Tag: Death

DEATH & RESURRECTION

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

CemeteryHalloween, at least in part, originally was a ceremony for the dead, and in the Christian context an interval to honour or pray for those who had died but were still parked, so to speak, in Purgatory, awaiting their eventual ascent to heaven. It was, and still is, underneath the costumery and fun, a time to think of the dead.

PurgatoryDeath may be the only taboo left in the modern world. We cosmetize to delay its inevitable advent. Botox and surgery are our apotropaic — our effort to ward off carnal dissolution. But other eras were not so skittish about death.

Connoisseurs of death can do no better than to read and read again the great 17th-century rhapsody of Sir Thomas Browne, known as Urne-Burial or Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk. It is a soaring meditation on how humans have sought to cheat oblivion, to secure themselves against time, by the manner and scale of their memorials. The Pyramids of Egypt are the most monumental. And every common headstone is but a poor man’s pyramid.

ecclesiastes12_8Browne scoffs at all attempts: “But all was vanity, feeding the wind and folly. The Egyptian mummies, which Cambyses or time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummy is become merchandise, Mizraim cures wounds and Pharoh is sold for balsams.” (By Browne’s time, the use of “mummy” as a drug was common, and there was a traffic in Egyptian mummies to Europe’s apothecaries.)

He mocks the Emperors who sought to have their names live forever: “There is no antidote against the opium of time … our fathers find their graves in our short memories … Generations pass while some trees stand, and old families last not three oaks.”

John Donne, a Church of England cleric whose works appeared in the early 17th century, was fascinated by the carnal sharing between the dominions of Eros (love) and Thanatos (death). Love’s urgency is seen as a flight from Death.

Perhaps the greatest funeral oration ever given was Donne’s commentary on the text of Psalms 68:20, “Unto God, the Lord, belong the issues of death.” It is an obsessive, morbid-seeming, up-close mediation on the physical Psalm68_19-20decay attendant on death. And what is even more remarkable was that Donne rose from his own sickbed to preach it at Whitehall on the first Friday of Lent in 1630 — in essence, Donne preaching his own funeral sermon: “For this whole World is but a Universall Churchyard, but our common grave and the life and motion of the greatest persons in it, is but the shaking of buried bodies in their graves by an Earthquake. That which we call life is but Hebdomada mortium, a week of death…”

As if in preparation for that sermon, he placed himself in his coffin, wrapped in a winding sheet. Donne was a genius of the erotic in his early life, and a genius of dissolution and decay in his later. The phrase that everyone knows of Donne, unearthed for a title by Hemmingway, is “for whom the bell tolls.” That was, of course, a funeral bell.

In the 17th century, the grave and sex were verbally akin, the most common pun being “to die” signifying both the end of life and sexual climax. In Andrew Marvell’s famous “To His Coy Mistress,” the poet eerily woos the lady to “enjoy” while she can, for after death “then worms shall try / That long preserv’d virginity / And your quaint honour turn to dust / And into ashes all my lust / The grave’s a fine and private place / But none I think do there embrace.”

Shakespeare, naturally, is another who never flinched. Romeo and Juliet is really a gothic love story, told in the shadow of death. Measure for Measure has the brutal soliloquy on the terror of death, from Portia’s imprisoned brother: “But to die, and goe we know not where / To lie in cold obstruction and to rot / This sensible warm motion to become / A kneaded clod.”

So much of what is memorable in language about death comes from this period in history, when brilliant, word-mad minds, in full intellectual fever, sought in language a means to state their fears in order, partially, to quell them.

But if you should want some lift from these dark and chilling ruminations, there is one 20th century poem by Wallace Stevens that has a, let us say, most pleasant tone, his “Sunday Morning.” For Stevens, “death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, alone / shall come fulfillment to our dreams / and our desires.”zKeSq

Happy grey grim Halloween, everyone.

Halloween

Reprinted from THE NATIONAL POST

Rex Murphy: Your quaint honour turn to dust

As a young kid, I loved Halloween in my neighbourhood of Verdun, a poor English suburb of French Montreal. The last Time I went to a Halloween Costume Party was 40 years ago and I went as Father Time.

My Vision and Understanding of Death

There is a morbid fascination by this generation for Zombies, more than earlier generations. Toronto just had a Zombie parade with some real scary looking walking Dead.

