Remarks Upon Presenting the Young American Medals for Bravery and Service

Attorney General Clark, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, distinguished Members of Congress, distinguished award winners, ladies and gentlemen:

This is one of the pure pleasures of the office that I hold--recognizing the courage, the commitment, the idealism of young Americans.

These are the fundamental values of a democratic society. Each of them gives great meaning to the others:

--Idealism without commitment is like a bright light burning in a vacuum.

--Commitment without idealism can easily become frenzied and destructive.

--Without courage, those values may fail at the moment of testing--for nations, as well as for men.

Today we come here to the Cabinet Room to honor three young Americans who have demonstrated their idealism, their commitment, and their great courage.

Their achievements are unique. But in a deeper sense these three, whom we honor, represent the great numbers of American youth who share their values:

--those who are fighting at this very hour to make it possible to have a decent future for the Vietnamese people, as well as freedom and liberty everywhere in the world;

--those Peace Corpsmen--and women-who are sharing their knowledge and their experience with people whom history has never before given any chance;

--those VISTA volunteers, and those members of the Teacher Corps, who are enriching the lives of their fellow Americans.

It is easy--particularly when you have witnessed and survived the perils of teenage culture in your own family--to question the customs of the young.

But the hard fact is this: The basis of improvement, in our civilization, has been that each generation set out to improve on its parents. Sometimes there has been more posturing than progress. But, in perspective, I hope that all of you will be able to improve on us, as much as we think we improved upon those Victorians who peer sternly out of family albums at us.

And I trust that you will retain the hard core of democratic idealism that has been each generation's most treasured legacy to its children.

Today it is my proud privilege to award Young American Medals to Gloria Cassidy, to Nathaniel Curry, and to Drusilla Akamine.

Gloria--you and Nathaniel demonstrated outstanding bravery in rescuing children from burning homes.

"Courage," as Mark Twain once said, "is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear."

Your physical courage has set a magnificent example to your generation--as well as to your elders.

Drusilla--your work with retarded children has brought a precious sense of belonging to youngsters who often are sentenced to life imprisonment, in a cell of callous neglect.

What you have done requires great perseverance--immense inner strength-and a maturity of spirit. Yours is the moral courage that leads men and women to endure disappointment and heartbreak, for the sake of others.

All of you are here this morning because, long before you performed the acts that we come here to honor today, there was instilled in you an idealism, a sense of commitment, and a capacity for courage. Either by accident or design, those values were called upon--at an hour of need for someone else. And when called upon, each of you responded.

I pray that this great Nation of yours, like you, will always respond when called upon--as you have responded when you were called upon.

Thank you very much.