johnny but i couldn't see becoming a part of that wreck and through all of us come to a crossroads in life choosing which road to take from that day long after we wonder what life would have been had we taken the other way let me introduce the three of us this is john smith honor student football star vietnam veteran yet somewhere along the way he chose the road to anarchy and self destruction this is one of his ancestors jonathan smith who gave his life for his country back in seventeen seventy six i am sam hardock history department this university it isn't often we get a second chance in life  chance to go back and take the other way let's see if we can work out an allegorical second chance for john smith and incidentally see what we can come up with for us house but the tragedy o to go back a ways back to when john smith came in here tonight we had reason to think he was here to protect the valuable medical books from the wind imagine the shock when we find he's really here to let the rioters in now why should a normally decent normally intelligent young person like john smith choose the road to communism over american freedom for one thing our youth of today are the object of the most extensive intensive diabolical campaign ever conceived organized and directed by our and their worst and has been many of our nation's platforms radical speakers make a well on such a platform we have seen many self proclaimed communists and revolutionary radical spokesman for various groups and professions and sometimes even prominent political figures all joining in a movement w a typical line from such true there are things wrong in our social impact anomic in mexico they're being leveled off more and more all the time but not by seems like they're not by our friend john here so far in fact he's a prime example of what's wrong today to begin with he's a victim of irresponsible time he has missed the stabilizing influence of a good home and religious upbringing he has been listening to the wrong people he's gone into drugs loose morals and wanton destruction he blames it on what's wrong with america well maybe it's time some of us should start reminding him what right with america what's going on here give me john here i would just like just can't get over it but i think of the preditions in a handbasket wow now that i see what our country has become in spite of our shortcomings well i might be old fashioned to say this professor but that kind of journey i'm going back to b and proud of america and just ignore the things that are around right i didn't say that that you're not listening to me yeah but that's part of the attitude it's part of being radical in that one sentence he has illustrated the two basic tenets of being the true radical he takes what you say and then deliberately twist it around and then he accuses you of doing the very thing he's doing him is listen to him he's only trying to confuse you is today and to me this now he didn't say this but let's suppose he had you imply that it's wrong to ignore all the things that are wrong in this country right now how do you judge a country when she would begin maybe rather startling the number of people that want to move here compared to the number of people that want to get away remember there are no walls are barbed wire to keep people here who don't want to stay noticed even the ones who complain the loudest don't compare them with the millions who want to get in every year people risk their lives to escape other countries hoping to reach america many die trying and why do they think it's worth risking their lives to get here freedom that's the answer and the highest living standard in the world not for everybody in the slums in the ghettos on the contrary it's one of the harsh realities of life in every country has its different levels of subsistence but bracket for bracket even the poorest here live much better than their counterparts anywhere else in the world they have good living conditions you have to have good working conditions both in and outside the home we have the best working conditions both places infinite variety of home appliances furnishings and services to make house work immeasurably easier the farm and in the factory the number and variety of power tools ingenious machines and labor saving techniques make the job so much easier for the working man now what does all this add up to we make up six percent of the world's population and yet we produce more than fifty percent of its manufactured goods our little six percent right here produces as much as the rest of the world combined though isn't it remarkable the average american citizens living standard measured in in wealth and purchasing power is twice that of the average citizen of other countries three times better than most countries and four times better than russia i mean it's the difference between life in the jungle and life in civilization and what other values are you talking about anyway cultural ethical among others but it's materialism that fosters those factors among others materialism provides the money with which we can build and equip the most schools the most churches the most prosperous the most libraries and the most research centers and as for being purely  selfish john come on use your intelligence you know that the communist line is based on the big lie they put up some fiendish indefensible act against a helpless nation or individual and then they shout down world criticism by pointing us and calling us capitalistic addresses for example they suddenly attack on america protests whereupon they accuse us of imperialistic provocation another example there's an earthquake or other contest perhaps in a communist country because americans believe the cry of a child is pitiful in a communist land as anywhere else we rush great stores of medicine food and warm blankets to the stricken area one of the commies do they remove all usa identification and replace with communist labels before distributing them then set up the hall that america is selfish for not helping more when the plain fact is america is the most generous country on this through our churches american red cross care packages and the government itself we have provided foreign aid to more than one hundred countries running into the united states is giving more to needy nations including communist countries than all the communist countries put together and given to other nations throughout all time not sure of course they are going to say that we're selfish that's the way they operate and others just parrot the communist line on the other hand out right gifts are only one way america aids other nations as we constantly raise our standard of living that spin us for a standard of other countries