Showing posts with label Godspeed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Godspeed. Show all posts

Wednesday 22 January 2020

TREATMENT







The Guide for the first part of your Inward Journey is your Intellect, the Masculine Traits of Intelligence, Proportion and Good Sense.

The Lowest Level of Hell is the worst. It is FROZEN. 

To reach The Coldness of Life — Loneliness and Meaninglessness — is The worst experience a human being goes through, worse than the fiery aspects of Hell. Under the guidance of Virgil, Dante gets to the bottom of Hell and just keeps going. You don’t come out of Hell through the door you entered. You go through it and out the other side. On the other side of Hell lies Heaven.

Dante and Virgil are in the middle of the world, which is where the Devil lives. And Dante gets through that nodal point, the point of zero gravity at the center of the world, by shimmying down the hairy leg of the Devil, and finds himself in Purgatory. 

Hell lays out what’s Wrong — the hellish dimensions of life — and Purgatory begins The Repair, what you need in order to be restored. 

You need to be treated.


The verb ‘to treat’ comes from the Latin tractare “ to pull or drag.” 

The earliest therapists had a series of stones with increasingly smaller holes in them, and you were literally pulled through —the biggest one first, a smaller one next, until you couldn’t be pulled through any more. 

You came out of this experience minus a bit of skin, but you were treated. 

Dante is pulled through A hole from the center of the world and begins his ascent through Purgatory, its many levels and teachings.

At this point, Virgil approaches Dante and says, “I cannot take you any further. One Greater Than I will be your guide from here.” 

Dante is shaken, because he has depended entirely on Virgil. Virgil continues, 
“Beatrice will guide you from Here,” 
the same Beatrice who had opened the vision of Heaven for him on the Ponte Vecchio.

Excerpt from: 
"Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection" 
by Arnie Kotler

[Hangar One]

COMMANDER: 
...Regula I, Tracy, USS Farragut... USS Enterprise, McGrath, USS ... Vader, USS Hood. 
Welcome to Starfleet, godspeed. 

KIRK: 
He didn't call my name. Commander! 
Sir, you didn't call my name. 
Kirk, James T.? 

COMMANDER: 
Kirk, you're on academic suspension. 
That means you're grounded, until the Academy board rules. 

MCCOY: 
Jim, the board'll rule in your favor. 
Most likely. Look, Jim, I got to go. 

KIRK: 
Yeah, get going. 
Be safe. 

OFFICER: 
Excuse me. 

KIRK: 
Yeah, yeah, sorry. 

MCCOY: 
....Dammit. Come with me. 


FEMALE ASSIGNER: 
...USS Neutral, 
Uhura, USS Farragut, 
Petroski, USS Antares. 
Go to your stations and good luck. 

(Gaila smiles wide past Uhura, who has a dour expression

KIRK: 
Bones, where are we going? 

MCCOY: 
You'll see. 

(they pass Uhura) 

[Medical Bay]

KIRK: 
What are you doing? 

MCCOY: 
I'm doing you a favor. 
I couldn't just leave you there looking all pathetic. 
Take a seat. I'm going to give you a vaccine against viral infection from Melvaran mud fleas. 

KIRK: 
Oww! What for? 

MCCOY: 
To give you the symptoms. 

KIRK: 
What are you talking about? 

MCCOY: 
You're going to start to lose vision in your left eye. 

KIRK: 
Yeah, I already have. 

MCCOY: 
Oh, and you're going to get a really bad headache and a flop sweat. 

KIRK: 
You call this a FAVOUR? 

MCCOY: 
Yeah, you owe me one.

[Hangar One]

MALE ASSIGNER: 
Kirk, James T. 
He's not cleared for duty aboard the Enterprise. 

MCCOY: 
Medical Code states the treatment and transport of a patient to be determined at the discretion of his attending physician, which is me. 

So, I'm taking Mister Kirk aboard. 

Or would you like to explain to Captain Pike why the Enterprise warped into a crisis without one of its senior medical officers? 


MALE ASSIGNER: 
As you were. 

KIRK: 
As you were. 

MCCOY: 
C'mon.

