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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 28, No. 1. 1965.

Predictions

Predictions

One of (he most energetic figures of my country's history, Theodore Roosevelt, declared in 1899 that, "our country calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavour. The Twentieth Century looms before us, big with the fate of many nations."

That prediction may be even more valid and even more far-reaching now than when it was uttered. There has, perhaps, never been a time in the history of the world, when the gap between college and community has been smaller, when the need for active involvement by young people has been stronger, and the opportunity for them to do things of significance has been greater.

This was a point which President Kennedy recognised and emphasised. "I ask you to decide," he was fond of saying to university audiences, "I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvil or a hammer."

The opportunity is greatest in public service. The governments of our countries need and deserve the enlistment of the best minds of the coming generation. As problems grow, the challenge of leadership grows.

But even if you choose a private profession, there is still broad opportunity for participation in the affairs of your society. The English word "idiot" comes from the Greek for a person who did not participate in public affairs. But the word "university" comes from the Latin for "all together."

The point is there is a need for individual participation. All of us have to participate. All of us are needed. The question is whether to be a critic or a participant. The question is whether to bring a candle to the barricade or to curse the darkness.

At this great assembly, devoted to social responsibility," I think the choice must be for light.

Let us go forward to make that choice, as President Kennedy once said, "asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God's work must truly be our own."

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy