Library at Cal. State University Long Beach Will use New Methods of Delivering Knowledge to Students
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
Students at California State University Long Beach should be please to know that access to the stored books and journals in the University Library will be available as soon as the Online Remote Collections Access or ORCA room is completed.
The completion of this facility will help to solve problems like availability, accessibility, technological currency, accuracy and obstacles of searching that the over 42,000 students that use the library in a week (some repeats) face on the way to receiving information.
"ORCA is a machine," said Henry Dubois, the administrative services librarian. "It’s a physical delivery machine, and what it delivers is knowledge contained in objects like books, microfilm, and some of our archival collections."
The system itself works by students first going to a browsing computer where they will have a list of all the hard copy materials in ORCA. They will put in a request for an item and the ORCA will activate.
The ORCA will remove a container from the stacks and deliver it to a station where a librarian will hand deliver the book to the student. From the request to the hand off the whole process is estimated to take five minutes.
"There are two benefits to this that we see," said Dubois. "It increases browseablilty of our existing and remaining stacks because not all books are going into ORCA."
The other benefit is by not having the shelves filled with journals used every six or eight years it increases the browseablilty and speeds up the process of finding what a student might need, Dubois said.
With the loss of tangible materials, students so far have been coping with the loss by using the Internet via the computers provided at the Spidell Technology Center to gather information.
"I’ve only used (the library) once," said Journalism major Eddie Bermudez, 30, "for the computers."
More students come forward with similar views.
"I use it for the Internet," says 22-year-old Jennifer Vandekieft.
With many people using the Internet as a source of information gathering will the ORCA even matter to students?
"I don’t think students will know or care," said Dubois. "I think they’ll become aware of it when they come and try to find something and it’s retrieved that way."
But what do students rely on until then?
"The library, since I’ve been here about nine years," said Lesley Farmer, Librarian Program Coordinator, "has a steadily improving website that provides students with research guides, with web tutorials and contact information so that will help them."
A big concern, aside from the materials being available and accessible, is that they have to actually be in the library and not slipped out in a back pack.
"The fact that these materials will be really secure (means) there’s going to be less theft so you’re more likely to get the materials you want," Farmer said.
Despite the wonders of the Internet age there still is a need for hard copy information in today’s world.
"If you’re researching the Kennedy assassination for example are you’re looking for books that where written at the time you’re going to need to use books," said Dubois. "And those kinds of books could be housed in ORCA."
"It’s very frustrating," agrees Farmer. "Not having the print journals, sometimes the faculty asks students to photocopy the cover of a journal and we only have the electronic form. Usually the databases don’t include a print cover. So that’s frustrating and the most immediate need."
For more information contact:
Henry Dubois at 562-982-8880 or hdubois@csulb.edu.
Lesley Farmer at 562-985-4517 or lfarmer@csulb.edu.
Contact David Cowan at dbcowan1985@yahoo.com or through his blog at theshadowsknowledge-david.blogspot.com
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Know the Lies
The First Round of Presidential Political Mudslinging Begins
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
COSTA MESA, Calif. (May 11, 2008)--John McCain is a clone of President Bush. Junior Illinois Senator Barack Obama is a risk to National Security. And those are the nice one's.
An article by Jitendra Joshi is showing how both the Democratic and Republican parties are going on the attack before a democratic candidate has officially been chosen.
Despite the lead of Sen. Obama, Sen. Hilliary Clinton vows to stay in the race and more than likely further divide the Democratic Party.
The Shadow Knows
Why, why, why? Like watching a train wreck in slow motion these campaigns go forward. I look not to the future but to the past for a good candidate. The November election will be the most important event of the year. I don't care about the Led Zeppelin reunion concert this is more important.
I look at politics from the perspective of the 50's, 60's and 70's where candidates ran on their merits not on their opponents weaknesses. I wonder what would happen today if politics had remained relatively clean.
The closest we came was when Sen. Obama addresses the country after the statements made by his former pastor Rev. Wright. It was not a denouncement at that point but free press to talk about the lack of importance that race carried in the election. Made me tingly.
Now the senator has distanced himself for his former pastor and in my mind shown his sense of loyalty. Is this the kind of candidate we want? Because at this point it's the best the democratic party has.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
COSTA MESA, Calif. (May 11, 2008)--John McCain is a clone of President Bush. Junior Illinois Senator Barack Obama is a risk to National Security. And those are the nice one's.
