Dayhoff Soundtrack: August 20, 1967: Sargent Shriver said Unity is ‘built by all Americans’

Monday, June 22, 2015

August 20, 1967: Sargent Shriver said Unity is ‘built by all Americans’

June 22, 2015 http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2015/06/august-20-1967-sargent-shriver-said.html

Labels: Diversity, Diversity African-American, People Shriver family, People Shriver-Sargent, Quotes, Words of wisdom

In a recent tweet – on June 22, 2015, Maria Shriver ‏@mariashriver, noted that her father, (Westminster, Carroll County, Md. native son) Sargent Shriver, said “My father said Unity is ‘built by all Americans.’ Sadly, words still relevant @RSargentShriver: http://eepurl.com/bq43Ir”

On August 20, 1967, Mr. Shriver said: “"We have a statue of liberty on the east coast given to us by a foreign community. But we need a statue of unity built by all Americans, for all Americans -- in every American community. Today, our nation is not united. This country is in trouble because too many Americans prefer not to know each other. Not to care about each other. […] Our country cannot go on like this."

This may be found on the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute website, http://www.sargentshriver.org/speech-article/address-to-the-negro-shriners-convention.

According to the website, “Sargent Shriver did not shy away from speaking about racism throughout his career. This address at the black Shriner convention in August of 1967, given in the middle of a long, tumultuous summer of rioting throughout the country, demonstrates his frankness and his concern on the topic of racial inequality…”

He said this in an “Address to the Negro Shriners Convention, CLEVELAND, OH.

He also said: “It is keeping America divided into ghettos--not the city slums, but ghettos of the mind where we seal off parts of democracy that don't suit us, where we box off our obligations to justice and shut out our commitments to fairness. These ghettos of the mind are more damaging to America than the ghettos of the city…”

Indeed, Sargent Shriver did not shy away from speaking about racism throughout his career. Read the entire speech here: http://sargentshriver.org/speech-article/address-to-the-negro-shriners-convention

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