Zombies symbolize The Walking Dead among us, and in the context of your writing, most people are the Walking Dead, and without exception, are headed to the same finality in this world.Zombies rising on cemetery

The vanity of the fancy Tombstone or Mausoleum is irrelevant. The Destination of the Grave is the same for all that do not believe Death is only a Doorway to another Dimension of Being.

CalvaryCemeteryQueensJews and Gentiles, Princes, Paupers, Believers and Atheists, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in Death, end up as dust and ashes in the dirt of this earth by the Great Equalizer.

If only the people could find that Equality while we’re still alive in this world?

And Judgment is turned away backward, and Justice stands afar off: for Truth is fallen in the street, and EQUITY cannot enter.
Isaiah 59Isaiah_59-14

And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, (zombies)
that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and
should destroy them which destroy the earth
Revelation 11:18

When you can see it happening in this world, is it Revelation being revealed? Everyone can see the Nations are angry and more people will be sent to the finality of the Grave.

The Christian Faith believes Death entered this world by the sin of one man, Adam, at the Beginning of the Sentient Human struggle thousands of years ago. Humans have gone to the Grave all that TIME.

By the same Faith, Death is swallowed up by the blood sacrifice of one man, Jesus, enduring the Cross in Jerusalem, fulfilling once and for all, the requirement of the ritual blood sacrifice of the ancient Jewish religion.

For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted.
Hebrews 2

What is the Object and Goal of that Faith in this world, before we get to the Grave? As an Individual, this is the single most important insight of the entire Bible of what is at stake to my Mind and Spirit.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To HIM THAT OVERCOMES will I grant to SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE, even as I ALSO OVERCAME, and AM SET DOWN WITH MY FATHER IN MY THRONE.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 3

Any Individual, recognizing the Spirit of the letter, and willing to have the Patience and Trust to endure whatever Life brings, can Overcome all Life’s difficulties, doubts, reverses and challenges. Then you will have much Time Alone to reason with God since most other people just don’t care, comfortable with their cocoon in The Matrix.

By these words, God invites Humans TO BECOME God with God after Death, preparing for that while we are Alive, Resurrecting with the Risen Christ Day by Day in this world. The paid holiday of Easter is supposed to remind us of this.

Resurrection

Everyone can overcome if they Truly desire and believe with a sincere, humble heart, in finding The Way.

DAY OF AWAKENING – DAVID vs GOLIATH vs ARMAGEDDON

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

February 1, 1975 was an extra-ordinary, extra special Day for me. To use the commonly known phrase, I was “BORN AGAIN” that Day by the Spirit.

To me it was a clear delineation in my personal Life BC and AD.

Though my body is 78, Spiritually for me personally, I live in the Year of the Lord 37 AD learning the Ways of The Christ Spirit for these Days, while the World of Business operates in this Year of The Lord 2022.

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 1

I was born May 21, 1944, making me a Gemini according to the Flesh, but born again February 1, making me Aquarius according to the Spirit. Up to that Day I was like the majority of the People. Self-seeking, materialistic, earth bound. Sexual fantasies, money and things pulled my strings.

I never thought about God. I made no room or Time for God in my Life, in my thoughts, in my Reality. God did not exist to me in my self-centred life. I did not go to church and the only time I talked with believers was when Jehovah Witnesses or Mormon Missionaries knocked on my door.

Even so, I always had a decent respect for all others whose path in Life crossed with mine.

I was 31.

I was already upbeat since I was going to seal the deal to take possession of a 5 room Dream apartment in the heart of Montreal decorated by a French Canadian artist that was well laid out with large rooms and beautifully furnished.

Moving to Quebec City, he was turning over the apartment with artwork and furnishings for $1000. The rent in 1975 was $65 a month plus oil heat and hydro.

Arriving with a wealthy Jewish friend to make the final arrangements, after taking care of business, we got into an intense discussion of Society, Morality, Politics and Religion. In other words, the Human Condition, Life and Death, War and Peace on Planet Earth.

I was sitting back listening to them passionately go at it, when at a certain point, it was as if a veil was removed from my eyes, and with the sound of rushing water, within myself I felt and thought, ‘God! You’re alive! You exist! You really exist!’ In a Spiritual sense of another dimension, I came alive to God or God came alive to me that Day.

