The assassination of Robert Kennedy, Part 3

"The assassination of Robert Kennedy, Part 3 -- The woman in the polka dot dress" source: Psychopaths, psyops and COINTELPRO author:
A. Branson summary: " As we dig deeper into the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, things get curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say. It seems there are some things that people just "know." There are no such things as ghosts, astrology and psychic powers are just ploys used to get money from the gullible, the chances that Earth will be hit by a comet within our lifetimes are astronomical (forgive the pun) and everyone deep inside is basically the same: just trying to be good as they understand it. The strange thing about this kind of "knowing" is that no one can tell you just how they know. Ask them how they know that two plus two equals four and they will have at least a vague recollection of their early school years. But ask them how they know about ghosts, astrology, psychics, comets and the psychology of the rest of humanity and you'll likely get a response that is something akin to, "Everybody just knows that." But the question bothers me. Just when did "everyone" learn these things and why can't they remember having learned them?" text: "Here, we find a key to how people can be coerced into taking part in a conspiracy they know nothing about. It is the beliefs they hold, masquerading as knowledge or "common wisdom" (beliefs that will paradoxically be defended more vociferously than 2+2=4) that are skillfully manipulated by the perception managers. Throughout our lives, rarely anything happens to trigger a fear of ghosts, aside from the occasional scary movie that is easily dismissed as the product of the scriptwriter's imagination. We live our lives blissfully unaware of that part of us, still very much alive in our minds but normally quiet, that does believe in ghosts and knows that there is compelling evidence for the reality of spirit. If we were to find ourselves alone in a drafty, creaky old house on a dark, windy night, we would be forced to face that part of ourselves. Despite what we would claim to believe in the movie theater or in the bright sunlight, our fears of things unseen would begin to creep up the back or our neck and cause the hair to stand up. We would find ourselves involuntarily looking behind, just to be sure there is nothing there. And when we find the evidence that our fears were unjustified and childish--the banging shutter or the gap in the window through which the wind whistled--we would laugh at our gullibility and feel a palpable sense of relief that sanity had been returned to the world. And even if something inexplicable actually does happen, we rush to explain it away even at the cost of lying to ourselves. We specifically look for the evidence that our fears are unfounded because the key to our beliefs, that "common knowledge" without a remembered lesson, is a desire for a world that is fully knowable, under control and, ultimately, safe for us. We want to believe that our most dire fears are only the product of our overactive imaginations. And when those fears are triggered, any "rational" explanation that returns sanity to the world is welcomed with open arms. Even many of the most ardent seekers of truth have fears and beliefs they keep deeply buried under stones that must never be turned. It is a childish belief--not the belief in ghosts, but the belief that ignorance, masquerading as common wisdom, provides safety. So, we see even vehemently outspoken critics of the U.S. government label as conspiracy theorists of the lowest order those who would dare claim that, as an example, 9/11 was the product of anything but Arab hijackers. This is how it is with events like 9/11 or the assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK. For a moment, our deepest fears seem realized. We madly grope for something, anything, that will return sanity to the world. We desperately look for the banging shutter or broken window that will assure us there is nothing unseen, nothing unknowable and, ultimately, nothing really unsafe. In this way, each of us can be made, is made, a part of the conspiracy even without realizing that the conspiracy exists. And now, on with our story... The Woman in the Polka Dot DressSandy Serrano, a young campaign worker for Kennedy, was there at the Ambassador Hotel the scary night that Bobby Kennedy died. Needing a break from the heat and the crowd, she found a little quiet on the steps that lead from the back of the kitchen area. Somewhere around 11:30 pm, she encountered three people, a woman and two men, entering the kitchen from the back, using the stairs she was sitting on. The woman she would described as wearing a white dress with dark polka dots and having a "Bob Hope" type nose. The two men with her were described as,

White male (Latin extraction), 5'5" tall, 21 to 23 years old, olive complexion, black hair, long - straight, hanging over his forehead and needed a haircut. [The other was] white male (Mexican American), about 23 years of age, 5'3" tall, curly, bushy hair and wore light colored clothes. She said after seeing a picture of Sirhan Sirhan in the newspaper she felt certain that this was the same person she saw go up the stairs with this woman. [Turner and Christian; The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, The Conspiracy and Coverup]

