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Show MEASURING THE VALUE OF OUR LIVES... Some words from Robert F. Kennedy Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product, now, is over eight hundred million dollars a year, but that GNP--if we should judge America by that--counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails that break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored calls for, police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. Senator Robert F. Kennedy at Canyonlands Field near Moab. Summer 1967 It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. It can tell us everything about America except why we are proud to be Americans. --Robert F. Kennedy from a speech at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968 ~ |