[Shuttlecraft Gilliam]

(as the shuttlecrafts head to their various ships, including the Enterprise) 

KIRK: 
I might throw up on you. 

MCCOY: 
Oh Jim, you got to look at this. 
Jim, look! 

KIRK: What? 

(they look out at Earth Spacedock and the massive Enterprise)

[Enterprise Shuttlebay]

MCCOY: 
We need to get you changed. 

KIRK: 
I don't feel right. 
I feel like I'm leaking. 

MCCOY:
Hell, it's that pointy-eared bastard. 

(Kirk and McCoy swerve to narrowly avoid being spotted by Spock. Spock enters a turbolift and arrives on the bridge)

[Sickbay]

KIRK: 
Where are we? 

MCCOY: 
Medical bay. 

KIRK: 
This is worth it. 

MCCOY: 
A little suffering's good for the soul. 

KIRK: (to a nurse) 
Hi, how are you. 

MCCOY: 
Over here. 

KIRK: 
My mouth is itchy, is that normal? 

MCCOY: 
Well, those symptoms won't last long. 
I'm going to give you a mild sedative. 

KIRK: 
Agh, I wish I didn't know you. 

MCCOY: 
Don't be such an infant. 

(he applies the sedative to Kirk) 

KIRK: 
Aggh... how long is it supposed to... 

(he falls unconscious) 

MCCOY: 
Unbelievable.

(Kirk awakes in front of the monitor) 


Kirk: 
Lightning storm! 

MCCOY: 
Uh, Jim, you're awake. 
How do you feel? 

KIRK: 
ah.. uh... 

MCCOY: 
Good god, man! 

KIRK: 
What? Ah! 

(His hands come into view, extremely swollen) 

KIRK: 
What the hell's this?! 

MCCOY: 
Reaction to the vaccine. 
Dammit! 
Nurse Chapel, I need fifty cc's of cortazone. 

CHAPEL: (offscreen) 
Yes, sir. 

(Kirk replays Chekov's message as McCoy scans Kirk) 

KIRK: 
Nice. We got to stop the ship!

[Corridor]

(Kirk and McCoy are frantically running through the corridors) 

MCCOY: 
Jim! I'm not kidding, we need to keep your heart rate down! 

KIRK: 
Computer, locate crew member Uhura! 

MCCOY: 
I haven't seen a reaction this severe since med school. 

KIRK: 
We're flying into a trap! 

MCCOY: 
Dammit Jim, stand still. 

(McCoy hypos Kirk in the neck) 

KIRK: 
Ow! Stop it! 

(Kirk runs and finds Uhura) 

KIRK: 
Uhura, Uhura. 

UHURA: 
Kirk, what are you doing here? 

KIRK: 
The transmission from the Klingon prison planet, what exactly was... 

UHURA: 
Oh my god, what's wrong with your hands?! 

(McCoy begins scanning Kirk again) 

KIRK:
It-it-it... look, who is responsible for the Klingon attack? 
Was the ship Romul... 

UHURA: 
Was the ship what? 

KIRK: (to McCoy) 
What's happening to my mouth? 

MCCOY: 
You got numb tongue? 

KIRK: (mumbled) 
Numb tongue! 

MCCOY: 
I can fix that! 

(McCoy briefly leaves) 

UHURA: 
Was the ship what? 

KIRK: (mumbled) Romulan! 

UHURA: What? 

KIRK: (mumbled, but clearer) Romulan 

UHURA:
Romulan? 

KIRK: (mumbled) 
Yeah 

UHURA: 
Yes. 

KIRK: (mumbled) 
Yes! 

(Kirk is hypoed again by McCoy) 

KIRK: (mumbled) 
Ahh... dammit! 

[Vulcan] 
(a massive drill platform is in the atmosphere, from the Narada. Amanda sees it from her home, just beyond the Vasquez Rocks)

[Narada Bridge]

AYEL: 
Lord Nero, seven Federation ships are on their way. 

[Enterprise Corridor] 
(Kirk, McCoy, and Uhura are now running through the corridors) 

MCCOY: 
Jim! 

UHURA: 
What's going on?! 

MCCOY: 
Jim, come back! 

UHURA: 
Kirk!

