Last month the Gallup Poll published the results of an unusual survey of public opinion in “the free world” -- the nations friendly to the USA - the non-Communist nations of Asia, Africa, Latin America, the near East. Two questions were asked:
- Who is the most respected man or woman in the whole history of the world?
- Who is the most respected person now alive in the world?
Great religious leaders like our Lord Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and Moses were eliminated. Except for them, everyone was eligible.
Who do you think won?
Among all the people now alive, Mrs. Indira Gandhi of India won! She was followed by Willy Brandt of Germany. Third place was Mrs. Golda Meier of Israel. Two women are among the first three but no women’s liberation leader. U Thant of the United Nations, Pope Pius VI, and Julius Nyerre of Tanzania were also among the leaders in the competition among the most respected people now alive.
And, of all the people in world history, who do you think led that list? Abraham Lincoln! And he was followed by Socrates, the ancient Greek, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Shakespeare, and Dante.
Not one living American was even mentioned as a great human being today.
Not one general was on either list. Not one scientist. Not one doctor, lawyer, merchant, or businessman.
Not one winner of the famous Nobel Prize. Not Christopher Columbus or Astronaut Armstrong.
And all of the winners were poor people! Not a rich man in the crowd.
Does this poll mean anything to us here today at Hilo, Hawaii - anything special, perhaps, to the graduates, anything to us citizens of the richest, most militarily powerful of all the nations on earth!
I think it does.
First of all - the total absence of Americans among the living leaders should make us stop and ask: What’s the matter with our value system when none of our heroes get on the first team?
What about Nixon, Agnew, Humphrey, Muskie, Billy Graham, General Patton, General Motors, General Electric, Goldwater?
Secondly and more helpful, why don’t we ask ourselves, how did Lincoln make number one? Just by freeing the slaves? No! That couldn’t be it. Other national leaders had done that even before Lincoln did it for us. Just because he preserved the union? No! Many leaders have done that for their countries: Bismarck, Richelieu, Cavour, Stalin, Gowon, Louis XIV, Sukarno.
I suggest the answer is not in anything Lincoln did but rather in what he was:
a man of integrity
a man of honor
a man of humility
a man of intelligence
a man of tenderness
a man of compassion
a man of courage
a man who was defeated three times before he ever won an election
a man who never gave up in his own struggle for personal perfection
a man who never descended to name-calling, bitterness.
Even in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln never called Robert E. Lee a traitor; Lincoln never called Jefferson Davis a “bum;" he never condemned the young men who deserted the Union to fight for the South.
And when the bloodiest war in our nation’s history was finally done, he did not imprison his enemies, kill the traitors, blame his political opponents, or condemn the press.
Despite a public clamor for vengeance against the south, Lincoln pardoned the southern leaders calling upon the nation to bind up its wounds, speaking those unforgettable words:
“With malice toward none With charity toward all.”
That’s the tone,
That’s the sound,
That’s the magic of the political and human leadership our nation needs so desperately today. That’s the way an American President should speak to the American people.
But what does all this mean to you graduates today?
I suggest it means:
Yes, you must be competent men and women in your work,
Yes, you must earn enough money to live decently as human beings,
Yes, you must achieve stability in your personal and married lives,
But it also means that you must do everything within your power and imagination to reawaken the spirit of Lincoln in our country. You must help us rediscover a sense of moral purpose and of honor.
Honor is the key word – a “politics of honor” is what we need. Because, sad to say we must admit our country’s honor, our good name and reputation have been grossly dishonored in our mad pursuit of worldwide power and wealth during these last 25 years.
Can you remember when President Eisenhower had to apologize to Chairman Khrushchev of the USSR for the infamous U-2 incident? For the first time in my lifetime, and perhaps, in our nation’s history, our leaders had to confess publicly they had been lying about an activity carried on by our nation. That was 1960. Since then, and even before that date, in the decade of the fifties, lying became a habit: the fake revolution in Guatemala, the Bay of Pigs, the CIA wars in Indonesia, Laos, in Persia, the Dominican Republic, the massacre at Mai Lai, the Green Beret Murder Case in Vietnam, the fakery of the Gulf of Tonkin naval engagement - all these and many more incidents have convinced thousands of Americans and millions of foreigners that truth, honor, and integrity no longer come first in the minds, hearts, and actions of our leaders.
Even Senators and Congressmen frequently cannot get accurate and full facts on questions of supreme national importance.
Faced with these facts, it is not enough to say “the other side” is worse than we are. Even if they are, their bestiality and immorality are no excuse for ours.
It is not enough to say “all nation states behave immorally, and that they have always done so. Machiavelli even wrote a book explaining how to succeed in government without being honest. Such excuses will never reawaken the spirit of Lincoln.
But, some different and concrete actions on your part might begin to put our nation back on the Lincoln Highway, the Lincoln right-of-way to national purpose and integrity.
