..when you teach a man to hate and to fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues. When you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your home or your family then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens, but as enemies to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and to be mastered. We learn at the last to look at our brothers as aliens. Alien men with whom we share a city, but not a community. Men bound to us in common dwelling but not in a common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other. Only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. Our lives on this planet are too short. The work to be done is too great, to let this spirit flourish any longer in this land of ours. Of course we cannot banish this with a program but we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers. That they share with us the same short moment of life. That they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfiment that they can. Surely this bond of common fate, surely this bond of common goals can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn at the least to look around at those of us, of our fellow man, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts, brothers and countrymen once again. -RFK
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:52:07 +0000
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