[Bridge]

KIRK: 
Captain! 

MCCOY: 
Jim, no! 

KIRK: 
Captain Pike, we have to stop the ship! 

PIKE:
Kirk, how the hell did you get on board the Enterprise! 

MCCOY: 
Captain, this man's under the influence of a severe reaction of a Melvaran flea vaccine, completely...
 
KIRK: 
Bones, Bones... 

MCCOY:
...delusional. 
I take full responsibility. 

KIRK: 
Vulcan is not experiencing a natural disaster. 
It's being attacked by Romulans.
 
PIKE: Romulans? Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day. McCoy take him back to medical, we'll have words later. 
MCCOY: Aye Captain. 
KIRK: Look, sir, that same anomaly... 
PIKE: Mister Kirk... 
SPOCK: Mister Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel. 
KIRK: Look, I get it, you're a great orator. I'd love to do it again with you to. 
SPOCK: I can remove the Cadet... 
KIRK: Try it! This Cadet is trying to save the bridge. 
SPOCK: By recommending a full stop mid-warp during a rescue mission? 
KIRK: It's not a rescue mission, listen, it's an attack. 
SPOCK: Based on what facts? 
KIRK: That same anomaly, a lightning storm in space that we saw today, also occurred on the day of my birth. Before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin. (to Pike) You know that, sir, I read your dissertation. That ship which had formidable and advanced weaponry was never seen or heard from again. The Kelvin attack to place on the edge of Klingon space and at twenty-three hundred hours last night, there was an attack. Forty-seven Klingon warbirds destroyed by a Romulan, sir. It was reported that the Romulans were in one ship, one massive ship. 
PIKE: And you know of this Klingon attack how? 
UHURA: Sir, I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate. 
KIRK: We're warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us, I promise you that. 
SPOCK: The Cadet's logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics, we would be wise to accept her conclusion. 
PIKE: Scan Vulcan space, check for any transmissions in Romulan. 
MALE LIEUTENANT: Sir, I'm not sure I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan. 
PIKE: (to Uhura) What about you? Do you speak Romulan, Cadet? 
UHURA: Uhura. All three dialects, sir. 
PIKE: Uhura, relieve the lieutenant. 
UHURA: Yes sir. 
PIKE: Hannity, hail the USS Truman. 
HANNITY: All the other ships are out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan, but we seemed to have lost all contact. 
UHURA: Sir, I pick up no Romulan transmission, or transmission of any kind in the area. 
KIRK: It's because they're being attacked. 
PIKE: Shields up, red alert. 
SULU: Arrival in Vulcan in five seconds... four... three... two... 
(the arrive into a huge space battle) 
PIKE: Emergency evasive. 
OFFICER: Running sir. 
(bridge officers begin their reporting) 
PIKE: Damage report. 
OFFICER: Deflector shields are holding. 
PIKE: All stations. Engineer Olson, report. 
PIKE: Full reverse, come about starboard ninety degrees, drop us underneath and... 
(everyone is amazed at the massive Narada)



Tuvok and security arrive.)
NEELIX: 
Something's wrong with him. 

EMH:
Don't you know it's rude to refer to somebody in the third person. 
You had a choice, Mister Neelix. Should I do something rude or not do something rude? 
TUVOK: Doctor, we must return to Sickbay. 
EMH: Why should I? What if I don't want to return to Sickbay? What if I decide not to return to Sickbay? No, I don't choose this. Leave me alone! Let me go! Why did she have to die? Why did I kill her? Why did I decide to kill her? Why? Somebody tell me why!

