LINCOLN DAY DINNER 55

We, as a people, have always championed the cause of the underdog
and come to the aid of the underprivileged. Is it not then natural to
our heritage and habit to champion and bring encouragement to those
of our society who were so long and arbitrarily deprived of their free-
doms and opportunity?

We, as a people ruled by the majority, have always recognized the
right of the minority to protest and protect its constitutional and in-
alienable rights. We affirm that when the rights of a few are en-
dangered or obscured, the freedoms of the many are themselves
seriously imperiled... so should we not continue to value, honor and
cherish minority dissent however inconvenient and unpopular?

We, as employers in a free society, have always been generous and
compassionate in hiring the worker handicapped by loss of sight or
limb. Isn't it but a natural extension of our generosity and compassion
to extend the hand of fellowship to the worker handicapped by the
color of his skin, the blight of his surroundings, the poverty of his
education and upbringing?

We, as a nation of home lovers, have always respected the rights of
our neighbor, shared our munificence with him, brought comfort and
aid in times of need and emergency. Can we shut our doors and re-
main forever deaf to the call of anyone yearning for a decent home,
in a proper neighborhood where he too can respect, share, comfort
and help his neighbor?

How can we, as builders of great cities, let them decay and crumble?
How can we as advocates of urban culture continue the drift to blight
and decay? For how long will we as lovers of beauty accept ugly streets
as natural, polluted air as normal, and the idea as inevitable that,
since George won't do it, Uncle Sam will eventually respond?

Of course, in certain instances, we need and must have legislation
and high court action to enlarge human opportunities and protect
human liberties. Of course we properly require the interest of govern-
ment in the health of our communities and in the enrichment of our
lives. But we can do much by ourselves, by private effort; sometimes
with the help of government and many times without its slightest
insistence or involvement.

We don't need equal opportunity laws to tell us when the other
fellow is getting the cold shoulder, the menial job, the petty cash and
the paltry future. We don't have to be told whom we must hire or
endure the shame of having fair employment legislated by number