TED SORENSEN SPEECH... GIMME A BREAK

I posted this as a favor to my friend, Thomas (ex-Clintonite with the hope of returning to the White House from exile through Kerry). He asked me to post this a few weeks back, but I was lazy about it. I might rebut points in this speech later on.

Fourth of July, 2004: "A Time to Weep"

by Ted Sorensen
Commencement Address, The New School, New York City
May 21, 2004

(Note: Theodore C. Sorensen, the leading Wall Street lawyer and former top aid to President John F. Kennedy, gave the following commencement address at The New School University in New York City on May 21, 2004. This speech is a call to arms, which deserves the serious attention of every patriotic American on this Fourth of July 2004 weekend.)

As a Nebraska émigré, I am proud to be made an Honorary Doctor of Laws by another Nebraska émigré, President Bob Kerrey, at an institution founded by still another, Alvin Johnston.

Considering the unhealthy state of our laws today, they probably could use another doctor.

My reciprocal obligation is to make a speech.

This is not a speech. Two weeks ago I set aside the speech I prepared. This is a cry from the heart, a lamentation for the loss of this country's goodness and therefore its greatness.

Future historians studying the decline and fall of America will mark this as the time the tide began to turn - toward a mean-spirited mediocrity in place of a noble beacon.

For me the final blow was American guards laughing over the naked, helpless bodies of abused prisoners in Iraq. "There is a time to laugh," the Bible tells us, "and a time to weep." Today I weep for the country I love, the country I proudly served, the country to which my four grandparents sailed over a century ago with hopes for a new land of peace and freedom. I cannot remain silent when that country is in the deepest trouble of my lifetime.

I am not talking only about the prison abuse scandal - that stench will someday subside. Nor am I referring only to the Iraq war - that too will pass - nor to any one political leader or party. This is no time for politics as usual, in which no one responsible admits responsibility, no one genuinely apologizes, no one resigns and everyone else is blamed. (full speech)