Crisis of Confidence essays

Crisis of Confidence essays On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave a speech to our country. It was a nationally televised speech. It was not the speech that he had planned to give. It was a speech out of desperation, out of concern for us as a democracy, us as a people. This country was in an economic and energy crisis. This speech, although it addressed the energy crisis, spoke of different crisis and it became the title of his speech, A Crisis of Confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as people is not simply some romantic dream or proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else Public institutions and private enterprise, our own families and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. Weve always believed in something called progress. Weve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. ...