The very word Secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society.
Interpretation
Secrecy undermines the principles of freedom and transparency in society.
John F. Kennedy's quote emphasizes the importance of openness and transparency in a democratic society. He suggests that the concept of secrecy is fundamentally opposed to the ideals of freedom, which rely on the open exchange of information and communication among citizens to ensure accountability and trust within governance and public institutions.
In practice
In a speech advocating for government transparency, one might quote Kennedy to highlight the need for openness.
The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.
I had always enjoyed the title of Commander-in-Chief until I was informed ... that the only forces that cannot be transferred from Washington without my express permission are the members of the Marine Corps Band. Those are the only forces I have. I want it announced that we propose to hold the White House against all odds at least for some time to come.
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 to build a better life for their children - not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
Our instinct may be to see the impossibility of tracking everything down as frustrating, dispiriting, perhaps even appalling, but it can just as well be viewed as almost unbearably exciting. We live on a planet that has a more or less infinite capacity to surprise. What reasoning person could possibly want it any other way?
[P]erhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.
I came to realize clearly that the mind is no other than the Mountain and the Rivers and the great wide Earth, the Sun and the Moon and the Skyβ.
Except a man be born again, he will wish one day he had never been born at all.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.
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