Sometime later, seconds after Serrano heard what she described as sounding like automobile backfires, the woman and one of her male companions came running back down the stairs. According to Serrano, the woman was yelling, "We shot him, we shot him." When asked who they shot, she replied, "Senator Kennedy." Serrano was not the only one to describe the woman in the polka dot dress and associate her with Sirhan and/or the assassination. Amongst them was Kennedy campaign worker Darnell Johnson and the son of an Ambassador Hotel maître d', Thomas Vincent DiPierro. DiPierro said that the only reason he noticed Sirhan was that there was a very good looking girl next to him. According to DiPierro,

I would never forget what she looked like because she had a very good looking figure - and the dress was kind of lousy...it looked like a white dress and it had either black or dark-purple polka dots on it.

Minutes after the shooting and well before any of the stories of the woman in the white dress had been made public or could have been shared, LAPD Sergeant Paul Sharaga heard news of the shooting on his police radio. Already in the vicinity, he arrived at the scene within a minute. An older couple approached Sharaga and, as he tells it:

They related that they were outside one of the doors of the Embassy Room when a young couple in their early twenties came rushing out. This couple seemed to be in a state of glee, shouting, "We shot him, we shot him, we killed him." The woman stated that she asked the lady, "Who did you shoot?" or "Who was shot?" and the young lady replied, "Kennedy, we shot him, we killed him."

