"[T]he Peace Corps, like the Defense Department, should be increased, not decreased. The 21st Century needs ideas and hopes for humanity just as startling and new and presumptuous as our 18th Century Declaration of Independence and our 18th Century Constitution.”
Our Quote of the Week celebrates the 59th anniversary of the creation of the Peace Corps. On March 1, 1961, President Kennedy signed the executive order to create the Peace Corps. Three weeks later, on March 22, he would name Sargent Shriver as its first Director.
Taken from Sargent Shriver’s Remarks at the Peace Corps 35th Anniversary, our Quote of the Week stresses the continued importance of humanity having ideas and hopes that can innovate, empower, and connect us with each other. Sargent Shriver believed deeply that the Peace Corps was a cornerstone of peacebuilding, and that it needed to play a central a role in our foreign policy and diplomacy. A disruptive, innovative idea at the beginning of the 1960s, the Peace Corps continues to play a significant role in allowing Americans to serve in communities abroad, bringing us closer to our brothers and sisters in developing countries. With new challenges coming about from the effects of climate change, war, pandemics, and other crises, Peace Corps volunteers could play an even bigger role in serving vulnerable communities everywhere -- if our leaders would dare to innovate and evolve as President Kennedy and Sargent Shriver did.
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