The Public Record
Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. A member of the Democratic Party, he was born in Texas and began his political career as a U.S. Representative in 1937, later becoming a U.S. Senator in 1949. Johnson ascended to the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and his administration is noted for significant domestic policies, including the Great Society programs aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injustice. His legislative achievements included the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid.
And unless you become indignant, unless you people are concerned with the treatment of the poor in your town, unless you can get a boiling point, unless you can go out and look after your neighbors, unless you can make justice for others a…
Now many of the conditions that we seek to tame should never have come about.
This system will at once prevent raw pollutants from entering your lake and it will purify at an economical cost the water that does reach it.
That is why I have enjoyed my afternoon with the Governor of your State, with the mayors of your cities, with your county leaders, with your civic leaders without regard to race or religion or population, or even the name of your town.
I came here today to pledge to you that the Federal Government, as long as I have anything to do with it, is going to meet its responsibilities.
We can have the industrial might of Lake Erie and we can have a Lake Erie where people can swim and where they can fish, and where they can sail.
I always enjoy coming to Buffalo and this great area of the State of New York.
I particularly want to thank all the members of the New York delegation who could come with me today, both Democrats and Republicans.
We know that Hill-Burton has added more than 8,000 facilities to serve 4,000 communities.
Seven million deprived children have been given intense courses in reading and writing.
The Great Lakes constitute the largest body of fresh water on the surface of the earth.
I think it is wrong for some people to line their pockets with the tattered dollars of the poor.
Someone asked me one time what my political philosophy was. And I said, 'Well, I am a free man first, an American second, a public servant third, and a Democrat fourth--in that order.'
We will be looking, we will be listening, and I suspect we will be talking some of the time.
This is a problem that must be met not only by the Federal Government, but by every government, State and local, and by all the people of America.
It is a monument to all the goals that men can attain when they work together for the common good.
After more than 30 years of national debate in the United States, 19 million older Americans have now crossed the line from the shadows of uncertainty to the land of security.
For 3 years my administration has been concerned with the question: What do we want our cities to finally become?
Let me be perfectly candid with you: This job cannot be done just in Washington alone.
To see if we have the people to match our problems--to see if we have the men to match our mountains.
It is this bond that makes it impossible to quit the fight for an even greater America.
Politicians like Lyndon Johnson
