Speech at the Special Olympics Kadena Games

"Special Olympics everywhere is working toward the day when all persons with mental retardation will have the chance to experience the joy and happiness that comes through playing sports and living up to one’s full physical potential!"
Okinawa, Japan • June 02, 2002

I am delighted to be here in Okinawa. I have been here before, and I have always been impressed by the friendly, good spirits of everyone here. And this island keeps getting more and more beautiful, largely, because of the people who are fortunate enough to live here.

I also admire the Japanese people, especially those here in Okinawa! Your culture, your love of family, and your many traditions, are superb! There is one additional custom, which I have come to appreciate most of all: the respect you have for the elderly, and your belief that wisdom comes with “age”!

So, as I begin my talk, I want to remind you, I am almost 87 years old! Please be patient with this old man!

I’m also excited and happy that I will get to see many of you again at the 2005 Special Olympics, World Winter Games, at Nagano! Those games are going to be the best World Winter Games in the history of Special Olympics!

Today, however, I would like to salute the Kadena Air Force Base for hosting the outstanding games I witnessed, yesterday. Your hospitality, your spirit, and your leadership were magnificent.

I’d like also to thank Mrs. Kayoko Hosokawa, Chairperson of Special Olympics Nippon, whose efforts and leadership have brought us closer to the hope that, someday, we will all be winners in the struggle for Peace! Unfortunately, Mrs. Hosokawa cannot be here with us tonight due to the illness of her mother; so let us send our warmest thoughts and prayers to Mrs. Hosokawa and her Mother! Both of them are searchers for Peace and for Life.

I’d also like to acknowledge especially the hard work, competence, and dedication of Colonel J.C. Cantrell of the United States Air Force. As Chairperson of Special Olympics Kadena, his competency, imagination, devotion and his vision are responsible for this wonderful event!

Without his vision and determination, we might never have enjoyed Special Olympics right here and now.

Further thanks go to Brigadier-General Jeffery Remington and his wife, Michelle.

Now, let us all together thank the athletes of Special Olympics, their families and their coaches, and all the Volunteers, who have made this event such a success.

Hurrah for all of them!!!

Truthfully, my friends, it is also a fact that successful as the Special Olympics Movement has been, we still have a long road to travel and a great deal of work ahead of us! For example, today there are an estimated 170 million people in the world with mental retardation, -- including an estimated 3.5 million in Japan itself!

Right now, with one million Athletes, “Special Olympics” is still only reaching a small portion of the men, women and children who could greatly benefit from our athletic training and competition. Our worldwide goal, therefore, is to double the number of Special Olympics Athletes to 2 million by the year 2005! Yes, just in time for the Nagano Games!

But, two years ago, Special Olympics attracted only about 100 Athletes here!

Last year, when Loretta Claiborne spoke here, she did so to only 400 Athletes! Yesterday, I was thrilled to see 600 Athletes happily competing.

If only we could get every Special Olympics program to increase its participants by 500%! But can we increase our numbers here by 500% every year?

Special Olympics everywhere is working toward the day when all persons with mental retardation will have the chance to experience the joy and happiness that comes through playing sports and living up to one’s full physical potential! We eagerly watch for the day when all Japanese citizens with mental retardation are fully accepted and appreciated in society.

My wife, Eunice, has long been a champion for people with mental retardation. She took it upon herself to make a positive change in the lives of people with mental retardation, from the camp for children with mental retardation she conducted in our backyard to the first Special Olympics Games in 1968 to today, the largest sports program for people with mental retardation in the world. If she could have joined me today she would challenge you to do more and commend you for your work!

We thank you for your hard work and dedication. We hope that you will continue to help us, because much remains to be done! We all need to spread the message of Special Olympics to reach millions more people and Athletes! Our task, your, and ours, is to bring the Special Olympics “Flame of Hope” to the lives of many more people with mental retardation here in Japan, and everywhere else in the wide, wide world!!!!

Years ago, I created many substantial movements in the world: “The Peace Corps”, “Head Start”, “The Job Corps”, “Legal Services For The Poor”, “Upward Bound”. Even when I was the United States Ambassador to France, we started new enterprises there.

But I consider my service, as a full-time “Volunteer for Special Olympics”, to be at the top of my list of satisfying jobs! It is true that we who participate in the Special Olympics Movement receive more than we give! I want everyone in Japan to experience that joy, too!

Soon, with Nagano hosting the 2005 Special Olympics World Winter Games, the Spirit of Special Olympics will be spreading further throughout your marvelous country!

As we begin this new 21st Century, I am delighted that Special Olympics Nippon will join with Special Olympics Kadena to show the world what they and all of us world-wide will do in 2005! Those Games will inspire not only the people of Japan, but people around the globe. Yes, people everywhere on Earth.

This great nation, Japan, will be telling the world:

Look at the skills, and talents, of people with mental retardation!
See their abilities!
Bask in their charm!
Partake of their friendship!
Give them a chance to grow and to belong!
To be productive, and To inspire all of us!

This message from Japan will reach all nations and people on earth because we will be using the newest and most powerful communications devices in radio, television, and in all of the newest inventions in 2005!! What a glorious achievement this will be for Japan, and for all of the people of the Far East, and for all the 175 milllion people with mental retardation on Earth!!

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.
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Sargent Shriver
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