These were important steps. But they were really, as Senator Muskie has reminded us many times, just really baby steps. Today we grow up to our responsibilities. This new Air Quality Act lets us face up to our problem as we have never faced up before. But for all that it will do, the Air Quality Act will never end pollution.
Air pollution is the inevitable consequence of neglect.
It can be controlled when that neglect is no longer tolerated. It will be controlled when the people of America, through their elected representatives, demand the right to air that they and their children can breathe without fear. So, let us then strengthen that demand from this moment on. Let us seize the new powers of this new law to end a long, dark night of neglect. It was here that America turned away from damnation, and found salvation in reclaiming God's blessings of fresh air and clean sky.