In spite of serious and deep ironies at this nation's birth, one of America's major problems, following the occupation of an important part of a continent, became that of trying to absorb and of carrying out an idea that gave rise to this nation.
This idea based on notions of freedom and equality developed a culture that later also accepted all of humanity and the equality of each individual in the world. However, even today we have been unable to condense in words and in deeds how we are to fulfill that role for ourselves as a nation and how to present it to the rest of the world.
We did not arrive here on this land in the spirit of freedom and equality. And it took many decades for us to understand the reality of the idea. Yet we must learn now how to express this spirit in the coming decades and especially in the immediate days ahead.
It must therefore become only natural for us to open ourselves up to the rising countries of Asia, to the importance of the Arabic nations, to the countries of South America and of Africa and to their cultures and to many of the embryonic nations and peoples of the world.
We need to draw the rest of the world toward us, not because of our importance but because of theirs. This need is a part of the character that we must develop further, if we are to become true to ourselves as a nation and to the rest of the world that looks to us and has become despondent because we have not expressed that character and the best that is within us. We must perform or we are lost.
How do we do this? We do this first of all, through an exchange of our cultures, our art, our literature and our music. The technology is at hand. And we can do this also by opening up our people to each others schools and universities and by exchanging goods and inviting travel to our country. We must learn to respect each other's languages by learning those languages and by speaking to each other in the other's language, not only in the words but by the spirit that each language connotes and imparts.
We must show to the rest of the world as well as to ourselves that as Americans that we believe in the equality of peoples and in equality of all human beings. This reality must become our national, and indeed our international objective. We cannot use our idea of democracy merely to promote war. And war is not the means for creating democracy.
We must start by taking one step at a time but then by taking many steps and quite rapidly and continuously as we move on. We should start taking these steps as soon as possible. We must start today and continue tomorrow. The world will accept our genuine spirit but not our arrogance. Arrogance is spawned by ignorance.
