Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow . . .

President John F. Kennedy, in his 1961 inaugural address, pronounced:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

We, as a country and as a nation (forget not that a great distinction lies between the two), have lost the dreams that inspired this great vision. The political progenitor that clouds this great design aside, these words are about hope. Nothing, nothing, is more important than this idea: hope.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast"; it "is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all" say Pope and Dickinson. When we live in the blessed light of hope, our dreams have the potential to manifest themselves and direct our course.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Let us hope for liberty the entire world throughout; let us hope for peace on every street corner and mountaintop; let us dare to dream what dreams have been those to come.

The story of our nation need not be one of meaningless sound and fury. The tale of America -- indeed the tale of humanity -- ought be one of freedom, of hope, of manifest destiny achieved.

Yet our political parties compromise. It is the scourge of professional politics: we achieve many of our grandest goals, but lose sight of our ultimate ends in the fog of battle. Medicare, social security, foreign aid -- these are goals. Our end? Our end must be to live the life of a great nation and know the dreams of our souls.

Impossible? Impossible is nothing.