We chose to add Senator Kennedy's speech to our website because we feel that this speech exemplifies the victorious spirit of people who have the hope and motivation to overcome their obstacles. Senator Kennedy's ideas of the youth being the ones who must bring about change by overcoming the obstacles left before them by prior generations tie into our chosen theme of "overcoming obstacles is vital the advancement or continuance of a people and their culture" . Senator Kennedy says this" Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly" in his Day of Affirmation speech. Our generation does not have that mindset at all, we seem so selfish and caught up in our own little world, we are afraid of failure. Fear of failure causes us to reach a state of complacency, where it does not matter what other people go through as long as we are not affected. When people sit around and allow the worlds of others to deteriorate because it simply "doesn't affect them" , problems start to occur. When these problems occur , there will have to be change of some sort. Change is inevitable, but we decide how the change affects us, whether is be positive or negative. Senator Kennedy phrased it this way, "The responsibility of our time is nothing less than a revolution. A revolution that would be peaceful if we are wise enough; humane if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough. But a revolution will come whether we will it or not. We can affect it's character, we cannot alter it's inevitability” . Inevitable as change is, we may slow the necessity of it. We as human beings, as a generation, and as a nation , must see the bigger picture and overcome our obstacle of complacency within our generation. Kennedy left this warning and encouragement for the South African youth and future generations :"First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all.”
Robert Kennedy's "Day of Affirmation" speech
Made by Robert Kennedy on June 6th , 1966 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.