| Meaghan Steele, Period 2 |
| My fellow Americans, I come to you today in the hope, that you will re-elect me to the awesome position of President of the United States of America. I, Lyndon Baines Johnson, am proud to be the 36th President of the United States and to have represented our nation since 1937, first as a six-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then for two terms as an U.S. Senator. It was I as your Vice President, under the courageous John Fitzgerald Kennedy, that had the awesome task of becoming President of the U.S., upon our nation?s great loss. (www.americanpresident.org) As your President, I have led your government in helping our country?s course, both domestically and in the greater world. The Democratic Party and I have worked hard to give our people a Great Society. We have empowered more and more of our citizens. Waging a War on Poverty, we have sought to improve relations with the other nation?s of the world and fought hard to keep people free from the risk of nuclear war. (www.americanpresident.org) At home, we are helping to rebuild many of our cities. We have provided federal aid for education with remedial services for poorer school districts. The Elementary and Secondary School Act has provided funds to improve schools and student performances. We have established a Department of Housing Urban Development that has coordinated vastly expanded slum clearance, created public housing programs, and has also helped economic redevelopment within inner cities. (Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon Baines Johnson) We have created Environmental Protection Laws, so that future generations of Americans will breathe clean air and drink fresh water. We have established a National Endowment of the Arts, to encourage and support our talented and creative citizens. We have acted to make the nation?s roads safe with a Highway Safety Act. Your government and I signed a bill that provides consumers with protection against shoddy goods.(Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon Baines Johnson) We have sponsored the ?Community Action Program,? that established Community Action Agencies in many cities and counties to coordinate federal and state programs designed to help the poor. Here, we have provided social services, mental health services, health services, and employment services. Other initiatives vital to our people include the Head Start Programs of early education for poor children, and the Legal Services Corporation providing legal aid to poor families. Also, we have sponsored many healthcare programs run out of neighborhood clinics and hospitals. In our, ?Great Society,? we have also created a system of Medicare, for the elderly people of our nation, providing federal funding for many of senior citizen?s healthcare expenses. Also, people of any age, who can not afford access to healthcare by themselves, are now covered under a related program funded by the nation?s government and run by the states under their welfare programs. (Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon Baines Johnson) Decades from now, future generations will reap the benefits of the Economic Opportunity Act and the Office of Economic Opportunity. This office provides for employment of youth, grants loans to farmers in need, helps the unemployed find jobs in small businesses throughout this great land. (www.americanpresident.org & Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon Baines Johnson) We have fought hard to help our country fulfill its destiny as a land of freedom. During my time as your President, the Civil Rights Act was passed and we have moved to end segregation in public facilities. In the past term, I proposed and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. This Act suspended literacy tests that in many counties blocked citizens from their right to choose their representatives. Also, federal registrars and marshals now enroll and protect our citizens, from those who would take away or infringe upon their lawful right to vote to choose their leaders and representatives. (www.americanpresident.org) In the greater world, our nation has sought to make the world safer for mankind. Last year, I signed the Outer Space Treaty with Soviet-Premier, Aleksei Kosygyn. This treaty bans nuclear weapons in the Earth?s orbit, on the moon, or other planets, or in deep outer space. Just this year, the United States became a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, prohibiting the transfer of nuclear weapons to other nations or giving assistance to enable other nations to join the ?nuclear club.? (www.americanpresident.org) Although there has been much progress at home and abroad, our nation and world is not perfect. It is an awesome task to be the President of the United States and only an experienced President will overcome many obstacles that lie ahead. If elected again as your President, I will not rest in my efforts to prevent the spread of communism, by peacefully improving our relations with our neighbors in Latin America. But, my greatest task will be first to end the tragedy of war that our nation has faced in Vietnam. Some have seen Vietnam as a civil war. Others have seen it as a war of reunification. Others believe, as I do, that it has been necessary for us to oppose the domino effect of communist aggression. However, today we are a nation and people in great pain. Our young men have fought valiantly and we have lost many of our brave young sons. Nevertheless, we have gained much because the world knows that the United States of America will not be still when tyrants try t! o bring their rule closer and closer to our shores. In the coming years as your President, I believe it will be possible to overcome this most difficult and trying conflict that our nation faces. We will bring our soldiers home in honor concentrating our efforts on building bridges to other peoples and nations. (www.americanpresident.org & The President from Texas: Lyndon Baines Johnson) As your President, I can not guarantee that our nation will not encounter bumps on the road to peace and prosperity. But, I am sure that we will accomplish many things that will advance our cause. We will, as John Kennedy promised, put the first man on the moon by the end of this decade. We will end the war in Vietnam but, communism will not spread in our hemisphere. Peace in the world will be sought with intensified efforts at diplomacy. I propose to meet with Russian leader, Leonid I. Brezhnev, and the leaders of China, offering exchanges of our ideas and values for their peoples. We will continue the fight to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. We will expand ?The Great Society,? for people of all nations and for all of mankind. For you see my fellow Americans, the future is defined as, time that is to come. The future can either be good or be bad for our nation. But, if you vote for me, Lyndon Baines Johnson, I can guarantee that I will put every effort forth to make our nation?s future, our world?s future, a brighter one. ?I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for, and President Kennedy died for.? Thank-you. (quote from www.americanpresident.org) |