[Computer control room]

JANEWAY: It was downhill from there. You developed a feedback loop between your ethical and cognitive subroutines. You were having the same thoughts over and over again. We couldn't stop it.     
TORRES: Our only option was to erase your memories of those events. 
EMH: You were right. I didn't deserve to keep those memories, not after what I did. 
JANEWAY: You were performing your duty. 
EMH: Two patients, which do I kill? 
JANEWAY: Doctor.     
EMH: Doctor? Hardly! A doctor retains his objectivity. I didn't do that, did I? Two patients, equal chances of survival and I chose the one I was closer to? I chose my friend? That's not in my programming! That's not what I was designed to do! Go ahead! Reprogramme me! I'll lend you a hand! Let's start with this very day, this hour, this second! 
JANEWAY: Computer, deactivate the EMH. 
TORRES: Here we go again. Captain? 
JANEWAY: It's as though there's a battle being fought inside him, between his original programming and what he's become. Our solution was to end that battle. What if we were wrong? 
TORRES: We've seen what happens to him. In fact, we've seen it twice. 
JANEWAY: Still, we allowed him to evolve, and at the first sign of trouble? We gave him a soul, B'Elanna. Do we have the right to take it away now? 
TORRES: We gave him personality subroutines. I'd hardly call that a soul.

[Cargo Bay two]

(Janeway brings Seven out of regeneration.)
SEVEN: Captain. 
JANEWAY: I'm having trouble with the nature of individuality. 
SEVEN: You require a philosophical discussion? 
JANEWAY: There's a time and a place for it. This is one of them. After I freed you from the Collective, you were transformed. It's been a difficult process. Was it worth it? 
SEVEN: I had no choice. 
JANEWAY; That's not what I asked you. 
SEVEN: If I could change what happened, erase what you did to me, would I? No.

Captain's log, supplemental. Our Doctor is now our patient. It's been two weeks since I've ordered a round the clock vigil. A crew member has stayed with him at all times, offering a sounding board and a familiar presence while he struggles to understand his memories and thoughts. The chance of recovery? Uncertain.

[Holodeck]

EMH: The more I think about it, the more I realise there's nothing I could've done differently. 
JANEWAY: What do you mean? 
EMH: The primordial atom burst, sending out its radiation, setting everything in motion. One particle collides with another, gases expand, planets contract, and before you know it we've got starships and holodecks and chicken soup. In fact, you can't help but have starships and holodecks and chicken soup, because it was all determined twenty billion years ago!  
(Tuvok enters during this outburst.)
TUVOK: There is a certain logic to your logic. Progress? 
JANEWAY: I'm not sure if he's making any sense of this experience, or if his programme's just running in circles. 
TUVOK: You've been here for sixteen hours. Let me continue while you rest. 
JANEWAY: I'll be all right. Go back to the bridge.  
(Tuvok leaves. Janeway returns to her book.)
EMH: How can you read at a time like this? 
JANEWAY: It helps me think. 
EMH: Think? What do you need to think about? 
JANEWAY: You. This book is relevant to your situation. 
EMH: Oh? What is it? 
JANEWAY: Poetry, written on Earth a thousand years ago. La Vita Nuova. 
EMH: La Vita Nuova. The New Life? Ha! Tell that to Ensign Jetal. Actually, I killed her countless times. 
JANEWAY: What do you mean? 
EMH: Causality, probability. For every action, there's an infinite number of reactions and in each one of them, I killed her. Or did I? Too many possibilities. Too many pathways for my programme to follow. Impossible to choose. Still, I can't live with the knowledge of what I've done. I can't. 
(Janeway has fallen asleep.)
EMH: Captain? Captain? 
JANEWAY: Oh, sorry. 
EMH: How could you sleep at a time like this? 
JANEWAY: It's been a long day. You were saying? 
EMH: What's wrong? 
JANEWAY: Nothing. 
EMH: You're ill! 
JANEWAY: I have a headache. 
EMH: Fever, you have a fever. 
JANEWAY: I'll live. 
EMH: Medical emergency! 
JANEWAY: Doctor. 
EMH: Someone's got to treat you immediately. Call Mister Paris. You've got to get to Sickbay. 
JANEWAY: Doctor, I'm a little busy right now, helping a friend. 
EMH: I, I'll be all right. Go, sleep, please. I'll still be here in the morning. 
JANEWAY: Are you sure? 
EMH: Yes. Please, I don't want to be responsible for any more suffering. 
(Janeway leave her book open at the first page.)
JANEWAY: Good night. If you need anything. 
EMH: I'll call. Thank you, Captain. (Janeway leaves. The EMH picks up the book and reads aloud.)
EMH: In that book which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you, appear the words - Here begins a new life.