The only defining characteristic of the young lady that the witnesses could give was that she was wearing a white dress with polka dots. Sharaga immediately put out an all point bulletin for police to be on the lookout for a woman in a polka dot dress in the company of a man. And then something very strange happened that, as far as we know, has never happened before or since in the history of the LAPD. For about 15 to 20 minutes, all police radio communications were lost on all frequencies. This was ample time for the woman in the polka dot dress and her companion to get off the streets and out of reach of the police. The elderly couple Sharaga had interviewed were lost and have never come forward. Serrano, being the sole witness to the woman in the polka dot dress claiming, "We shot Kennedy" was brought to the notorious Rampart Division of the LAPD for extensive questioning. I encourage you to follow the link on the Rampart Division. The story of the ongoing corruption in the LAPD and the Rampart Division in particular is very informative. The Bobby Kennedy assassination is not the only one in which the Rampart Division has taken part. In this case, however, the witness was not so much questioned as she was browbeaten and verbally tortured into renouncing her testimony. The "questioning" was performed by Sergeant Enrique "Hank" Hernandez who, according to his resume, played a key role in "Unified Police Command" training for the CIA in Latin America. As is clear from the questioning, Hernandez had one goal in mind - to discredit Sandy Serrano and anything having to do with the story of the woman in the polka dot dress. Here, for your listening pleasure, are two excerpts from that taped session which, amazingly, survived after the LAPD had attempted to destroy all evidence that would discount the official story of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Keep in mind as you listen that Sgt. Hernandez is allegedly questioning a material witness who has nothing to gain from lying. Serrano and Hernandez part 1 Serrano and Hernandez part 2 A thread of the webHernandez played a key role in the special LAPD task force created to investigate the Kennedy Assassination, called Special Unit Senator, or SUS. SUS was headed by LAPD Lieutenant Manuel Pena. Interestingly, Pena had officially retired from the LAPD in November of 1967, less than a year before the Kennedy assassination, to take a position with the Agency for International Development Office of the State Department, or AID; AID, a known cover agency for the CIA for its counter insurgency and torture operations in South America. AID is probably best known for one of its most infamous agents, a man who Pena allegedly had worked with, Dan Mitrione. From 1960 to 1967, Mitrione worked with the Brazilian government under the cover of AID, torturing then killing, without trial, political dissidents. Though Pena's farewell was a well attended and publicized event, sometime around April 1968 he returned to the LAPD quietly, without fanfare. His explanation was that the job with AID had not turned out to be what he had hoped. Within two months, he would find himself in charge of the most important murder investigation ever conducted by the LAPD, the man who would have the final say on virtually everything that would happen in the investigation. And here, we have an interesting thread of web to examine. Two of the most important investigator's of the case, Hernandez and Pena, are both ex (or perhaps current at that time) CIA operatives, both involved in CIA operations in South America. Pena, the man running the entire investigation, had just returned from duty with AID, a CIA front organization that specialized in crushing political dissidents and likely worked with Dan Mitrione. In 1970, Mitrione was kidnapped by the Tupamaros, a leftist guerrilla organization fighting against the U.S. sponsored dictatorship in Uruguay. Though his name was changed, that event was the basis of the movie State of Siege. Mitrione's funeral, much like Pena's "retirement" from the LAPD, was a well publicized and attended affair. Following his funeral, a benefit concert was held in his home town of Richmond, Indiana, headlined by none other than Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis (go figure). Sinatra, as you may remember, was one of the stars of the John Frankenheimer film The Manchurian Candidate. The film is a fictional account of a man, played by Lawrence Harvey, who is hypnotically programmed to perform assassinations without conscious knowledge of doing so. Following the Kennedy assassination, Sinatra purchased the rights to The Manchurian Candidate and removed it from circulation until 1987. On June 3rd, Bobby Kennedy had dinner with his friend John Frankenheimer (who, coincidentally, drove him to the Ambassador Hotel that fateful night) along with a pretty actress named Sharon Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski. Now, please bear with me as we descend into something of an abyss. When trying to see the web, we run across strange coincidences that may seem on the surface to be tenuous, improbable or even downright laughable. It's the nature of the beast. If you want to know what is really going on, these things must at least be put on the table, even if they are discarded later. Remember, though, webs are tenuous things made from very delicate threads. Often times, the most obvious and easily accepted data turns out to be nothing more than something caught in the web - an artifact, if you will, rather than the web itself. That said, here we go. In August 1969, Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson Family, who had strong connections to the Laurel Canyon music scene. Curiously, the year Kennedy was shot Sharon Tate was in the process of making a film entitled The Wrecking Crew, which co-starred Dean Martin. That same name was taken by a group of Los Angeles studio musicians associated with Phil Spector, who were also closely connected with the Laurel Canyon music scene. And Dean Martin, her costar in that film, was of course a long time collaborator with Jerry Lewis, who shared billing with Frank Sinatra at the Dan Mitrione benefit concert following his funeral. During the filming of that movie, Tate would be trained to do her own stunts by the martial arts expert Bruce Lee, with whom she would become close friends and who also later died under mysterious circumstances. Tate, it should be noted for those who don't remember her, was a movie star on a meteoric rise. She was beautiful and talented. As the Hollywood Reporter stated concerning her role in The Wrecking Crew, "Sharon Tate reveals a pleasant affinity to scatterbrain comedy and comes as close to walking away with this picture as she did in a radically different role in Valley of the Dolls." Tate, it should also be noted, had taken a keen interest in Bobby Kennedy's campaign. She was a frequent attendee at Kennedy campaign dinners. It's funny (and not in a humorous way) how often those in the public eye who take a political stance that is in favor of human rights, human dignity and simply doing the right thing are found in a pool of their own blood. As for Dan Mitrione, he was not the only famous former resident of Richmond, Indiana. For a fairly small town (the 2000 census shows a population of only 39,124) it has had more than its fair share of celebrity. Richmond can boast at least four NFL players, one of whom was a rookie of the year, an NFL coach, two NBA coaches, an Olympic gold medalist, Margaret Landon (the author of The King and I), Orville and Wilbur Wright, the legendary and cutting edge R&B singer Baby Huey and actress Polly Bergen along with Mitrione and a street preacher there who Mitrione befriended while he was Chief of Police in Richmond; a man by the name of Jim Jones. But that is another story for another time. More to come..." comment: "" date: Sat May 31 00:29:00 -0400 2008 type: Editorial id: "157890" votes: "38" link: "http://allenbranson.blogspot.com/" classification_id: "2"

Web Site Defendant Moves to Dismiss Defamation Suit Under Anti-SLAPP Statute

Web Site Defendant Moves to Dismiss Defamation Suit Under Anti-SLAPP Statute

QFG and SOTT.net defend Internet First Amendment rights.

SOTT.net - May 02, 2008

(PRNewsChannel) / Portland, Oregon - Quantum Future Group, Inc. ("QFG"), the only defendant that has been served in an Internet defamation suit brought by New-Age guru Eric Pepin's sales company, has forcefully challenged the merits of the case and has asked an Oregon federal judge for a dismissal and attorneys fees.

