President Obama: (continuing)
Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet. The effort to slow climate change requires bold action. And on this, Germany and Europe have led.
In the United States, we have recently doubled our renewable energy from clean sources like wind and solar power. We’re doubling fuel efficiency on our cars. Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down. But we know we have to do more -- and we will do more. (Applause.)
With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some. For the grim alternative affects all nations -- more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work. (Applause.)
Peace with justice means meeting our moral obligations. And we have a moral obligation and a profound interest in helping lift the impoverished corners of the world. By promoting growth so we spare a child born today a lifetime of extreme poverty. By investing in agriculture, so we aren’t just sending food, but also teaching farmers to grow food. By strengthening public health, so we’re not just sending medicine, but training doctors and nurses who will help end the outrage of children dying from preventable diseases. Making sure that we do everything we can to realize the promise -- an achievable promise -- of the first AIDS-free generation. That is something that is possible if we feel a sufficient sense of urgency. (Applause.)
[...]
And finally, let’s remember that peace with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them. Threats to freedom don’t merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within -- from our own fears, from the disengagement of our citizens.
[...]
Well, there is a lot to contemplate there. I suppose a global stage is a good place to
set some global goals. And in so doing, following a pattern set down by another American President, fifty years ago ... one that kind of worked.
Obama echoes JFK speech -- the one on nukes
by David Jackson, The Oval, USA TODAY -- 1:12 p.m. EDT June 19, 2013
President Obama paid tribute Wednesday to a famous John F. Kennedy speech -- but not the one that's getting the most attention.
On June 10, 1963, a full 16 days before his celebrated "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, Kennedy spoke of his desire to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons -- a theme Obama stressed in his "peace with justice" speech at the Brandenburg Gate.
In calling for a one-third reduction in the world's nuclear stockpiles, Obama pledged to negotiate new cuts with Russia and NATO allies, as well as a new framework to promote the development of peaceful nuclear power. The president said he will host a 2016 summit on nuclear materials worldwide, and called for a treaty to end production of fissile
[...]
Fifty years ago, in a commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C., President Kennedy called for a reduction of Cold War tensions with the then-Soviet Union, saying "total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces."
[...]
It's good to have and state noble goals. And even better yet,
to actually reach them.
However long it takes ... that good fight must continue ...
Comments are closed on this story.