“To the many whose hopes are suddenly shattered by economic collapse or unanticipated need — whether in health or education, whether in victims of crime or of misfortune — my philosophy is to provide a net beneath which we will not let one another fall and above which we will encourage all to rise.”
Our Quote of the Week expresses Sargent Shriver’s vision for a social safety net. It also gives insight into how he saw the nature of citizenship. As citizens, we must be aware of our connection to and our responsibility towards one another.
In his 1996 Address to the Frederick County Democratic State Central Committee, Sargent Shriver expresses many of the values that had driven him throughout his career. He emphasizes that we must be aware of our “common existence” and that we must build on the “declaration of independence” that was established at the nation’s founding to create a “declaration of interdependence,” in which we acknowledge our common humanity and seek to safeguard each other’s rights, liberties, and well-being.
Sargent Shriver’s description of the “net beneath which we will not let one another fall and above which we will encourage all to rise” illustrates how he envisions social assistance: as a dynamic set of mechanisms that could give those suffering a hardship the opportunity to pull themselves up. The description also reflects the principles he used when designing the programs of the War on Poverty (Community Action, Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Upward Bound, Job Corps, Legal Services, and Foster Grandparents).
Today, we face funding cuts precisely to the types of programs that make up our social safety net. In the coming months, may we have the strength to speak out against the efforts to eliminate needed programs, and may we do what we can to bolster and protect the resources in our own communities that are designed to aid and empower our most vulnerable neighbors.
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