Monday 22 July 2019

The Majors Tom : The Right Stuff



I think there is a Power Greater Than Us 
that will place The Opportunities in Our Way.





Who are you guys?
 

We're aborigines.
Who are you?
 

Me?
I'm an Astronaut.
 

Well, what do you do here, Astronaut?
 

I'm here because a buddy of mine is getting ready to fly overhead. Up in outer space.
And I'll be talking to him on that dish.
 

Fly over?
You blokes do that, too?
 

You do that yourself?
 

Not me, mate.
See that old bloke there?
He know.
He know The Moon.
He know The Star.
And he know the Milky Way.
He'll give you a hand.
He know.


We're gonna need all the help we can get.
 

Stand by for final ten-second count.
The Clock is operating.
We're underway!
Good Lord, ride all the way.
Godspeed, John Glenn.



I was brought up believing that you are placed on Earth...
more or less with a 50-50 proposition.


This is what I still believe.


We're placed here with certain talents and capabilities...
and it's up to each one of us to use those talents as best we can.
And if we use our talents properly...
I think there is a Power Greater Than Us that will place The Opportunities in our way.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Come Home, America...










"Of all the men that have run for president in the twentieth century, only George McGovern truly understood what a monument America could be to the human race. "


Hunter S. Thompson 



"If the current polls are reliable... Nixon will be re-elected by a huge majority of Americans who feel he is not only more honest and more trustworthy than George McGovern, but also more likely to end the war in Vietnam. 

The polls also indicate that Nixon will get a comfortable majority of the Youth Vote. And that he might carry all fifty states... 

This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. 

The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes... understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. 

McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose... 

Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?"
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72



ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
OF
SENATOR GEORGE MCGOVERN
Democratic National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida
July 14, 1972





Chairman O’Brien, Chairwoman Burke, Senator Kennedy, Senator Eagleton and my fellow citizens, I’m happy to join us for this benediction of our Friday sunrise service.

I assume that everyone here is impressed with my control of this Convention in that my choice for Vice President was challenged by only 39 other nominees.

And I can tell you that Eleanor is very grateful that the Oregon delegation at least kept her in the race with Martha Mitchell.  So I congratulate you on your patience and I pay my respects to those two superb presiding officers of this convention, Larry O’Brien and Yvonne Braithwaite Burke. 

So tonight I accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart. 

This afternoon I crossed the wide Missouri to recommend a running mate of wide vision and deep compassion, Senator Tom Eagleton. 

I’m proud to have him at my side, and I’m proud to have been introduced a moment ago by one of the most eloquent and courageous voices in this land Senator Ted Kennedy.



My nomination is all the more precious and that it is a gift of the most open political process in all of our political history.

It is the sweet harvest of the work of tens of thousands of tireless volunteers, young and old alike, funded by literally hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation.

Those who lingered on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this campaign, heart, hand, head and soul, and I have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country.

It is an organization that gives dramatic proof to the power of love and to a faith that can literally move mountains.

As Yeats put it, “Count where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say: My glory was I had such friends.”

This is the people’s nomination and next January we will restore the government to the people of this country.

I believe that American politics will never be quite the same again.

We are entering a new period of important and hopeful change in America, a period comparable to those eras that unleashed such remarkable ferment in the period of Jefferson and Jackson and Roosevelt.

Let the opposition collect their $10 million in secret money from the privileged few and let us find one million ordinary Americans who will contribute $25 each to this campaign, a Million Member Club with members who will not expect special favors for themselves but a better land for us all.

In the literature and music of our children we are told, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.  And for America, the time has come at last.

This is the time for truth, not falsehood. In a Democratic nation, no one likes to say that his inspiration came from secret arrangements by closed doors, but in the sense that is how my candidacy began.  I am here as your candidate tonight in large part because during four administrations of both parties, a terrible war has been chartered behind closed doors.

I want those doors opened and I want that war closed. And I make these pledges above all others: the doors of government will be opened, and that war will be closed.

Truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics, and if we nurture the habit of truth in this campaign, we will continue to be truthful once we are in the White House.

Let us say to Americans, as Woodrow Wilson said in his first campaign of 1912, “Let me inside the government and I will tell you what is going on there.”

