<strong><em>"There is a discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere."</em></strong>

That's our world, our poor, troubled world early in the second decade of the 21st century. The rich get richer and the poor amass debt and buy guns.

<strong><em>"These are differing evils, but they are common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows."</em></strong>

We tend to forget that only God, however we define Him, can provide perfect justice. Whatever we do is by nature flawed by the filter of our own weaknesses, viewed through the prism of our limitations.

<em><strong>"But we can perhaps remember - even if only for a time - that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek -- as we do -- nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can."</strong></em>

Do we really believe that all men are brothers, that all women are sisters under God's rule? If we did, I doubt any of us could ever use words like "nigger" or "raghead" or "kike" without feeling guilty. I know I don't think there are very many people in this world who would reject purposeful, happy lives if they had the chance to live them.

<em><strong>"Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."</strong></em>

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/LoveThyNeighborAsThyself.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1517" title="LoveThyNeighborAsThyself" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/LoveThyNeighborAsThyself-300x176.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="176" /></a>Forget Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein and look a lot closer to home. If those of us who have been hateful toward those in power can accept the Bushes, the Cheneys and the Gingriches on the right or the Obamas, Bidens and Clintons on the left as fellow men and women who want only to do the right thing as they see it, and they can accept us the same way, we will go a very long way toward solving our problems.

<em><strong>"Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe."</strong></em>

It's going to take a great deal of moral courage. Not the false courage that demands others follow the same path to God we do, or live the same lifestyle we have chosen. No, we need the courage to stand up and say children are starving, women are being tortured and men all over the world are being denied basic freedom and dignity.

<em><strong>"For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort."</strong></em>

Is there a clue here as to the speaker of this amazing piece of rhetoric? The speech was made by an American, far from American shores in a part of the world in desperate need of freedom and dignity at the time it was delivered.

<strong><em>"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society."</em></strong>

In 1966, speaking to an audience of young people at South Africa's Day of Affirmation ceremonies, a 41-year-old United States senator from New York spoke in favor of people doing the right thing.

<em><strong>"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."</strong></em>

[caption id="attachment_1516" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Bobby Kennedy in South Africa"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Robert-Kennedy.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1516" title="Robert Kennedy" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Robert-Kennedy-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

His name was Robert Francis Kennedy, and I believe his assassination in June 1968 probably changed American history for the worse more than any act of political terrorism since the killing of Abraham Lincoln.  Bobby Kennedy died nearly 44 years ago, and in that time we have not had a single effective American leader who urged us to try and be better than ourselves. This year is another election year, and much is at stake. But whether we re-elect Barack Obama or turn him out, we can do far more for ourselves and our country by listening to the words Kennedy spoke 44 years ago.

They aren't "ragheads." They aren't "niggers" or "gooks" or "skinheads." They're people, just like us, trying to raise children and find happiness.  And if they hate us, the way we defeat them is not by hating them in return. Not by killing them or conquering their countries.

That isn't it at all. We defeat them by accepting them as people at the same time we reject their actions.

<em><strong>"Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."</strong></em>

We don't need any more Nixons, those who play one group against another to gain money, fame and power.

We've been there, done that and have lost much of what once made us special.

Somehow, we need to try something different.