It was planned the year I was born, and I was seven years old when it was celebrated. The "Spirit of '76"!
"Look to the year 1976," President Nixon urged in 1969. He suggested that by 1976, hunger in the U.S. could be abolished and "tremendous progress" could be made in housing and transportation.
The best fed, best clothed, best housed people in the world—that the strongest nation in the world and the richest nation in the world still will not deserve to be the hope of the world unless it has that splendid spirit, the lift of a driving dream, which meant so much to the world in 1776, and for 200 years since that time. I would conclude simply by saying, that by 1976, the world will be at peace. By that year, 1976, America, we trust, will find the understanding that we perhaps do not have in many quarters today. But above everything else, I would trust that in 1976, that more Americans can look back with pride and look to the future with hope—hope that the opportunity that everybody in this room has had is something that is a realizable dream that can be achieved for anyone who has the good fortune to be born in this country, or anyone who has the good fortune to come to this country.
Aw, fuck it. Let's just have some beer and hot dogs and enjoy each other. Back at you next Monday.
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