Our Heritage and Our Responsibility

University of Arkansas Commencement Address, June 5, 1954 Page Four freedom of religion and the right of ballot, to the individual who must get permission from am all-powerful state to earn his bread, to read a book, go to a school or attend a meeting in the public square. Democracy is a word without a meaning. You may well ask, what has all this to do with me -- a young man or woman getting my diploma here in Arkansas at this ceremony this afternoon. Well, for one thing, it points up some of the contrasts between what you have and take lightly against what those who are making a choice have. For another thing, what you do, how you live, the pursuits to follow, the kind of government you live under, the taxes you pay in the next 25 years will be governed very largely by what happens in this present struggle. The United States, with 6 per cent of the population; with 56 per cent of the total production is the world; with the highest material standard of living ever achieved by any nation; with a gadget civilisation which will collapse without materials, support and friends in the outside world, has either by accident of history, design or destiny, assumed responsibility for more people and more parts of the world than any nation ever assumed. We cannot view these people as a hopeless mass 9,000 miles away. In reality they are sitting on the very doorsteps of our homes. They are peering into your home. The American dream to them is you, the individual. The things they hear and see and understand about America are reflections of individuals. Each of us, whether we like it or not, is a part of this world picture. The things we often do and say as individuals and the attitudes we take reverberate to the farthest ends of the earth. A couple of years ago I made a very informal and rather insignificant talk at the visiting day at the Ric