This I Believe by Robert A. Heinlein

[paularoid]

http://www.wegrokit.com/believ.htm


This I Believe
by Robert A. Heinlein

"I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.

"Take Father Michael down our road a piece. I'm not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and lovingkindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I'm in trouble, I'll go to him."

"My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee--no prospect of a fee--I believe in Doc.

"I believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town saying, `I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our town is no exception. I've found the same ready charity everywhere. But for the one who says, `To heck with you--I got mine,' there are a hundred, a thousand who will say, `Sure, pal, sit down.'

"I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers I can step up to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, `Climb in Mac--how far you going?'

"I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime yet for every criminal there are 10,000 honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but is a force stronger than crime. I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses and the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.

"I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.

"I believe that almost all politicians are honest . . . there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true we would never have gotten past the 13 colonies.

"I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I believe in--I am proud to belong to--the United States. Despite shortcomings from lynchings to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.

"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes will endure. Will endure longer than his home planet -- will spread out to the stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble essential decency.

"This I believe with all my heart."

--Written by Robert A. Heinlein in 1952, for Edward R Murrow's This I Believe program. Virginia Heinlein chose to read it when she accepted NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal on October 6, 1988, on Mr. Heinlein's behalf (a posthumous award).

Her reading received a standing ovation.


Things have changed a bit since he first wrote this in 1952 but basically it pretty much says it all.

[Darlene]

Yes paularoid, It has changed I wasnt born until 1954 but things were different then too. In late fifties and early sixties I was a carefree child in a small country community. Doors always open not even locked at night, cars sitting with the keys in the ignition I remember when warninngs came out about tempting young men to steal cars if you left your keys in your car.

There was a small country store where you could buy penny candy and 5 cent colas. And oh the Popsicles on a hot summer's day. Orange was my favorite. Roads were just covered with red clay dust, that rose up from the ground. It was so fun to run stomping in the soft dust making red clouds rise from the earth. Bare feet so covered with callouses it didn't matter if you stepped on a rock you could hardly feel it.

Finding a lost ball in the high grass was a special treat and you usually had a cracked bat, with tape around it to hold it together. Then you could play a ball game with some kids in the neighborhood, at least till "you" lost the ball.

Then as the day began to end lying on you back in the grass and watching the clouds take shapes as darkness began to fall and the stars came out.

Darlene

[DaveM]

I actually thought of Heinlein while reading the thread dealing with the Cuban woman facing deportation. His "Starship Troopers" deals with a society in which one must spend two years in government service (whether in the military or in some other capacity) before being granted full citizenship, voting rights, etc.

While this has some none-too-subtle hints of fascism, the idea has always struck me as one with possibilities. This country was founded on the idea that its people would participate in running it, which requires more than the present citizenship requirements: being born here and having a body temperature. Naturalized citizens have to jump through far higher hoops to earn the right to call themselves Americans. The number who do and succeed with flying colors ought to leave the rest of us somewhat ashamed. They know more about our system than most of us do.

Heinlein had a definite way with words and some ideas that are likely to becoming increasingly relevant as time passes. His attitude toward women was bizarre and out of date even when most of his best works were written, but his voice remains one of the clearest ever raised in defense of freedom and the sanctity of individual rights.

"The Notebooks Of Lazarus Long" is a collection of somewhat grumpy observations on life mixed with commentary on everything under the sun. Well worth reading, both for contemplation and for a good chuckle now and then.

[soulMerlin]

When I was growing up in the 50's, it was truly like that in Durham City in the North-East of England. As darwoods says, things have changed however.

I don't think that Socialism will ever work because of greed.

[Roady]

Thanks for the article Paularoid! Got me thinking it might be time to give, "Stranger in a Strange Land" another read. Best science fiction book I've read.