"The trumpet summons us again ...to ...struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself."
President John F. Kennedy, 1961 [i]
The New Vision
In
his Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy outlined a new conception
of citizenship. There he said:
"Now the trumpet summons us
again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to
battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long
twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation'--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny,
poverty, disease and war itself.'"
The
Old Philosophy of Citizenship
Many
hold that our society is merely a rule-of-law system with no need to have any
concern for the quality of the individual citizens who populate it. Such individuals tend to believe that our
founding fathers did not have a common view of citizenship or they believe that
this view is embedded in the constitution.
But this is not correct. Their
real view was actually embodied in their way of life. And they were conscious of this fact.
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