An article by Jitendra Joshi is showing how both the Democratic and Republican parties are going on the attack before a democratic candidate has officially been chosen.
Despite the lead of Sen. Obama, Sen. Hilliary Clinton vows to stay in the race and more than likely further divide the Democratic Party.
The Shadow Knows
Why, why, why? Like watching a train wreck in slow motion these campaigns go forward. I look not to the future but to the past for a good candidate. The November election will be the most important event of the year. I don't care about the Led Zeppelin reunion concert this is more important.
I look at politics from the perspective of the 50's, 60's and 70's where candidates ran on their merits not on their opponents weaknesses. I wonder what would happen today if politics had remained relatively clean.
The closest we came was when Sen. Obama addresses the country after the statements made by his former pastor Rev. Wright. It was not a denouncement at that point but free press to talk about the lack of importance that race carried in the election. Made me tingly.
Now the senator has distanced himself for his former pastor and in my mind shown his sense of loyalty. Is this the kind of candidate we want? Because at this point it's the best the democratic party has.
You're in the Money
Stimulus Checks and Tax Rebates are Coming Out and Burning Money in the Pockets of Americans
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
COSTA MESA, Calif. (May 11, 2008)-- The Bush administrations attempt to improve the US economy has taken it's first tentative steps toward economic growth. While there has not yet been immediate change speculation in the stock market and throughout the Internet has been booming.
In an article by Malden Read, Wall Street has been taking polls and measuring what Americans will be spending their extra money on.
The general TV interview shows a person saying that they will simply be paying the bills and then putting the rest in the bank. They say this as they stand in a Best Buy.
The Shadow Knows
While extra money is always a cool thing to have, this is the time to use any excess money responsibly. Economist Suze Orman says that the best way to increase your monthly income is to pay off your debt.
To the college student money think this can really take the edge off college fees and provide extra funds for materials. And beer.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
COSTA MESA, Calif. (May 11, 2008)-- The Bush administrations attempt to improve the US economy has taken it's first tentative steps toward economic growth. While there has not yet been immediate change speculation in the stock market and throughout the Internet has been booming.
In an article by Malden Read, Wall Street has been taking polls and measuring what Americans will be spending their extra money on.
The general TV interview shows a person saying that they will simply be paying the bills and then putting the rest in the bank. They say this as they stand in a Best Buy.
The Shadow Knows
While extra money is always a cool thing to have, this is the time to use any excess money responsibly. Economist Suze Orman says that the best way to increase your monthly income is to pay off your debt.
To the college student money think this can really take the edge off college fees and provide extra funds for materials. And beer.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Can'tdidate
Hillary Clinton The Little Candidate Who Couldn't
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
A Shadow Knows Exclusive
Why won't she stop running. I like Sen. Hillary Clinton, I really do. I like her family, I believe she is a qualified candidate. America seems to think differently though.
According to last nights polls Sen. Clinton is so far behind that even if she wins the remaining states she won't have enough to over take Sen. Barack Obama.
Now according to the Wall Street Journal only 27% of Americans favor the Republican party at this point and time. This lead me to believe that come November, a majority of Americans will do to the polls and put their mark next to the big D despite what the name next to it say.
I feel it is crucial at this point that if the Democratic party wants to maintain their lead, they must begin to unite now.
A friend of mine asked a scary question yesterday, he said, "What id Hillary loses, will she run as an Independent?" This sent a chill down my spine.
The party is already divided over the candidates in their own party, a split would completely decimate the hope of a substantial victory that the party needs to curry favor with the nation and the world.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
A Shadow Knows Exclusive
Why won't she stop running. I like Sen. Hillary Clinton, I really do. I like her family, I believe she is a qualified candidate. America seems to think differently though.
According to last nights polls Sen. Clinton is so far behind that even if she wins the remaining states she won't have enough to over take Sen. Barack Obama.
Now according to the Wall Street Journal only 27% of Americans favor the Republican party at this point and time. This lead me to believe that come November, a majority of Americans will do to the polls and put their mark next to the big D despite what the name next to it say.
I feel it is crucial at this point that if the Democratic party wants to maintain their lead, they must begin to unite now.
