I was the guy who was constantly speaking out against the Vietnam War. I have no regrets about that.
George McgovernRead
I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes how older generations often instigate conflicts that disproportionately affect the youth.
In this quote, George McGovern expresses his frustration with the cyclical nature of war and the tendency of older leaders to instigate conflicts without facing the direct consequences. He highlights the moral responsibility of those in power to consider the impact of their decisions, particularly on the younger generation, who are sent to fight and often pay the highest price in such conflicts.
In practice
During a peace rally, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for youth activism against war.
I was the guy who was constantly speaking out against the Vietnam War. I have no regrets about that.
Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace. We are our brother's keeper.
Every Senator in this Chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This Chamber reeks of blood.
The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.
When you start one of these programs, school lunch programs, in a country that heretofore had nothing of that kind, immediately school enrollment jumps dramatically. Girls and boys get to the classroom with the promise of a good meal once a day.
I hope I live long enough to see every hungry school child in the world being fed under the so-called McGovern-Dole program.
Thin ribbons of fear snake bluely through you like a system of rivers. We need a cloudburst or soothing landscape fast, to still this panic. Maybe a field of dracaena, or a vast stand of sugar pines—generous, gum-yielding trees—to fill our minds with vegetable wonder and keep dread at bay.
The most difficult thing is what is thought to be the simplest; to really see the things which are before your eyes.
Since there my past life lies, why alter it?
Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.
As long as civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter, and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.
Just because it's on the radio doesn't mean we have to suspend belief in the evidence of our senses.
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