Mitä vastaamme tuleville sukupolville, jotka kysyvät mitä teimme, kun aika ja mahdollisuudet rauhan ja vapauden säilyttämiseen olivat vielä olemassa?John Fitzgeral Kennedyn Salaiset Yhteisöt (1961) -puhe ja Rauhanpuhe (1963). Kaksi puhetta, jotka elävät maailman historiassa yhtä ajankohtaisena kuin puoli vuosisataa sitten. Ensimmäisessä puheessaan Kennedy viittaa asioiden taustalla vaikuttaviin voimasuhteisiin. Toisessa rauhantyön tärkeyteen. Tavoitteet, joihin Kennedy puheissaan pyrkii eivät ole toteutuneet eivätkä sen enemmän vanhentuneet. Ne ovat tänään yhtä ajankohtaisia kuin tuolloin.
Toteutuuko tavoite rauhasta nykyisellä kehityksellä koskaan? Montako sukupolvea, maata ja ihmishenkeä on vielä menetettävä ennen kuin olemme valmiita ihmiskuntana päättämään rauhasta? Milloin tulee aika, jolloin näiden tavoitteiden puolesta puhuminen on liian myöhäistä? Kuinka tärkeää rauha meille on? Mitä vastaamme tuleville sukupolville, jotka kysyvät mitä teimme, kun aika ja mahdollisuudet rauhan ja vapauden säilyttämiseen olivat vielä olemassa?
Not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and woman. Not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.
”What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of peace are we looking for? Not a Pax Americana in forced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace. The kind of peace that makes life on Earth worth living. The kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children. Not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and woman. Not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.”
”I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age where great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age where a single nuclear weapon contains almost 10 times the explosive force to lived by all the allied forces in the second world war. It makes no sense in an age where the deadly poisons by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and generations yet unborn.”
But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles which can only destroy and never create is not the only, much less the most efficient means of assuring peace.
”Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the propose of making sure we never need them is essential for the keeping of peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles which can only destroy and never create is not the only, much less the most efficient means of assuring peace. I speak of peace there for as the necessary, rational and of rational men.”
I realize that the persuade for peace is not as dramatic as the persuade of war. And frequently the words of the persuaders fall on death ears. But we have no more urgent task.
”I realize that the persuade for peace is not as dramatic as the persuade of war. And frequently the words of the persuaders fall on death ears. But we have no more urgent task. Some say that it is useless to talk of peace or world law or world disarmament. And that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do so. But I also believe we must examine our own attitude as individuals and as a nation. For our attitude is as essential as theirs.”
Mans reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable. And we believe they can do it again.
”– Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many of us think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous and defective belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is evitable. That man kind is doomed. That man kind is gripped by forces we can not control. Wee need not except that view. Our problems are man made. There fore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Mans reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable. And we believe they can do it again.”
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