
discussion, peaceful demonstrations and the use of economic and political power
are the proper instruments of change. Lawlessness is no shortcut, only the road
to destruction.
Ours is a free society based on law. To preserve that society we follow
certain procedures which guarantee the rights of others and preserve their
freedoms. Order is the basis of our constitutional system--and none of our
system's imperfections justify tearing it down. Let's build on it.
As President John F. Kennedy said: "We must move this country ahead."
This means that we should not act out of fear but neither should we fear to
act. We must act not because of Marches on Washington or riots in the cities
but because there are problems which for too long have cried out for a solution
and needs which for too long have gone unanswered.
The American people are confused and troubled. They are asking insistently
what shall we do.
I think the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders has provided
us with a basic guide toward the restoration of peace and the making of progress
in our central cities.
I do not accept all of the commission's conclusions and recommendations
but the commission's report pointed the way to a common-sense action program for
the cities.
For the good of all the American people, we must get about a task too long
neglected--the rebuilding of our cities.
I believe we can only rebuild our cities if we build the people of the
central cities into self-reliant individuals with the self-respect that brings
(more)
-5-
respect from others--help them to help themselves and to live better lives from
a sense of personal pride.
The Commission on Civil Disorders said the basic prescription for curing
the sickness of the cities is jobs. I agree. I have long urged the Congress
to offer industry tax credits so as to trigger a nationwide program of on-the-job
training for central city youths and to get industry to build industrial plants
in the central city. The Commission on Civil Disorders has endorsed such a plan--
but the present Administration is opposed.
Coupled with a nationwide program of on-the-job training by industry I
see a plan to launch a massive, government-underwritten program of mortgage
funding for low-income families-- National Home Ownership Foundation--to provide
private housing for those of low income and give them the tremendous personal
pride that goes with home ownership. This would help keep families together and
thus strengthen the entire fabric of our society.
We need an entirely new approach to America's social problems today--not an
expansion of the traditional total government programs which have proved so
inadequate. We need to bring business and industry into a leadership role in
problem-solving, along with government, at all levels.
And we must cultivate a new measure of understanding among the American
people--the realization, as Abraham Lincoln expressed it, that a House divided
against itself cannot stand.
I said at the outset that I believe all Americans working together can
surmount the terrible problems which beset us today. I firmly believe this.
The Commission on Civil Disorders did this country a service when they
warned that we were moving toward two warring societies--one white and one black.
This is a sickness. It is a sickness which arises not only from misunderstanding,
hostility and hatred but from apathy and aloofness.
You can help to cure the sickness that infects America today if you will
always remember that every man wants to feel he counts for something, that every
man wants to be respected and loved.
The way for America to solve its problems is to get all Americans involved
in solving them. We can achieve mightily if we can only tap the great well of
commitment and idealism that is just waiting to be drawn upon.
Are you concerned? The crisis of the cities tells us that we should all
be concerned. The affluent have fled the cities, leaving them to simmer with
their slums and their seething discontent. If our cities die, all Americans
will be affected.
(more)
-6-
We are all a part of humanity; we must not fail each other.
As the British poet John Donne so nobly expressed it:
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Another great Britisher, Winston Churchill, once said: "Give us the tools,
and we will finish the job."
You have the tools to do the job--you and other Americans who are willing and
eager to get involved in your college's problems, in your community's problems,
in your country's problems. You have talent; you have brains. Give of yourself
to America.
With young people like you, we cannot help but succeed.
# # #
Note :
Speech not
Delivered
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH., AT WAGNER COLLEGE, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.
FOR DELIVERY AT 8 P.M. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1968.
For Release in Tuesday AM's
"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"
We live in a frightening age--an age when violence is brought into the
living room of every American home with a television set.
This is not the healthy violence of the cowboy Western, with the good guys
and the bad guys fighting it out and the good guys
naturally
winning every
time.
Now it's what's happening. It's the riots which have gutted parts of more
than 100 American cities. It's the action shots of a bloody war being fought
by Americans in a little rice-growing country halfway across the world. It's
a group of radical students seizing university buildings and producing chaos,
anarchy, fist-throwing and head-cracking at one of the Nation's outstanding
schools.