The case concerns postings on a forum hosted by SOTT.net (Signs of the Times), an Internet site devoted to news and analysis in various fields, including analyzing and exposing cults. Citing Oregon's anti-SLAPP ("Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation") statute, QFG contends that the statements about Pepin and his company, Higher Balance Institute, LLC ("HBI") are constitutionally protected. Because HBI cannot show that it probably will prevail, QFG argues, the case must be dismissed before QFG or the other defendants must spend large amounts to defend themselves.

"Without exception," the motion states, "the statements are all constitutionally protected expressions of opinion rather than verifiable assertions of fact. HBI cannot meet its burden to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the statements are false, let alone that Defendants knew that they were false or had serious doubts as to their truth."

The statements cited in QFG's complaint question Pepin's meditation techniques and comment on Pepin's 2007 trial on multiple sexual charges involving a 17-year-old male acolyte. The statements at issue include a November 7, 2007 comment that "It's really starting to look like this Eric Pepin and his Higher Balance Institute may be merely COINTELPRO and a front for pedophilia" and a November 4, 2007 comment by an anonymous poster that something "fishy" was going on at HBI.

QFG's motions state that the forum posts are opinion based on stated facts published on a mainstream news source and are constitutionally protected. The motion also argues that the operator of an Internet forum cannot be liable for the posts of third parties under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ("CDA") and questions Oregon's jurisdiction over QFG, a California non-profit corporation whose primary place of business is in France.

"These are exactly the sort of statements that the First Amendment and recent statutes protect as free speech," said QFG attorney Stephen Kaus, who prepared the papers with his colleagues Walter Hansell and Merrit Jones. "People are entitled to believe in gurus such as Pepin and buy their books and courses for hundreds of dollars or more, but people are also entitled to point out their view that the techniques of telepathy and development of a sixth eye promoted by Pepin are nonsense."

Much of the dispute concerns Pepin's trial on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor. Pepin was acquitted in a court trial because the judge did not feel the charges had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. According to the article in the Oregonian, Washington County Circuit Court Judge Steven L. Price stated that it was, " 'probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred,' but he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt" and "called the leader of a metaphysical Internet sales company manipulative and controlling and his testimony unbelievable, even as he acquitted him today of charges that he had sex with an underage boy."

SOTT.NET posters point out that being found "not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" is not the same thing as being found "innocent of all charges."

The sexual charges aside, the SOTT.NET forum topic on Pepin and HBI has been the site of a lively debate on whether he is an exploiter, ever since a visitor posted an inquiry about them in 2006. Several Pepin devotees have posted fervent praise, while others have denounced him as a power-lusting cult leader who takes advantage of gullible followers.

SOTT.NET contends that it is the public's right to examine the claims of any company selling a product or service to the public and to form their own opinion as to whether it is "snake-oil" sold by con-artists or not and that those opinions may be made public for the safety of consumers.

In a previous press release, atty Walter Hansell noted: "HBI's lawsuit is a frontal assault on free speech, and on the free global flow of information and opinion on the Internet. It is a blunt force attack on the discussion of sincere opinions among people sharing common interests."

See: http://www.prnewschannel.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=423&z=4

Following the filing of the motions to dismiss on April 25th, Walter Hansell of Cooper, White & Cooper said: "The intent of this suit by HBI is to stifle free speech, but luckily the anti SLAPP statute allows us to nip the matter in the bud before the cost is out of hand."

About Signs of The Times:
SOTT.net is an independent alternative news and analysis outlet that seeks to shine a spotlight on significant events and trends that affect the entire world. SOTT.net helps bring clarity out of a sea of media spin. The site is funded entirely by donations from individuals and groups that seek to support its work. For more information visit http://www.sott.net

About Quantum Future Group:
Quantum Future Group (QFG) supports activities that bring together people to engage in and to promote the study of scientific ideas and research in all scientific and socio-cultural fields that further the deepest understanding of our world and our place within it without regard to nationality or ethnicity. QFG seeks to increase the understanding of humankind by humankind, as a whole, by sponsoring research into all the parts to see how they fit together. QFG supports documented research that is made freely and widely available to all humanity. For more information visit:http://quantumfuturegroup.org

About Cooper, White & Cooper LLP:
Cooper, White & Cooper LLP, based in San Francisco, is longtime defender of free speech and communications. For more information visit http://www.cwclaw.com/

Contact: Joseph Quinn
Email: : sott@sott.net
Phone: : +33 563 048231
Web site: www.sott.net
To view this press release online

This press release was issued by PRNewsChannel.com. For more information, please visit http://www.prnewschannel.com.

Source Web Site: SOTT.net

JFK Spins From the Grave

Scott Ogrin
SOTT.net
Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:11 EDT

















JFK speaking at podium

One of my favorite stories from recent memory is of a particular French pal of mine. He voted for Socialist candidate Segolène Royal in the last election. Of course, he pretended that he actually liked and had voted for now President Sarkozy, simply because that's what he thought everyone else wanted. He didn't want to stand up for his views and beliefs - he wanted to go along with the crowd. Now that Sarko's approval rating is at a whopping 28%, he has revealed his actual vote, no doubt again to go along with the crowd. You see, that is exactly the problem...

Why do we do silly things like that? Are we so afraid of standing up for what we believe in that we will sacrifice our own convictions and maybe even our own soul just to ensure we're accepted by others? If so, where does it end?

So what do we do about all this? That's a very popular question nowadays. And I think JFK just might have the answer...

-------

Here's a bad joke for you: What did French president Nicolas Sarkozy say to Carla Bruni the first night they met?

Give up?

"Voulez-vous karcher avec moi ce soir?"

(Karcher is a manufacturer of power washers.)

And really, can you blame him? I mean, let's face it: there are people in this world who love to take advantage of others. These parasites use everyone around them for their own personal gain and glory. They feed off of the hard work of normal people like you and me. They don't believe in a hard day's work; they believe in hardly working. They lie, cheat, steal, and then more or less complain about how unfairly they're being treated by using the most mangled logic to justify their actions. Quite often, even when caught in a lie, they just keep on lying.

That's the kind of scum we're dealing with here.

So, I agree wholeheartedly with the good Sarkonator: break out the powerwashers!

Of course, I'm not talking about those pesky bothersome immigrants (*SHUDDER!*) that take all the jobs that no one else wants because the rest of the people are too busy trying to "live large" with a giant house and 2.5 SUVs and a 3,000 inch ultra high-def big-screen flat panel television. No no no - I'm talking about psychopaths. You know, those men and women that seem to be so popular in the halls of power nowadays, even as the people look around at each other saying things like, "Um, dudes, I don't know ANYONE who voted for this clown. So, like, how did he get into power? I mean, 60% of the votes?! Gimme a break!"

One of my favorite stories from recent memory is of a particular French pal of mine. He voted for Socialist candidate Segolène Royal in the last election. Of course, he pretended that he actually liked and had voted for Sarko, simply because that's what he thought everyone else wanted. He didn't want to stand up for his views and beliefs - he wanted to go along with the crowd. Now that Sarko's approval rating is at a whopping 28%, he has revealed his actual vote, no doubt again to go along with the crowd. You see, that is exactly the problem...

Why do we do silly things like that? Are we so afraid of standing up for what we believe in that we will sacrifice our own convictions and maybe even our own soul just to ensure we're accepted by others? If so, where does it end? Doesn't that mean that we would also go along with the murder of millions? Do you really think that people today are that special, that different than those Germans that turned a blind eye during the reign of Hitler and the Nazis? You do? Well, guess again, my friend!

So what do we do about all this? That's a very popular question nowadays. People want to do something, but like always, they want to go along with the crowd. They want someone else to lead the way. They want to continue to be followers instead of leaders.

And so, it is for this very reason that I am sitting here writing this little article. But, let's face it: I'm no literary genius. And besides, I'm an engineering type, and we just hate inefficiency. So, I figure, "Why reinvent the wheel?!" There is one man in particular whose words remain so powerful and relevant today that I could hardly hope to best them myself. That man is JFK.

Now, before some of you get your undies in a bundle about how everyone always praises JFK, but in reality he was a womanizer, a crook, etc., let me just point something out: in words and deeds, JFK arguably did more than any other American leader to battle the disease that is pathocracy - the psychopathy that has so evidently taken over our nations today.