A friend of mine asked a scary question yesterday, he said, "What id Hillary loses, will she run as an Independent?" This sent a chill down my spine.
The party is already divided over the candidates in their own party, a split would completely decimate the hope of a substantial victory that the party needs to curry favor with the nation and the world.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Hot Knowledge
Students on California State University Long Beach Campus Erect Wall to Raise Awareness.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
LONG BEACH, Calif(May 5, 2008)--Students have erected a wall to raise awareness about Palestine. The wall that measures roughly 30 feet long by 10 feet high proclaims a Palestinian Holocaust.
On Jewish student took offense to the wall kicking the wall, denouncing the statistics that cover in and trying to tear down the Israeli flag that had been symbolically covered in red paint made to look like blood. He was stopped before he could complete his task and gave no comments other than to say that he was Jewish and found the wall highly offensive. He left soon afterward.
The wall is currently in the free speech area across from the bookstore on the CSULB campus.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
LONG BEACH, Calif(May 5, 2008)--Students have erected a wall to raise awareness about Palestine. The wall that measures roughly 30 feet long by 10 feet high proclaims a Palestinian Holocaust.
On Jewish student took offense to the wall kicking the wall, denouncing the statistics that cover in and trying to tear down the Israeli flag that had been symbolically covered in red paint made to look like blood. He was stopped before he could complete his task and gave no comments other than to say that he was Jewish and found the wall highly offensive. He left soon afterward.
The wall is currently in the free speech area across from the bookstore on the CSULB campus.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Flash From the Past Part II
Today Marks a New Height in the Death Toll in Iraq.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
LONG BEACH, CALIF. (April 30, 2008)-- The death toll in Iraq for the month of April has been the highest in the past seven months. Over 47 servicemen have died in April as a result of militia activity.
According to a spokesman for the Iraqi civilian security operations, at over 900 people have died in Sadr city as a result of heavy fight, although these numbers have yet to be confirmed.
As of today the US death toll is about 4, 059.
For more information on the Iraq War click here.
The Shadow Knows
While the number of US servicemen killed so far is reaching a high I can't help but think of the number of people who died in the Vietnam war under similar circumstances.
In the bloodiest year of the fighting in Vietnam, 1968, 14, 589 soldiers lost their lives. This is the equivalent to about 40 a day. More over to the nay sayers who are talking about the horrendous loss of life so far, I need only to think back to 1966, where in the first year of hard combat over 5,000 soldiers were killed.
In over five years of fighting in Iraq the US has lost over 4,000 troops. This equates to about two soldiers a day.
While the losses are no less tragic I feel that by comparison we are doing better. I do not believe in this war, I do not believe the people who are in charge, but I do believe that the people on the ground are real and the people who sent them there are.
So do your part, help end the war and save their lives, like they're trying to save ours.
For statistics on the Vietnam War click here.
By David Cowan
Knowledge Beat
LONG BEACH, CALIF. (April 30, 2008)-- The death toll in Iraq for the month of April has been the highest in the past seven months. Over 47 servicemen have died in April as a result of militia activity.
According to a spokesman for the Iraqi civilian security operations, at over 900 people have died in Sadr city as a result of heavy fight, although these numbers have yet to be confirmed.
As of today the US death toll is about 4, 059.
For more information on the Iraq War click here.
The Shadow Knows
While the number of US servicemen killed so far is reaching a high I can't help but think of the number of people who died in the Vietnam war under similar circumstances.
In the bloodiest year of the fighting in Vietnam, 1968, 14, 589 soldiers lost their lives. This is the equivalent to about 40 a day. More over to the nay sayers who are talking about the horrendous loss of life so far, I need only to think back to 1966, where in the first year of hard combat over 5,000 soldiers were killed.
In over five years of fighting in Iraq the US has lost over 4,000 troops. This equates to about two soldiers a day.
While the losses are no less tragic I feel that by comparison we are doing better. I do not believe in this war, I do not believe the people who are in charge, but I do believe that the people on the ground are real and the people who sent them there are.
So do your part, help end the war and save their lives, like they're trying to save ours.
For statistics on the Vietnam War click here.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Flash From the Past
Today's commentary will be in the edited form of a speech made by John F. Kennedy when he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in 1960. My personal comments will follow.
Delivered on 15 July 1960.
