4.

EY

AND SO MANY OF YOU IN THE AUDIENCE WHO CAUSED ME TO SAY A FEW WEEKS AGO, ON ANOTHER OCCASION, THAT MY HAPPIEST DAYS IN WASHINGTON WERE SPENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

TOLD LAST NIGHT THAT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THE AWARD HAS GONE TO SOMEONE FROM OUTSIDE THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. HAVING SERVED IN WASHINGTON, IN TWO ADMINISTRATIONS, FOR NEARLY A DECADE, I RATHER RESENTED THIS REMARK. AT ANY RATE, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU HAVE HONORED A DIPLOMAT. YOU MAY KNOW -- THOUGH I FRANKLY DID NOT UNTIL AN AIDE, EAGER FOR PROMOTION, TOLD ME -- THAT SIXTEENTH CENTURY SCHOLARS BELIEVED THAT THE WORLD'S FIRST DIPLOMATS WERE ANGELS MESSENGERS FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH. [THE ANCIENT GREEKS -- MEN WITH A PERHAPS LESS POETIC BENT -- ALSO LINKED DEITY AND DIPLOMACY BY NAMING HERMES THE GOD OF THE DIPLOMATS. HERMES WAS THE SYMBOL OF CHARM -- BUT ALSO OF CUNNING. IT WAS SAID OF HIM THAT ON THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH HE ROBBED A NEIGHBOR OF FIFTY COWS AND THEN SNEAKED BACK TO HIS CRADLE.]

I WILL DRAW NO MORALS FROM THIS STORY EXCEPT TO POINT OUT THAT THOUGH ONE OR TWO FOREIGN MINISTERS I KNEW - AND ALL ISRAELIS -- CLAIMED A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP TO DIVINITY, I HAVE NEVER DONE SO; EVEN IN MY MOST MEGALOMANIC PERIOD IT SEEMED TO ME THAT IF THE ALMIGHTY SHOULD DECIDE TO ADDRESS THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD, HE WOULD PROBABLY CHOOSE AN INTERPRETATION THAT COULD EXPRESS HIMSELF WITHOUT AN ACCENT.

5.

'LET

ME MAKE A FEW SERIOUS OBSERVATIONS. THE MODERN AGE HAS BROUGHT UNDREAMT OF BENEFITS TO MANKIND IN MEDICINE, IN TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE AND IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION. BUT IT HAS ALSO SPAWNED PLAGUES IN ELABORATING NEW TOOLS OF OPPRESSION, INTOLERANCE AND NEW REFINEMENTS OF TERROR AND DISCRIMINATION. THE OBSCENE AND ATROCIOUS ACTS SYSTEMATICALLY EMPLOYED TO DEVALUE, DEBASE AND DESTROY THE VERY CONCEPT OF HUMAN DIGNITY IN SO MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD UNDERLINE THE NECESSITY FOR ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THIS AND THE VISION THAT BROUGHT FORTH THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.

TO AN ASSEMBLAGE COMPOSED OF SO MANY MEN AND WOMEN DISTINGUISHED IN THE ARTS, IT IS HARDLY NECESSARY TO STRESS THAT EVERY GREAT ACHIEVEMENT WAS A DREAM BEFORE IT BECAME A REALITY. DIPLOMATS DEAL WITH THE WORLD AS IT IS. BUT THIS ORGANIZATION IS DEDICATED TO THE WORLD AS IT SHOULD BE. AT THESE TABLES TONIGHT WE HAVE COME TOGETHER BECAUSE OF OUR COMMON DEDICATION TO PEACE, TO CIVIL LIBERTY, TO JUSTICE, TO A BETTER WORLD.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON ONCE CITED FABLE FROM AN UNKNOWN ANTIQUITY.

6.

"THE GODS, IN THE BEGINNING,
DIVIDED MAN INTO MEN
THAT HE MIGHT BE MORE HELPFUL TO HIMSELF
JUST AS THE HAND WAS DIVIDED INTO FINGERS,
THE BETTER TO ANSWER ITS END.

THIS IS A WISDOM THAT NEITHER MEN NOR NATIONS HAVE AS YET ADEQUATELY UNDERSTOOD OR PRACTICED. OVER THE CENTURIES, MANKIND HAS EMPHASIZED RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL OR IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES RATHERN THAN A COMMON DESTINY;

OF THE SPECIES ON THE PLANET, MAN ALONE HAS INFLICTED UPON HIMSELF, MOST OF HIS SUFFERING.

IN AN AGE OF POTENTIAL NUCLEAR CATACLYSM, IN AN ERA OF INSTANT COMMUNICATION AMIDST IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT, WE MUST OVERCOME ABOVE ALL THESE APPARENTLY IRON LAWS OF HISTORY. IT IS PART OF THE BIBICAL TRADITION THAT THE WORLD RESTS ON THREE PILLARS: ON JUSTICE, ON TRUTH, ON PEACE -- AND THAT THESE THREE ARE ONE AND THE SAME FOR IF THERE IS JUSTICE THERE IS TRUTH, AND IF THERE IS TRUTH, THERE IS PEACE. (THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS HAS ALWAYS STOOD FOR THESE PRINCIPLES AND THEREBY GIVEN HOPE TO MILLIONS.)

7.

HOPE HAS BEEN LIKENED TO A ROAD IN THE COUNTRY. IT IS NOT
THERE TO BEGIN WITH BUT AS IT IS TRAVELED MORE AND MORE IT COMES
INTO EXISTENCE.

LET US CONTINUE ON THE ROAD OF OUR HOPES UNTIL WHAT IS NOW
UNFAMILIAR BECOMES NATURAL AND WHAT IS NOW A VISION TURNS INTO
A REALITY.

IN THIS SPIRIT I SALUTE THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS
AND JEWS AND THANK YOU FOR HONORING ME.

Edmond Buche

8.

LET ME CLOSE ON A PERSONAL NOTE. ON THE WAY OUT HERE I THOUGHT OF A MAN WHO MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE I KNOW EPITIMIZES THE IDEALS OF THIS ORGANIZATION, AND WHO HAS MEANT A GREAT DEAL TO ME PERSONALLY: OUR DEAR AND GALLANT FRIEND HUBERT HUMPHREY. HE IS NOW RESTING AT HIS HOME IN MINNESOTA EAGERLY ANTICIPATING HIS RETURN TO THE SENATE WHERE HE WILL BUTRESS HIS ADMIRERS AND SMITE HIS OPPONENTS IN HIS UNENDING BUT NEVER MALICIOUS BATTLE FOR THE VALUES THAT HAVE INSPIRED HIS LIFE AND ENRICHED THIS NATION AND THE WORLD.

IT HAS BEEN SAID OF HUBERT THAT HE WAS ASKED TO SPEAK AT A TREE PLANTING CEREMONY IN ISRAEL AND BY THE TIME HE FINISHED TALKING HE WAS STANDING IN THE SHADE. BUT WHO CAN FAIL TO REMEMBER THE PURPOSE OF HIS ELOQUENT ORATORY -- HIS PLEAS FOR COMPASSION, FOR BROTHERHOOD, FOR EQUAL RIGHTS AND SIMPLE DECENCY? WHO CAN FAIL TO HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY THIS COURAGEOUS FIGHTER WHO PRACTICED WHAT HE PREACHED OVER A CAREER SO LONG AND