For example, you could decide to follow the route taken by 28 year old Captain Aubrey M. Daniel, III, who had the courage and honesty to challenge the President of the United States himself when in Captain Daniel’s judgment the President had grossly violated the integrity of our system of justice. In this century no one has struck a finer blow for the honor and integrity of our country than this young army captain who wrote that eloquent and patriotic letter to Nixon. He deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor for intelligence, action, and courage above and beyond the call of duty.
Or you could follow the example of Denny Hayes, the senior at Stanford University, who conceived the idea of “Earth Day,” and though only 21 years of age, he successfully brought that useful concept to the attention of the entire nation.
Or you could follow 21 year old Joe Rhodes, the Harvard senior, a black man, who successfully took on and defeated the Vice President of the United States when the Vice President tried to attack young Rhodes’s qualifications and actions as a member of the President’s Committee on Student Unrest.
Or, look at this robe I am wearing. I got this robe because 30 young Peace Corps Volunteers gave up two years of their lives to teach in the great University at Bangkok, Thailand, where they performed so brilliantly that the University gave me a Honorary Degree - the first ever given to an American, a Doctor’s Degree in Political Science won for me by 30 volunteers all under 30 years of age.
I could go on and on because the record is clear: no generation of young Americans has ever rendered more significant and morally sensitive service to America than the young men and women now alive in our country.
They have been the first:
to lead the fight for civil rights; they were the embattled black youngsters who started the “sit-ins” in the south.
They were the first:
to reveal and condemn the way we were waging war in Vietnam.
They were the first:
to highlight the problem of pollution and to take the fight against pollution right to top of the Government, General Motors, and Dow Chemical, to U.S. Steel, and other giant corporations.
They were the first:
to go to work in the Peace Corps, in VISTA, in legal and medical programs to help the poor;
And they have been the first:
to challenge the bureaucrats and the politicians successfully, beating Ronald Reagan again and again as he and other public officials like him have arrogantly sought to cripple the legal system of our country.
I’ve been in the midst of nearly every one of these fights. And I can assure you that none of them would have been launched or succeeded without the young men and women of America. They have been busy recreating the spirit of Lincoln in America.
Here in Hilo you, the first graduates of Hilo College, have exactly the same chances, the same problems, the same temptations. You can sell out and go for the dollar - get rich quick or at least get rich. That means you can become Mr. Wheeler Dealer; you can help to turn this lovely, magnificent big island of Hawaii into another Miami- Beach or Las Vegas. You can put a dollar sign atop Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea. Or, instead or doing those things you could decide now to put a new sign of a new era in the sky over all these lovely islands.
Why not make Hawaii the most perfect habitation for men and women in the entire world! Tourists go 10,000 miles to see and experience the atmosphere and life on the island of Bali - the legendary island in Indonesia. I’ve been there and it’s unforgettable.
“Bali I love you”
But Hawaii can be more significant than Bali or any other island, including Manhattan.
Instead of repeating the mistakes of Manhattan with its race war, its crime, its smog, its congestion, its lack of trees, grass, clean air, open space, why not build on the glorious traditions and unique opportunities you have right here:
A “politics of honor,” a future of integrity, a society with a moral purpose can be created right here.
How?
First of all, by keeping, and even improving, your multi-racial and multi-cultural society.
East-West Center, language training, dances, music, art
I know your government already encourages art and culture and pays for it with 1 percent.
I know your schools are teaching other languages than English. But Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian all should be taught, plus the history, art and culture of those civilizations.
And you should propagandize the mainland. We need more not less of Hawaiian influence in Washington!
Second: I suggest that you use all your islands. Don’t let everyone crowd together on Oahu. Bring education, housing, jobs to all the neighbor islands. Prevent, by laws if necessary, the over-concentration on Oahu - Paris, Germany, England. Bring jobs to them.
The citizen of France or England or Germany is not yet the victim of industrial society.
Third: Continue and develop the spirit of Father Damien of Molokai, Peace Corps nurses at leper colony in Malaysia. Example today: mentally retarded children and other handicapped people here: out of institutions, 100%.
Fourth: Develop a philosophy of “full employment” for the islands.
Governor Burns: two years ago 2.8% today 4.8%
Should and could be 0% - Europe, Bali, Israel, China
Fifth: justice. Get your lawyers to seek out and eradicate injustice.
Sixth: Health and hunger.
You can do these things if you really want to.
Mrs. Gandhi 30 years ago
Mrs. Meier 30 years ago
Willy Brandt 30 years ago
Julius Nyerre 30 years ago
U Thant 30 years ago
“They” all came from nowhere.
But you come from Hilo:
health
independence
love
opportunity
Keep those qualities in your lives and you will be not only the first but the best graduating class in Hilo History.
