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    "label": "Commencement Address, Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA, May 26, 1968",
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    "id": "4526130",
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    "title": "Commencement Address, Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA, May 26, 1968",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4526130",
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        "Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers",
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        "Civil disobedience",
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        "African Americans"
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    "ocrText": "-4-\nseize university buildings pretend to be liberals. Radicals are not liberals. They\nare the thieves of freedom, the destroyers of democracy, the tramplers of rights.\nAs news commentator and columnist Eric Sevareid puts it:\n\"Our freedom will be imperiled only if it turns into license, seriously\nimpairing order. There can be no freedom in the absence of order. There can be\nno personal or collective life worth living in the absence of moderation.\"\nEdmund Burke once wrote: \"Men are qualified for civil liberties in exact\nproportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.\nSociety cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed\nsomewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It\nis ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds\ncannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.\"\nThere is no excuse for violence--eithe in the streets or on the campuses.\nOur political system on all levels provides a variety of avenues to change,\nmethods to bring about reforms and improvements if they are needed. Peaceful\nprotests, petitions and discussion, peaceful demonstrations and the use of economic\nand political power are the proper instruments of change. Lawlessness is no\nshortcut, only the road to destruction.\nOurs is a free society based on law. To preserve that society we follow\ncertain procedures which guarantee the rights of others and preserve their freedoms.\nOrder is the basis of our constitutional system--and none of our system's\nimperfections justify tearing it down. Let's build on it.\nWe should not act out of fear but neither should we fear to act. We must\nact not because of Marches on Washington or riots in the cities but because there\nare problems which for too long have cried out for a solution and needs which for\ntoo long have gone unanswered.\nThe American people are confused and troubled. They are asking insistently\nwhat shall we do.\nFor the good of all, we must get about a task too long neglected--th\nrebuilding of our cities.\nWe can only rebuild our cities if we build the people of the central cities\ninto self-reliant individuals with the self-respect that brings respect from\nothers--help them to help themselves and to live better lives from a sense of\npersonal pride.\nWe need an entirely new approach to America's social problems today--not an\nexpansion of the traditional total government programs which have proved so\n(more)"
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