It was my great honor to place his name in nomination at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, and I am delighted to have his support and his counsel and his advice in the coming months ahead.
With a deep sense of duty and high resolve, I accept your nomination.
I accept it with a full and grateful heart – without reservation – and with only one obligation – the obligation to devote every effort of body, mind and spirit to lead our Party back to victory and our Nation back to greatness.
I am fully aware of the fact that the Democratic Party, by nominating someone of my faith, has taken on what many regard as a new and hazardous risk – new, at least since 1928. But I look at it this way: the Democratic Party has once again placed its confidence in the American people, and in their ability to render a free, fair judgement – to uphold the Constitution and my oath of office – and to reject any kind of religious pressure or obligation that might directly or indirectly interfere with my conduct of the Presidency in the national interest. My record of fourteen years supporting public education – supporting complete separation of church and state – and resisting pressure from any source on any issue should be clear by now to everyone,
I hope that no American, considering the really critical issues facing this country, will waste his franchise by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant. I want to stress, what some other political or religious leader may have said on this subject. It is not relevant what abuses may have existed in other countries or in other times. It is not relevant what pressures, if any, might conceivably be brought to bear on me. I am telling you now what you are entitled to know: that my decisions on any public policy will be my own – as an American, a Democrat and a free man.
Under any circumstances, however, the victory that we seek in November will not be easy. We all know that in our hearts. We recognize the power of the forces that will be aligned against us. We know they will invoke the name of Abraham Lincoln on behalf of their candidate – despite the fact that the political career of their candidate has often served to show charity toward none and malice toward for all.
Perhaps he could carry on the party policies – the policies of Nixon, Benson, Dirksen and Goldwater. But this Nation cannot afford such a luxury. Perhaps we could better afford a Coolidge following Harding. And perhaps we could afford a Pierce following Fillmore.
And after eight years of drugged and fitful sleep, this nation needs strong, creative Democratic leadership in the White House.
But we are not merely running against Mr. Nixon. Our task is not merely one of itemizing Republican failures. Nor is that wholly necessary. For the families forced from the farm will know how to vote without our telling them. The unemployed miners and textile workers will know how to vote. The old people without medical care – the families without a decent home – the parents of children without adequate food or schools – they all know that it’s time for a change.
But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high – to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.
Today our concern must be with the future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and more terrible weapons – new and uncertain nations – new pressures of population and deprivation. One-third of the world, it has been said, may be free – but one-third is the victim of cruel repression – and the other one-third is rocked by the pangs of poverty, hunger and envy. More energy is released by the awakening of these new nations then by the fission of the atom itself.
Meanwhile, Communist influence has penetrated further into Asia, stood astride in the Middle East and now festers some ninety miles off the coast of Florida. Friends have slipped into neutrality – and neutrals into hostility. As our keynoter reminded us, the President who began his career by going to Korea ends it by staying away from Japan.
The world has been close to war before – but now man, who has survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into his mortal hands the power to exterminate the entire species some seven times over.
Here, at home, the changing face of the future is equally revolutionary. The New Deal and the Fair Deal were bold measures for their generations – but this is a new generation.
A technological revolution on the farm has led us to an output explosion – but we have not yet learned how to harness that explosion usefully, while protecting our farmers’ right to full parity income.
An urban population explosion has crowded our schools, cluttered up our suburbs, and increased the squalor of our slums.
A peaceful revolution for human rights – demanding an end to racial discrimination in all parts of our community life has strained at the leashes imposed by timid executive leadership.
A medical revolution has extended the life of our elder citizens without providing the dignity and security those later years deserve. And a revolution of automation finds machines replacing men in the mines and mills of America, without replacing their incomes or their training or their needs to pay the family doctor, grocer and landlord.
There has also been a change – a slippage – in our intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drought and famine have withered a field of ideas. Blight has descended on our regulatory agencies – and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of America – in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right. Too many Americans have lost their way, their will, and their sense of historic purpose.
It is a time, in short, for a new generation of leadership – new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities.
All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power – men who are not bound by the traditions of the past – men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries – young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions.
The Republican nominee-to-be, of course, is also a young man. But his approach is as old as McKinley. His party is the party of the past. His speeches are generalities from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Their platform, made up of left-over Democratic planks, has the courage of our old convictions. Their pledge is a pledge to the status quo – and today there can be no status quo.
