The Great Society - YouTube

The Great Society

was revolutionary

when you look back

and think of what America was like

before these programs

were adopted

life was very different

there was

an outbreak of hope

across this country

it was quixotic it was kind of Arturian this idea of might for right

these things are all

resonating to this day

I really don't know where I’d be without Job Corps

Thank God for Medicare

I can

feel worthy

I can be great

I think many of the Great Society

programs were so successful and had an impact on so many of our lives

in an overwhelmingly positive way

we have to question why did we move away from that

Great Society was a

cluster

of projects undertaken

by the President

he saw racial discrimination and he saw poverty

as moral issues not just as political issues

in nineteen sixty-four Johnson and the civil rights groups

managed to pass

the first major civil rights legislation

and it was the first comprehensive civil rights legislation

in the United States since

eighteen seventy-five

the Civil Rights Act said

public accommodations

have to be available to

everybody

no discrimination on the basis of race

so in one fell swoop

the Great Society wiped out all the whites only signs

this administration

today declares

unconditional war on poverty in America

the War on Poverty

was part of this idea that you have not a handout but a hand up

in the sixties it was hardscrabble for a lot of folks

and what we saw with the War on Poverty was for a lot of people it just meant jobs

what it’s saying is we're going to bring the less affluent into

the mainstream of society

when Lyndon Johnson became president the poverty rate

was about twenty two percent when he left office five years later

the poverty rate was thirteen percent

that decline is the greatest one-time reduction in poverty in the history of this country

maybe the greatest impactment of the Great Society act has been the Medicaid program

up until Medicare was passed

people who reached the age of sixty-five did not have guaranteed health insurance of any kind

and of course Medicare now has tens of millions of people in it

and it seems like a humane and generous act of the society

most presidents are just happy to have one or two bits of

legislation that endure that have a historical resonance to it

Johnson slammed out bill after bill

act after act in education alone

he proposed legislation to provide scholarships grants and work-study programs for college students

today that legislation provides the resources for sixty percent of the people that are in college

in the United States of America

I’ve got the maximum amount

any person could get to go to college I certainly would not even able to attend

school

without this type of help

America is always best when it is

operating close to its founding ideals

among those founding ideals is that it’s our country we should care about it

and we should take care of it

college work study

Kennedy cultural center

Age Discrimination Act

the question that people have just how do we get back to such a progressive agenda

they can look to the past

to see examples

aid to Appalachia urban mass transit

scenic rivers and trails

we have stellar moments in

the history of our country

we can experience the same euphoria

seeking things that we haven't done that and are there for us and we're going to do that

the best of American life cries for it

I hope it may be said

a hundred years from now

that by working together

we helped to make our country

more just for all of its people

I believe

at least

it will be said

that we tried