H. Rap Brown, the Negro militant now under indictment for inciting to arson
and carrying a rifle across state lines, once remarked that violence is as
American as apple pie.
I disagree. I think nearly all of the American people are appalled by
Vietnam, the rioting in our cities and the violent student protests.
The American people are a deeply moral people. They are very much concerned
with right and wrong. And they are very much concerned that this be a Nation of
laws. Ours is the Puritan tradition, with an overlay of the deeply religious
feelings in those Europeans who emigrated to America in great waves during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Americans today are deeply disturbed, and they are confused. They are
asking why?
why?
and what's to be done?
I don't think any one individual in America has the answers. But perhaps
all of us
together
do.
The American people desperately want the rioting to end. They want to
"make things right." The question awaiting action and an answer is "how."
When the rioting first began in the central cities, many Americans said:
"This is not the civil rights movement at work; this is the end of the civil
rights movement."
(more)
-2-
They were right, and they were wrong.
It was the end of the civil rights movement as we had known it peaceful
protests, non-violent demonstrations, petitions, communications and economic
boycott.
The weapons of non-violent protest had produced considerable success for
those seeking social change and legislation guaranteeing certain civil rights.
Landmark civil rights bills were passed, and multi-billion-dollar economic
assistance programs were launched.
This push for peaceful change had the backing of a majority of the American
people--white and black.
There seems no question that the enactment of civil rights legislation and
of massive social welfare programs caused a majority of American Negroes to
believe their lives would somehow be miraculously changed. Great hopes and
expectations were aroused.
But the promise inherent in such legislation was incapable of short-term
fulfillment if indeed the promise could be realized with the means at hand.
The rhetoric of the promissory politician had misled slum dwellers into
believing there was hope for early elimination of all the inequality and
imbalance in the economic, social and political spheres of American life.
This produced a terrible frustration, fed by black militants who hate the
white man and saw an opportunity to assume positions of leadership among their
people. And so there emerged a new movement among the American Negro--the Black
Power movement marked by violence, arson, looting and definite links with
Communist thought and leadership.
I do not think it is inaccurate to link, also, the black militants in the
central cities with the black militants on some college campuses who have created
anarchy and chaos at some schools. This is not to say that most of those who
support the black militants on college campuses are seeking the overthrow of the
United States government.
But the basic tactic is the same--violence employed to bring about change
through terror and coercion.
This is alien to the American character. This is alien to the American
system. This is terrorism. This is what Stokely Carmichael means when he calls
for a Vietnam in America.
A wave of lawlessness has swept across this country. While the non-violent
petition for redress of grievances continues--as exemplified by the Poor People's
(more)
-3-
March on Washington--the constant fear now is that ostensibly non-violent
demonstrations will erupt into violence.
The repeated resort to violence in the central cities and on college campuses
cannot be tolerated in America. Lawbreakers must be dealt with firmly but
fairly. It is wrong to accept wrongdoing. That way lies disaster.
Yet repression alone is not the answer. The parallel need is for a new
program of education in this Nation--a dialogue between the haves and have-nots,
communication between those in power and those with real or imagined grievances.
The best prescription for peace, whether in the home, on the campus, or in world
councils, has always been: Let's talk this out.
We must talk with each other and we must talk with the militants, as
difficult as the latter may be.
There are many defects in our society. There is no question that changes
must be made, improvements achieved, advances realized. But the changes must be
made on the basis of knowledge and information, careful consideration and thought,
and intelligent decision--not because some black militant urges Negroes in the
central city to go get them a gun.
The militants, the radicals, the New Left should have something better to
offer when they demand changes in American society and they should make a case
for it.
It is not helpful for a Negro student to ask, as one did of me during a
visit to my congressional office: "What will you do if we just keep on burning
down your cities?"
It is truly ironic that the campus radicals who shout down speakers and
seize university buildings pretend to be liberals. Radicals are not liberals.
They are the thieves of freedom, the destroyers of democracy, the tramplers of
rights.
As news commentator and columnist Eric Sevareid puts it:
"Our freedom will be imperiled only if it turns into license, seriously
impairing order. There can be no freedom in the absence of order. There can be
no personal or collective life worth living in the absence of moderation."