For I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their own lives to build a new world here in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of their own price tags. Their motto was not “every man for himself” but “all for the common cause.” They were determined to make that new world strong and free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
Today some would say that those struggles are all over – that all the horizons have been explored – that all the battles have ben won – that there is no longer an American frontier.
But I trust that no one in this vast assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battlers are not all won – and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier – the frontier of the 1960's – a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils – a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook – it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric – and those who prefer that course should not cast their votes for me regardless of party.
But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age – to all who respond to the Scriptural call: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
For courage – not complacency – is our need today – leadership, not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously. A tired nation, said David Lloyd George, is a Tory nation, and the United States today cannot afford to be either tired or Tory.
There may be those who wish to hear more – more promises to this group or that – more harsh rhetoric about the men in the Kremlin – more assurances of a golden future, where taxes are always low and subsidies ever high. But my promises are in the platform you have adopted. Our ends will not be won by rhetoric and we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.
For the harsh facts of the matter are that we stand on this frontier at a turning-point in history. We must prove all over again whether this nation, or any nation so conceived, can long endure; whether our society, with its freedom of choice, its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, can compete with the single-minded advance of the Communist system.
Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men’s minds?
Are we up to the task – are we equal to the challenge? Are we willing to match the Russian sacrifice of the present for the future, or must we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present?
That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make – a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort – between national greatness and national decline – between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy” – between determined dedication and creeping mediocrity.
All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.
It has been a long road from that first snowy day in New Hampshire to this crowded convention city. Now begins another long journey, taking me into your cities and homes all over America. Give me your help, your hand, your voice, your vote. Recall with me the words of Isaiah: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.”
As we face the coming challenge, we too shall wait upon the Lord, and ask that he renew our strength, Then shall we be equal to the test. Then shall we not be weary. And then we shall prevail.
Thank you.
The Shadow Knows
Why can't we have that? We need leaders that will stand up not to the people but for the people. We too lie on the horizon of a new frontier. Think of our leaders as people we can trust to actually lead you like Kennedy lead America, to try. They might not always succeed but only in not trying do we really fail.
Delivered on 15 July 1960.
It was my great honor to place his name in nomination at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, and I am delighted to have his support and his counsel and his advice in the coming months ahead.
With a deep sense of duty and high resolve, I accept your nomination.
I accept it with a full and grateful heart – without reservation – and with only one obligation – the obligation to devote every effort of body, mind and spirit to lead our Party back to victory and our Nation back to greatness.
I am fully aware of the fact that the Democratic Party, by nominating someone of my faith, has taken on what many regard as a new and hazardous risk – new, at least since 1928. But I look at it this way: the Democratic Party has once again placed its confidence in the American people, and in their ability to render a free, fair judgement – to uphold the Constitution and my oath of office – and to reject any kind of religious pressure or obligation that might directly or indirectly interfere with my conduct of the Presidency in the national interest. My record of fourteen years supporting public education – supporting complete separation of church and state – and resisting pressure from any source on any issue should be clear by now to everyone,
I hope that no American, considering the really critical issues facing this country, will waste his franchise by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant. I want to stress, what some other political or religious leader may have said on this subject. It is not relevant what abuses may have existed in other countries or in other times. It is not relevant what pressures, if any, might conceivably be brought to bear on me. I am telling you now what you are entitled to know: that my decisions on any public policy will be my own – as an American, a Democrat and a free man.
Under any circumstances, however, the victory that we seek in November will not be easy. We all know that in our hearts. We recognize the power of the forces that will be aligned against us. We know they will invoke the name of Abraham Lincoln on behalf of their candidate – despite the fact that the political career of their candidate has often served to show charity toward none and malice toward for all.
Perhaps he could carry on the party policies – the policies of Nixon, Benson, Dirksen and Goldwater. But this Nation cannot afford such a luxury. Perhaps we could better afford a Coolidge following Harding. And perhaps we could afford a Pierce following Fillmore.
And after eight years of drugged and fitful sleep, this nation needs strong, creative Democratic leadership in the White House.
But we are not merely running against Mr. Nixon. Our task is not merely one of itemizing Republican failures. Nor is that wholly necessary. For the families forced from the farm will know how to vote without our telling them. The unemployed miners and textile workers will know how to vote. The old people without medical care – the families without a decent home – the parents of children without adequate food or schools – they all know that it’s time for a change.