america is the world's greatest inventor and perfected and jonathan here seems to like our electric lights and surely do but then i like everything i see and i think that makes a very good example i think we were inventors and perfect is no we didn't invent electricity but the basic facts of electricity were known some two thousand years ago before there was an american by scientists in greece and in england and in germany and two thousand years nobody knew what to do with it it remained for benjamin franklin harnesses and his inventions were the basis from which later americans invented and developed the electric light in the telephone in a continental radio other americans have given the world the automobile steamships trains planes refrigeration and a mechanized home factory farm and most of the medicines now used around the world again some of these were known or at least suspected in rudimentary form but it remained for america to really develop them and give them to the rest of the world to enjoy and mind you john america is only three hundred years old really just two hundred years old as a nation and yet these two hundred years largely due to america has seen the development of mankind as a whole increased astronomically over all the thousands of years before that put together tell me  this country have to do to raise your respect and admiration i think something here will stand me aside a good coming forward in time like this to see how how wonderful things have turned out but i wish i could take it back with me back in time back those two hundred years when we were standing as a nation bush because it's lean this country then it was pretty wild it's hard to remember first scratches of the earth with the end of a you just can't believe how much easier it's made to work all over the world because of mechanization in this country only five percent of our people farm anymore yet the nation is the best bet it ever watched and we supply a lot of food to other countries because well better tools are one problem they raise some new ones to bam workers were free to go and other kinds of production and other production were sure the principles of the steam engine were known in greece over a thousand years ago and never developed or even the two things thought of together no no not till america because you see johnny in america well people have always been free dream and to work to make their dreams come true a lot of american inventors worked on a steamboat that was fitch stephens ramsey and livingston car some of the some of the boats were much bigger than  robots and it was a hard time they had gone more than three miles an hour at a green mountain bike it was fast and that if any can find three miles of open ground and pulled in designed a special boat with a special engine nation westward and you know he built fifteen more steamboat including the american and the new orleans that opened up our ship and up and down the mississippi now the new orleans that the one i was captain of all and he worked in europe too didn't oh indeed he did you know several countries with the river and canal system so you see john america was still young not much older than you are now ready she was up in other countries and she's been doing it ever since and i don't need to tell you what better get around means for any nation if this nation had done nothing else she's justified her destiny by developing power transportation for the world water land and there and remember all of this in little more than a century one hundred years why there's no time at all when we can trace other civilizations back ten thousand years in a little more than a hundred years this nation has given the world the steamboat and then the railroad and then the model t god grandfather for you you remembered you couldn't of been what was it so that when i heard a voice but i remember know what's this all about jonathan well we were just reminded him of what it was that made this country great johnny i know him he's my own flesh and blood and too just a few generations know where we are where we were talking about america's contributions to the world in a materialistic ways just to highlight talking about invention and transportation and that's when you chimed in with your friend henry and the model t well  we never called him henry and so i worked for mr ford close as anyone for a spell i guess is a fine man i always thought entering ford was about as american as you could get he was raised on a farm he knew what it was like to work for a living he grew up in a home with religious principles yes and when he married clara they are they raise their children the same way and so to their children true and while mr ford didn't make the first automobile he probably did most of start the automobile industry he didn't my book over model t was the first what you'd call a practical automobile one the general public could afford he also developed the moving assembly line another american invention one and other countries in the news assembly line not only made the work easier the increased efficiency raised wages but mr ford didn't have it all his own way very low on the competition found ways to make better cars out of mr ford reacted that well he he just put his mind to it and built a still better one and that's the way it's going on back and forth ever since way american free enterprise works isn't exactly it's the greatest economic system known to man it allows you to take the greatest good and bring it to the greatest number our enemies say that we're materialistic we are we provide material benefits that make life better and longer and not just for america but all over the world i wish i could say we were completely unselfish but i can say this we are the least selfish nation on earth and that wrong all right i may say that we are capitalistic we are but you need capital to build schools and hospital and industrial the last time i was in detroit i was in the ford plant it could have been general motors or chrysler but it was ford i saw a huge press standing out standard and i have the foreman i was an operator he told me the man pushes the button and the conveyor carries them away mamma says a machine like that costs happen million dollars just one machine just one because not many machines cost that much money apiece but in all american industries nationwide the average cost of power tools and equipment inventories was more than thirty five thousand dollars per worker american industry has put up that capital so that they can produce more and better goods l laboriously and in a competitive market so that more people can enjoy more and better products and that is the american you capitalistic system is that wrong no then what is wrong