We
used to look for a hero as someone to emulate. Is there a hero today that you
would say “I would like my child to be like them”? Our culture has changed as
the leadership of the free world has changed.
A
hero is somebody who is admired for outstanding qualities or achievements or
who has shown an admirable quality such as great courage or strength of
character. It is easy to select quotes and illustrate when we changed as a
culture.
Do
we care who is on the cover of Time magazine as “Man of the Year”
Do
we watch Barbara Waters and want to know her list of the most interesting
people of the year?
Do
you read the NY Times or the Washington Post? Who cares about what they have to
say?
Who
is the last news anchor that told the truth without an agenda or bias?
Do
we trust any politician?
What
really defines us or do we allow others to influence our values?
When
do you think we changed as a society? Remember; you can’t change a personality.
Harry S.
Truman (1945-1953)
(He did not have a middle name!)
“When even
one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind
and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril.”
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you
do not care who gets the credit.”
Dwight David
Eisenhower (1953-1961)
“There is nothing wrong
with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her
citizens cannot cure.”
‘Politics ought to be
the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and
privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in
our national heritage.”
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy (1961-1963)
“The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will
light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly
light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask
not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. “
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1969)
“Men want to be a part of a common enterprise—a cause greater than
themselves. Each of us must find a way to advance the purpose of the Nation,
thus finding new purpose for ourselves. Without this, we shall become a nation
of strangers.”
Richard
Milhous Nixon
1969-1974)
“A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”
“A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”
“I am not a crook”
Gerald
Rudolph Ford (1974-1977)
"If the government
is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away
everything you have."
"The
American people want a dialogue between them and their president ... And if we
can’t have that opportunity of talking with one another, seeing one another,
shaking hands with one another, something has gone wrong in our society."
James
Earl Carter, Jr.
(1977-1981)
Whether the
borders that divide us are picket fences or national boundaries, we are all
neighbors in a global community.
Because we
are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change,
to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy
sources, like solar power.
Ronald
Wilson Reagan (1981-1989)
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for
the future.”
“Let us ask ourselves 'What kind of people do we think we are'”
George
Herbert Walker Bush (1989-1993)
“Read my lips. No new taxes.”
“Out of these troubled
times, our fifth objective — a new
world order — can emerge: a new era, freer from the threat of terror,
stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An
era in which the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can
prosper and live in harmony.”
William
Jefferson Clinton (1993-2001)
“Frankly, I'm fed up
with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values.
Our families have values. But our government doesn’t.”
“It depends on what the
meaning of the word 'is' is.”
George Walker Bush (2001-2009)
I know that Americans
sometimes get discouraged by the tone in Washington and the seemingly endless
partisan struggles, yet history has shown that, in times of real trial, elected
officials rise to the occasion.
"Obviously I don't
like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On
the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the
system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."
Barack
Hussein Obama (2009-present)
“America, this is our
moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page of the policies of the
past.”
2008
“Change will not come if we wait for
some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek.”
Feb 5, 2008
“We are going to have to change our
conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re
going to have to move into a different place as a nation.”
— Michelle Obama, May 14, 2008
“We are five days away from fundamentally
transforming the United States of America.” — Barack Obama, October
30, 2008
2009
“But I don’t want the folks who created
the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can
clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of
talking.”
“I think
that one of the things that we all agree to is that the touchstone for economic
policy is, does it allow the average American to find good employment and see
their incomes rise; that we can’t just look at things in the aggregate, we do
want to grow the pie, but we want to make sure that prosperity is spread across
the spectrum of regions and occupations and genders and races; and that
economic policy should focus on growing the pie, but it also has to make sure
that everybody has got opportunity in that system.”
2010
"For every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from, who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response. That is why jobs must be our number-one focus in 2010, and that's why I'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight."
"For every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from, who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response. That is why jobs must be our number-one focus in 2010, and that's why I'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight."
2011
"It's a balanced
plan that would reduce the deficit by making additional spending cuts, by
making modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid
and by reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and
biggest corporations to pay their fair share."
2012
“You didn’t elect me to
tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth.”
“The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I’m asking you to choose that future.”
2013
“I am sorry that they are
finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.”
“But we have always
understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding
principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our
individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”
2014
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