But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high – to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.
Today our concern must be with the future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.
Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and more terrible weapons – new and uncertain nations – new pressures of population and deprivation. One-third of the world, it has been said, may be free – but one-third is the victim of cruel repression – and the other one-third is rocked by the pangs of poverty, hunger and envy. More energy is released by the awakening of these new nations then by the fission of the atom itself.
Meanwhile, Communist influence has penetrated further into Asia, stood astride in the Middle East and now festers some ninety miles off the coast of Florida. Friends have slipped into neutrality – and neutrals into hostility. As our keynoter reminded us, the President who began his career by going to Korea ends it by staying away from Japan.
The world has been close to war before – but now man, who has survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into his mortal hands the power to exterminate the entire species some seven times over.
Here, at home, the changing face of the future is equally revolutionary. The New Deal and the Fair Deal were bold measures for their generations – but this is a new generation.
A technological revolution on the farm has led us to an output explosion – but we have not yet learned how to harness that explosion usefully, while protecting our farmers’ right to full parity income.
An urban population explosion has crowded our schools, cluttered up our suburbs, and increased the squalor of our slums.
A peaceful revolution for human rights – demanding an end to racial discrimination in all parts of our community life has strained at the leashes imposed by timid executive leadership.
A medical revolution has extended the life of our elder citizens without providing the dignity and security those later years deserve. And a revolution of automation finds machines replacing men in the mines and mills of America, without replacing their incomes or their training or their needs to pay the family doctor, grocer and landlord.
There has also been a change – a slippage – in our intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drought and famine have withered a field of ideas. Blight has descended on our regulatory agencies – and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of America – in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right. Too many Americans have lost their way, their will, and their sense of historic purpose.
It is a time, in short, for a new generation of leadership – new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities.
All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power – men who are not bound by the traditions of the past – men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries – young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions.
The Republican nominee-to-be, of course, is also a young man. But his approach is as old as McKinley. His party is the party of the past. His speeches are generalities from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Their platform, made up of left-over Democratic planks, has the courage of our old convictions. Their pledge is a pledge to the status quo – and today there can be no status quo.
For I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their own lives to build a new world here in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of their own price tags. Their motto was not “every man for himself” but “all for the common cause.” They were determined to make that new world strong and free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
Today some would say that those struggles are all over – that all the horizons have been explored – that all the battles have ben won – that there is no longer an American frontier.
But I trust that no one in this vast assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battlers are not all won – and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier – the frontier of the 1960's – a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils – a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook – it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric – and those who prefer that course should not cast their votes for me regardless of party.
But I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age – to all who respond to the Scriptural call: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
For courage – not complacency – is our need today – leadership, not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously. A tired nation, said David Lloyd George, is a Tory nation, and the United States today cannot afford to be either tired or Tory.
There may be those who wish to hear more – more promises to this group or that – more harsh rhetoric about the men in the Kremlin – more assurances of a golden future, where taxes are always low and subsidies ever high. But my promises are in the platform you have adopted. Our ends will not be won by rhetoric and we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.
For the harsh facts of the matter are that we stand on this frontier at a turning-point in history. We must prove all over again whether this nation, or any nation so conceived, can long endure; whether our society, with its freedom of choice, its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, can compete with the single-minded advance of the Communist system.
Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men’s minds?
Are we up to the task – are we equal to the challenge? Are we willing to match the Russian sacrifice of the present for the future, or must we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present?
That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make – a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort – between national greatness and national decline – between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy” – between determined dedication and creeping mediocrity.
All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.
It has been a long road from that first snowy day in New Hampshire to this crowded convention city. Now begins another long journey, taking me into your cities and homes all over America. Give me your help, your hand, your voice, your vote. Recall with me the words of Isaiah: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.”
As we face the coming challenge, we too shall wait upon the Lord, and ask that he renew our strength, Then shall we be equal to the test. Then shall we not be weary. And then we shall prevail.
Thank you.
The Shadow Knows
Why can't we have that? We need leaders that will stand up not to the people but for the people. We too lie on the horizon of a new frontier. Think of our leaders as people we can trust to actually lead you like Kennedy lead America, to try. They might not always succeed but only in not trying do we really fail.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