Wilson believed, and I believe, that the destiny of America is always safer in the hands of the people then in the conference rooms of any elite.

So let us give our – let us give your country the chance to elect a Government that will seek and speak the truth, for this is the time for the truth in the life of this country.

And this is also a time, not for death, but for life. In 1968 many Americans thought they were voting to bring our sons home from Vietnam in peace, and since then 20,000 of our sons have come home in coffins.

I have no secret plan for peace.  I have a public plan. And as one whose heart has ached for the past ten years over the agony of Vietnam, I will halt a senseless bombing of Indochina on Inaugural Day.

There will be no more Asian children running ablaze from bombed-out schools. There will be no more talk of bombing the dikes or the cities of the North.

And within 90 days of my inauguration, every American soldier and every American prisoner will be out of the jungle and out of their cells and then home in America where they belong.

And then let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad.

This is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. America must be restored to a proper role in the world. But we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves.

I treasure this nomination, especially because it comes after vigorous competition with the ablest men and women our party has to offer.

-- my old and treasured friend and neighbor, Hubert Humphrey;

-- a gracious and a good man from the state of Maine, Ed Muskie;

-- a tough fighter for his own convictions, Scoop Jackson of Washington;

-- and a brave and spirited woman, Shirley Chisholm;

-- a wise and effective lawmaker from Arkansas, Wilbur Mills;

-- And the man from North Carolina who over the years has opened new vistas in education and public excellence, Terry Sanford;

-- the leader who in 1968 combined both the travail and the hope of the American spirit,  Senator Eugene McCarthy;

-- And I was as moved as well by the appearance in the Convention Hall of the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace. His votes in the primaries showed clearly the depth of discontent in this country, and his courage in the face of pain and adversity is the mark of a man of boundless will, despite the senseless act that disrupted his campaign. And, Governor, we pray for your full recovery so you can stand up and speak out for all of those who see you as their champion. 

Now, in the months ahead I deeply covet the help of every Democrat, of every Republican, of every Independent who wants this country to be a great and good land that it can be.

This is going to be a national campaign, carried to every part of the nation -- North, South, East and West. We’re not conceding a single state to Richard Nixon.

I should like to say to my friend, Frank King, that Ohio may have passed a few times in this convention, but Tom Eagleton and I are not going to pass Ohio.

I shall say to Governor Gilligan, Ohio is sometimes a little slow in counting the votes, but when those votes are counted next November, Ohio will be in the Democratic victory column.

Now, to anyone in this hall or beyond who doubts the ability of Democrats to join together in common cause, I say never underestimate the power of Richard Nixon to bring harmony to Democratic ranks. He is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign and all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge made ten years ago -- that next year you won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore.

We have had our fury and our frustrations in these past months and at this Convention, but frankly, I welcome the contrast with the smug and dull and empty event which will doubtless take place here in Miami next month.

We chose this struggle, we reformed our Party, and we let the people in. So we stand today not as a collection of backroom strategies, not as a tool of ITT or any other special interest. So let our opponents stand on the status quo while we seek to refresh the American spirit.

I believe that the greatest contribution America can now make to our fellow mortals is to heal our own great but very deeply troubled land. We must respond -- we must respond to that ancient command: “Physician, heal thyself.”

Now, it is necessary in an age of nuclear power and hostile forces that we’ll be militarily strong.  America must never become a second-rate nation. As one who has tasted the bitter fruits of our weakness before Pearl Harbor in 1941, I give you my pledge that if I become the President of the United States, America will keep its defenses alert and fully sufficient to meet any danger.

We will do that not only for ourselves, but for those who deserve and need the shield of our strength -- our old allies in Europe and elsewhere, including the people of Israel who will always have our help to hold their Promised Land.

Yet I believe that every man and woman in this Convention Hall knows that for 30 years we have been so absorbed with fear and danger from abroad that we have permitted our own house to fall into disarray.

We must now show that peace and prosperity can exist side by side. Indeed, each now depends on the existence of the other. National strength includes the credibility of our system in the eyes of our own people as well as the credibility of our deterrent in the eyes of others abroad.

National security includes schools for our children as well as silos for our missiles.

It includes the health of our families as much as the size of our bombs, the safety of our streets, and the condition of our cities, and not just the engines of war.

If we some day choke on the pollution of our own air, there will be little consolation in leaving behind a dying continent ringed with steel.

So while protecting ourselves abroad, let us form a more perfect union here at home. And this is the time for that task.

We must also make this a time of justice and jobs for all our people. For more than three and half years we have tolerated stagnation and a rising level of joblessness, with more than five million of our best workers unemployed at this very moment. Surely, this is the most false and wasteful economics of all. 

Our deep need is not for idleness but for new housing and hospitals, for facilities to combat pollution and take us home from work, for better products able to compete on vigorous world markets.

The highest single domestic priority of the next administration will be to ensure that every American able to work has a job to.

That job guarantee will and must depend on a reinvigorated private economy, freed at last from the uncertainties and burdens of war, but it is our firm commitment that whatever employment the private sector does not provide, the Federal government will either stimulate or provide itself.

Whatever it takes, this country is going back to work. America cannot exist with most of our people working and paying taxes to support too many others mired in a demeaning and hopeless welfare mess.

Therefore, we intend to begin by putting millions back to work and after that is done, we will assure to those unable to work an income fully adequate to a decent life.

Now beyond this, a program to put America back to work demands that work be properly rewarded.  That means the end of a system of economic controls in which labor is depressed, but prices and corporate profit run sky-high.

It means a system of national health insurance so that a worker can afford decent health care for himself and his family.

It means real enforcement of the laws so that the drug racketeers are put behind bars and our streets are once again safe for our families.

And above all, above all, honest work must be rewarded by a fair and just tax system.

The tax system today does not reward hard work: it’s penalizes it. Inherited or invested wealth frequently multiplies itself while paying no taxes at all. But wages on the assembly line or in farming the land, these hard – earned dollars are taxed to the very last penny.

There is a depletion allowance for oil wells, but no depletion for the farmer who feeds us, or the worker who serves as all.






The administration tells us that we should not discuss tax reform and the election year. They would prefer to keep all discussion of the tax laws in closed rooms where the administration, its powerful friends, and their paid lobbyists, can turn every effort at reform into a new loophole for the rich and powerful.

But an election year is the people’s year to speak, and this year, the people are going to ensure that the tax system is changed so that work is rewarded and so that those who derive the highest benefits will pay their fair share rather than slipping through the loopholes at the expense of the rest of us.

So let us stand for justice and jobs and against special privilege.

And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, “America -- love it or leave it. “ We reply, ”Let us change it so we may love it the more.”

And this is the time.  It is the time for this land to become again a witness to the world for what is just and noble in human affairs. It is time to live more with faith and less with fear, with an abiding confidence that can sweep away the strongest barriers between us and teach us that we are truly brothers and sisters.

So join with me in this campaign. Lend Senator Eagleton and me your strength and your support, and together we will call America home to the ideals that nourished us from the beginning.

From secrecy and deception in high places; come home, America

From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation; come home, America.

From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism; from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor; from the prejudice based on race and sex; from the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of  the neglected sick -- come home, America.

Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward.

Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world, and let us be joyful in that homecoming, for this “is your land, this land is my land -- from California to New York island, from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters -- this land was made for you and me.”

So let us close on this note: May God grant each one of us the wisdom to cherish this good land and to meet the great challenge that beckons us home.

And now is the time to meet that challenge.

Good night, and Godspeed to you all.









I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. 




I am fed up with a system which busts the pot smoker and lets the big dope racketeer go free. 


I am 1,000 percent for Tom Eagleton and I have no intention of dropping him from the ticket. 





The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain. 



No man should advocate a course in private that he's ashamed to admit in public. 



The Establishment center... has led us into the stupidest and cruelest war in all history. That war is a moral and political disaster - a terrible cancer eating away at the soul of our nation. 


The whole campaign was a tragic case of mistaken identity. 
Politics is an act of faith; you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public. 
The longer the title, the less important the job. 
You know, sometimes, when they say you're ahead of your time, it's just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing...