Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society.

Our greatest songs are still unsung.

People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.

We will have to decide today whether we will design the future or resign ourselves to it.

The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.

When people generally are aware of a problem, it can be said to have entered the public consciousness. When people get on their hind legs and holler, the problem has not only entered the public consciousness -- it has also become a part of the public conscience. At that point, things in our democracy begin to hum.

The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life: the children; ... the elderly.