If you don't understand how this is true, you need to educate yourself. Start here: Evidence of Revision. Yes, I may have just called you uneducated. You shouldn't be offended, because the psychopaths in power treat you like that every single day - you just may not realize it yet. They rely on you to not know anything about anything, and to not care about the things that truly matter if any of us are to have a real future. They rely on you to be so busy wanting to just "live your life" and "make babies and be happy" that you will always look for someone else to be the leader so that you can be the follower. And then they do what they want, when they want, and get it broadcast over every media outlet as the "right thing to do" - rubbing it in your face, as it were. They insult your intelligence every time you watch the evening news or read a newspaper, and you let them do it.

So, quite frankly, I don't give a rat's ass how many women JFK slept with, or if he used the mafia to get into power. I judge the man by what he said and what he did, and what he intended to do had he not been assassinated. Great people sometimes have great faults, but that doesn't negate the magnitude of what they accomplished when the bigger picture is taken into account. That's good enough for me. And unless you enjoy pointing out the mote in another's eye while ignoring the splinter in your own, it should be good enough for you, too.

I think after reading the following, you will really begin to see that the answer to the question, "What can we DO about this mess?!" is perfectly clear, and has always been so. It's just that we always tend to look for solutions in the wrong way. In this case, I think a lot of us wait for someone else to tell us what to do. We wait for someone else to take the first step so that we can follow, just like we always do. We keep doing what we've always done, so we keep getting what we always got.

Sometimes it takes that most powerful of human faculties which the psychopath lacks to help us find our way.

The following is a collection of various JFK quotes, blended together with a dash of creative license. And so, without further ado, I give you The Man himself:

To know how to battle the pathocracy in our world today, we must first recultivate a long-extinct crop: courage.

A world which has forgotten the quality of courage, which in the past has been brought to public life, is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten. But efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. Direction requires truth, and truth requires facts.

Our leaders should not be afraid to entrust the people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For leaders that are afraid to let their people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market are leaders that are afraid of their people.

Without these facts and ideas, we have come to enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

In addition to the myths perpetrated on us by our leaders, secrecy has become a way of life for them, while our privacy is destroyed. The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society. We as a people should be inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

To solve these problems, let us not seek the "Republican" answer or the "Democratic" answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past, except insofar as it allows us to understand where we must go in the future. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. Everyone counts. The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all. It is not enough to simply conform to the day's norms: conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

We must realize how to work for an end to this most dangerous of games. Without belittling the courage with which many men and women have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which some people have lived. A person must do what he or she must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.

As we stand on the edge of the pathocratic abyss, there is no room for second place. Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life. For time and the world do not stand still: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

Now is also not the time for neutrality, but the time for taking a stand. Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crises maintain their neutrality.

But the problems of the world also cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who can dream of things that never were.

To dream of a new tomorrow, we need to know the facts, no matter how painful. To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. We should not shrink from this responsibility - we should welcome it. We must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to merely utter words, but to live by them.

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

And so, let us take that first step. Let us step back from the shadows of eternal war and destruction and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, on this planet, at this time, took the first step.

Things do not just happen. Things are made to happen. Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

We have the power to make this the best generation of humankind in the history of the world - or to make it the last.

We should choose such a course of action not because it is easy, but because it is hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our skills and talents, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.

So do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men and women. If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.

Let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead - months in which both our patience and our will shall be tested - months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing. Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of truth - not peace at the expense of freedom but both peace and freedom around the world. That goal must be achieved.

What really counts is not the immediate act of courage or of valor, but those who bear the struggle day in and day out - not the sunshine patriots but those who are willing to stand for a long period of time.

We on this planet, in this generation, are, by destiny rather than choice, the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of "Peace on earth, good will toward all." That must always be our goal, and the truth of our cause must always underlie our strength.

You already know what to do: use the fire in your hearts to fight for your future, and that of your children. That fire is our greatest strength, and one that a psychopath cannot possibly even begin to comprehend.

And you already know how to do it: "What to do" is different and unique for each person. All of us have something to contribute to peaceful change.

The flapping of a million teensy butterfly wings... Evolution, not revolution...

So, what do you say?