We've established, working with many other people, a basic commitment to human rights, and now I think our Nation stands as a beacon light so that we can be proud of ourselves, that we can restore the commitments that made our Nation great beginning 200 years ago, and we can also set an example for the world. It's not an easy thing. There's a lot of controversy around it. And I think that when you say the words "human rights," that is in itself an action. And if you see those who are suffering today in political prisons, those who have been kept from free travel, those who have suffered because their families are divided, the action that they took was a few words. But I think now there's a general feeling around the world that we each must make our own nations free of legitimate criticism from other countries and among our own citizens. This change is slow, but I think it exemplifies what the American people feel, and I believe it's an achievement of which we can be proud. We are discussing without cessation a reduction in strategic atomic weapons with the Soviet Union. We are negotiating today in Moscow to eliminate the testing of atomic explosives. We are trying to move toward demilitarization of the Indian Ocean and to lessen tensions which might lead to war. These kinds of efforts, I think, will be successful if I can accurately represent what you are and what you want our Nation to do and to be. Because if I speak after a policy is evolved in secrecy, I speak with a single voice. But if you participate in the debate and the discussion and then I evolve a policy based on what you want, I speak with the voice of 215 million Americans.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We've established, working with many other people, a basic commitment to human rights, and now I think our Nation stands as a beacon light so that we can be proud of ourselves, that we can restore the commitments that made our Nation great beginning 200 years ago, and we can also set an example for the world. It's not an easy thing. There's a lot of controversy around it. And I think that when you say the words "human rights," that is in itself an action. And if you see those who are suffering today in political prisons, those who have been kept from free travel, those who have suffered because their families are divided, the action that they took was a few words. But I think now there's a general feeling around the world that we each must make our own nations free of legitimate criticism from other countries and among our own citizens. This change is slow, but I think it exemplifies what the American people feel, and I believe it's an achievement of which we can be proud. We are discussing without cessation a reduction in strategic atomic weapons with the Soviet Union. We are negotiating today in Moscow to eliminate the testing of atomic explosives. We are trying to move toward demilitarization of the Indian Ocean and to lessen tensions which might lead to war. These kinds of efforts, I think, will be successful if I can accurately represent what you are and what you want our Nation to do and to be. Because if I speak after a policy is evolved in secrecy, I speak with a single voice. But if you participate in the debate and the discussion and then I evolve a policy based on what you want, I speak with the voice of 215 million Americans." in the context of "" to mean that wisdom is timeless.