One of the shocking aspects of the recent riot in Washington, D. C., was
the carnival atmosphere among the looters and the sight of policemen merely
standing by while celebrants made off with store items.
The strange element in that riot is that some of the looters were government
employes who were making fairly good money.
According to news stories, these people felt ashamed of themselves after
(more)
-4-
the rioting had stopped and order returned to the Nation's capital. In fact,
some of the looters wanted to bring items back if no questions would be asked.
There is hope, then, for some self-discipline in this situation in future.
Edmund Burke once wrote: "Men are qualified for civil liberties in exact
proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed
somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate
minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
There is no excuse for violence--either in the streets or on the campuses.
Our system provides a variety of avenues to change, methods to bring about
reforms and improvements if they are needed. Peaceful protests, petitions and
discussion, peaceful demonstrations and the use of economic and political power
are the proper instruments of change. Lawlessness is no shortcut, only the road
to destruction.
Ours is a free society based on law. To preserve that society we follow
certain procedures which guarantee the rights of others and preserve their
freedoms. Order is the basis of our constitutional system--and none of our
system's imperfections justify tearing it down. Let's build on it.
As President John F. Kennedy said: "We must move this country ahead."
This means that we should not act out of fear but neither should we fear to
act. We must act not because of Marches on Washington or riots in the cities
but because there are problems which for too long have cried out for a solution
and needs which for too long have gone unanswered.
The American people are confused and troubled. They are asking insistently
what shall we do.
I think the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders has provided
us with a basic guide toward the restoration of peace and the making of progress
in our central cities.
I do not accept all of the commission's conclusions and recommendations
but the commission's report pointed the way to a common-sense action program for
the cities.
For the good of all the American people, we must get about a task too long
neglected the rebuilding of our cities.
I believe we can only rebuild our cities if we build the people of the
central cities into self-reliant individuals with the self-respect that brings
(more)
-5-
respect from others--help them to help themselves and to live better lives from
a sense of personal pride.
The Commission on Civil Disorders said the basic prescription for curing
the sickness of the cities is jobs. I agree. I have long urged the Congress
to offer industry tax credits so as to trigger a nationwide program of on-the-job
training for central city youths and to get industry to build industrial plants
in the central city. The Commission on Civil Disorders has endorsed such a plan--
but the present Administration is opposed.
Coupled with a nationwide program of on-the-job training by industry I
see a plan to launch a massive, government-underwritten program of mortgage
funding for low-income families--a National Home Ownership Foundation--to provide
private housing for those of low income and give them the tremendous personal
pride that goes with home ownership. This would help keep families together and
thus strengthen the entire fabric of our society.
We need an entirely new approach to America's social problems today--not an
expansion of the traditional total government programs which have proved so
inadequate. We need to bring business and industry into a leadership role in
problem-solving, along with government, at all levels.
And we must cultivate a new measure of understanding among the American
people--the realization, as Abraham Lincoln expressed it, that a House divided
against itself cannot stand.
I said at the outset that I believe all Americans working together can
surmount the terrible problems which beset us today. I firmly believe this.
The Commission on Civil Disorders did this country a service when they
warned that we were moving toward two warring societies--one white and one black.
This is a sickness. It is a sickness which arises not only from misunderstanding,
hostility and hatred but from apathy and aloofness.
You can help to cure the sickness that infects America today if you will
always remember that every man wants to feel he counts for something, that every
man wants to be respected and loved.
The way for America to solve its problems is to get all Americans involved
in solving them. We can achieve mightily if we can only tap the great well of
commitment and idealism that is just waiting to be drawn upon.
Are you concerned? The crisis of the cities tells us that we should all
be concerned. The affluent have fled the cities, leaving them to simmer with
their slums and their seething discontent. If our cities die, all Americans
will be affected.
(more)
-6-
We are all a part of humanity; we must not fail each other.
As the British poet John Donne so nobly expressed it:
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Another great Britisher, Winston Churchill, once said: "Give us the tools,
and we will finish the job."
You have the tools to do the job--you and other Americans who are willing and
eager to get involved in your college's problems, in your community's problems,
in your country's problems. You have talent; you have brains. Give of yourself
to America.
With young people like you, we cannot help but succeed.
# # #