Remarks on Presenting Scholastic Achievement Awards to Three Blind College Students

Miss Bowman, Mr. Dennis, Miss Gearreald, Secretary Gilpatric, Mr. Merrill:

When my friend Ros Gilpatric, who has served his country and his generation so long and so well, suggested to me that I would have the opportunity to be here with you folks this morning, I thought this was one invitation that I could not pass up.

I am really very grateful to not only my friend Mr. Gilpatric, but to Miss Bowman, Mr. Dennis, and Miss Gearreald for letting me be a part of this ceremony.

You don't know how much pride and pleasure I feel in having you here in the Cabinet Room. I am sure that this will give hope to thousands of others throughout this great land of ours.

The great poet Milton, speaking of the frustrations of his own blindness, once said, "They also serve who only stand and wait."

You brilliant young people that are here this morning did not choose to just stand and wait. Instead, you chose to meet life and meet it on its own terms--and you are conquering it. I believe that this achievement which we honor here is only a beginning.

Just a few months ago, if I may look backwards, I appointed to one of the highest legal offices in this country, the Tax Court of the United States of America, a person who is blind. He sits there in authority and in judgment on the most powerful corporations in the land, the moneyed interests, and everyone, for that matter, who is concerned with taxes--and everyone who lives here is. He is only one of many who are so handicapped, who are now serving in positions of very high authority and responsibility, not only in the Government of the United States, but in the industrial might of this country.

So I would like for you to feel that you have helped yourselves and by your example you have done a good deal more than that. You have helped thousands of others. You have provided them stimulation and inspiration. You have proved beyond any doubt that no one is really condemned to a life of frustration and failure because of some accident of nature.

You have helped to bring the light of inspiration into what we might call the darkness of despair. I am pleased to observe that you are symbols of determination, and it is a great honor for me to give you these awards this morning which really reflect the admiration, the applause, and I might say the affection of not only your President, but of your countrymen.

Thank you very much.