US Presidency
1961

I am hopeful that we can develop here today, with your help and suggestions, a program which will inspire our country to be concerned. I don't think we have to read these tests which we have seen so much of during the last 10 years to realize that because of the generosity of nature, because of the way our society is organized, that there has been less emphasis on national vigor, national vitality, physical well being, than there has been in many other countries of the world. I want to do better. And I think you want to do better. We want to make sure that as our life becomes more sophisticated, as we become more urbanized, that we don't lose this very valuable facet of our national character: physical vitality, which is tied into qualities of character, which is tied into qualities of intellectual vigor and vitality. So I think that you are performing a real service in being here. We want your suggestions and ideas. This has to flow two ways, and we want the flow today to.