September is my birthday month. I often suggest to friends and family that they do something nice for themselves on their special day. As such, I wondered what I wanted to do for myself. The word that came to mind was ‘inspiration.’ I desired inspiration. Yet even on Aging_With_Pizzazz, inspiration is not always about physical health or fitness.

It’s difficult to deny today that in this country with its professed extreme polarization, mental health is equally as challenging as physical health. As a whole, we seem a stressful nation. I found it revealing that one of the most downloaded songs this past July 4^th (“Not in the Mood to Celebrate”) did not honor our country as much as lament the current state of affairs. Nevertheless, I believe we can meet on the bridges – maybe the only way to go forward.

As Election Day approaches and people start expressing more divide in opposition or support, I wanted to give myself a little bit of hope, drawing from past years. The voices of elected officials seemed the likely place to begin.

Inspiration from Past Presidents

Fine orator, Republican Ronald Regan used one of his own common phrases in his farewell speech from office to describe the country:

“A Shinning City upon a Hill”

He explained that it referenced the U.S. as a beacon of freedom, opportunity and peace for the world.

Regan’s successor, Republican George Herbert Bush also repeated a phrase that he found stirring for the nation:

“A Thousand Points of Light”

Bush used the phrase to illustrate groups and individuals working together across America in coalition to resolve social issues. The “bright spots of goodness” represented the efforts to address local problem solving.

Known for his eloquence, Democrat Barak Obama reveled in inspirational and visionary thoughts. There is the oft-quoted “Not Red States or Blue States but the United States …” which is vital today as well. Nevertheless, some of his other best-known points are just as aspirational:

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
“We did not come here to fear the future. We came here to shape it.”
“Hope is the bedrock of this nation…”

The One Less Quoted

There is indeed ‘hope’ in all of these well stated and thoughtful slogans shared by these presidents. One president who is quoted much less often, at least in inspirational ways and not related to Vietnam catastrophes, is Democrat Lyndon B Johnson. Surprising to me, one of his speeches seems to capture a vision for all Americans, a better land for all of us. Sadly, when compared to today he also captures failures and backtracking steps we have taken.

While the passages of the presidents above are familiar and ones we have come to love, they still may be categorized as slogans and not necessarily transformational. Both may be needed when campaigning.  However, transformation plans, perhaps the term should be a gentle revolution, can create real life changes for generations.

With an eye to our currently-questionable future, I’d like to highlight some select comments from Johnson’s 1964 speech at the University of Michigan.

[I]n your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.

While reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, Johnson was in a different environment. Roosevelt was dealing with the most disastrous economic crisis we had seen in the US and was attempting to implement the ideas of Frances Perkins (economist, social worker and first female cabinet member who fought for rights, safety and security of the working class). Conversely, Johnson was serving in office during a time the country was enjoying excellent growth. Roosevelt was attempting to save the country from ruin, Johnson wanted to progress toward an even greater good for all Americans: rich, poor and in-between.

So I want to talk to you today about three places where we begin to build the Great Society—in our cities, in our countryside, and in our classrooms.

Regarding Cities

Aristotle said: “Men come together in cities in order to live, but they remain together in order to live the good life.” It is harder and harder to live the good life in American cities today.

… Our society will never be great until our cities are great. Today the frontier of imagination and innovation is inside those cities and not beyond their borders.

New experiments are already going on. It will be the task of your generation to make the American city a place where future generations will come, not only to live but to live the good life.

Regarding the Countryside

A second place where we begin to build the Great Society is in our countryside. We have always prided ourselves on being not only America the strong and America the free, but America the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger.

The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution. Our parks are overcrowded, our seashores overburdened. Green fields and dense forests are disappearing.

…Once the battle is lost, once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.

Regarding Classrooms

A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There your children’s lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination. We are still far from that goal.

…But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in excellence as it grows in size. This means better training for our teachers. It means preparing youth to enjoy their hours of leisure as well as their hours of labor. It means exploring new techniques of teaching, to find new ways to stimulate the love of learning and the capacity for creation.

The Plan

…I do promise this: We are going to assemble the best thought and the broadest knowledge from all over the world to find those answers for America. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of White House conferences and meetings—on the cities, on natural beauty, on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. And from these meetings and from this inspiration and from these studies we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society.

So, did Johnson keep his promises? Well, not totally. But more than we might remember. Below (neither in chronological nor order of importance) are some of the changes during that time. Almost all are currently defunct, under attack, underfunded, threatened or weakened.

1. The Social Security Act of 1965 created Medicare health insurance for those over 65 and Medicaid for those with limited incomes.
2. He ushered in the 1965 Voting Rights Act protecting numerous civil rights (although the current Supreme Court has destroyed most functions of the law).
3. Johnson’s Congress increased welfare payments and subsidized rent for families of low-income or no means. Thus advancing his war on poverty.
4. During Johnson’s presidency, Congress passed the Water Quality Act of 1965, establishing federal standards for water quality as well as other environmental protection laws (many which are currently under attack or being quietly gutted).
5. Like Roosevelt’s Public Works for Art Projects under the CCC (whose creations can still be seen today), Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities emphasizing both science and humanities.
6. Under his watch in 1967 and subsequently 1969, we saw the establishment of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio.
7. Johnson enabled Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 providing many antipoverty programs, including the Food Stamp Act which we now call SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and is currently suffering drastic cuts.
8. Protecting the rights of consumers, safety regulations and protective legislation. Under Johnson, Congress was able to enact numerous bills, including those demanding full disclosure of finance charges on loans.
9. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provided federal aid to public schools. It also encouraged wide-ranging early education for low-income children through the Head Start program. Now, the Dept of Health and Human Services released major changes to the program operations “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs.” Opponents of the proposal say the difficult changes, substantially rewriting Head Start rules, would drastically reduce funding, remove health screenings, could exclude marginalized families, cut staff roles, reduce hours and staff qualifications; all jeopardizing program quality and childcare issues.
10. The preK-12 acts were followed by the Higher Education Act of 1965 both increasing federal investments in universities and providing low-interest loans (and scholarships) to low-income students. You can guess its status. “Uprooted” might be the word that comes to mind.

Johnson’s Conclusion

As I read President Johnson’s final remarks and the changes that were adopted during that time, I think of the phrase “2 steps forward, one step back.” That’s better than no forward motion at all. Still, we may be facing one step forward, many steps back.

Within your lifetime powerful forces, already loosed, will take us toward a way of life beyond the realm of our experience, almost beyond the bounds of our imagination.

For better or for worse, your generation has been appointed by history to deal with those problems and to lead America toward a new age. You have the chance never before afforded to any people in any age. You can help build a society where the demands of morality, and the needs of the spirit, can be realized in the life of the Nation.

So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?

Will you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty?

Will you join in the battle to make it possible for all nations to live in enduring peace—as neighbors and not as mortal enemies?

Will you join in the battle to build the Great Society, to prove that our material progress is only the foundation on which we will build a richer life of mind and spirit?

There are those timid souls who say this battle cannot be won; that we are condemned to a soulless wealth. I do not agree. We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society.

In whatever way is possible for each of us, I hope we can avoid being “timid souls.” Our society – not yet ‘Great’ – needs us all from sea to shining sea.

Final Thought

I had assumed the post on inspiration to myself would be much shorter. Sadly, most people today want to read brief, and frequently cryptic thoughts. However, sometimes we have to delve a bit deeper to understand what we want, what we can do and how we can succeed. If it means two steps forward and one step back, that is no reason to dance sideways. Onward.

I leave you with a quotation not from President Johnson, but from President Obama.

“You can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you.”

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