From that moment on, I began communion with God and Christ in me. Because I did not understand exactly what was happening, I said nothing to the others who did not have the same experience.

I had experienced much in my life but never anything like this. At 24, in 1968 dollars I was making $25,000. This bought me the stuff that costs $175,000 in Today’s dollars.

At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

John 14:20

What I didn’t know then, was there was a long period of time preparing the ground for me to Spiritually, Mentally, Emotionally and Socially accept the God of Abraham still Lives!

Part of that preparation I understood only with the benefit of hindsight can be seen here:

Over many years I moved to several neighbourhoods in Montreal, but could never get any apartment together, always remaining an unfinished work with no progress once I got comfortable. This apartment and furnishing was beautiful. My wealthy Jewish friend who lived in an expensive apartment on the slope of Mount Royal said he was jealous.

Later that evening, I was with another group of friends and did not tell them about the change now starting to take root within me. We were joined by another friend who was also a promising artist, not the one turning over his apartment to me earlier in the Day.

Three months earlier, to encourage him, I asked him to do my portrait and paid him a deposit. He arrived with the finished work.

While I was expecting a conventional portrait, I was surprised when he presented me with the portrait you see above. The image above is a reduced size photo copy of a full size photo copy of the original artwork. It was done in pencil and did not have the Canadian Coat of Arms on the Shield which I added later.

A thief stole the original drawing in a break & enter to my apartment and it is probably hanging on some wall in Ottawa.

Again I emphasize, no one knew the new feelings that came alive in me earlier that Day. It is said art is in the eye of the beholder and as I questioned the artist I said these words:

“Dave, that’s a jock looking type of image. I wish my body looked that good.” Pointing to the shield I asked, “Is that a cowboy hat?” He answered, “No. It’s not that. That’s a shield and that’s a slingshot. You know. Like David and Goliath”

Imagine my surprise and wonder as he laid those words on my ears, not knowing what was happening inside me. I didn’t fully know what was happening inside me.

Examining it further, I noticed the the car, the symbol of the driving force of the economy and the license plate with the D between the legs. I asked Dave if the D was for his signature. He answered, “No. It’s not that. It could be Death. It could be Divinity. I have no idea.” Again, I had to wonder what all this meant and how could I make sense of it all? It was the sense of Timing that was amazing.

Studying the drawing further, I reasoned since a headless body could not stand. To me it symbolized God of the Universe is the Head of the Body.

The automobile, the engine of the economy, is at a cliff with no place else to go, much as the Global economy has arrived at the point of stagnation requiring radical change. The bare veins of the Canadian Maple Leaf, the unfinished Canadian Mosaic, represents the theme in my earlier article ‘CanaDa.’

The head in the stump represents the earth bound man oblivious to what the Spirit is doing and the Signs of the Times.

At home later that night, I was experiencing the most sublime feelings of Peace, Joy, and Liberation. I was crying with Gratitude on the thoughts GOD IS, thinking, ‘God I don’t know what you’re doing with me, but whatever it is, keep on doing it. I love it! I love you! At the instant of those thoughts, a radio broadcast started with the words, “NOW that you’re a Christian, your work is just beginning.”

Even though it was a multi year struggle for me to finally have an apartment that would impress and make  any visitor feel comfortable, I gave it up 8 months later, on September 1, 1975, and entered the United States to discover more of God, and the Spirit of ’76.

I hitch hiked through 45 States before I was arrested as an ‘Alien’ for deportation from Kansas City in December 1976 back to CanaDa.  (you are in the world, but not of the world– a confirmation?)

The US Authorities would have never known about me had I not become highly visible at the Republican National Convention, unexpectedly finding myself standing at the Podium of The President of The United States on a Secret Service restricted balcony, with my shoulder length hair, beard and football jersey, waving to all those Republicans below and the TV networks broadcasting live.

I was a guest on a phone in Radio Talk show about a dozen times, did a TV interview and 2 newspaper reports.

Reasonable people might acknowledge having just arrived in Kansas City as a solitary stranger with no  money, organization or name recognition, is an accomplishment having accumulated such a Public Record as a Marker of Time from 1976 to NOW.

I had convinced the authorities to allow me to leave on my own without formal deportation, but having to report to US Customs before exiting the US and returning home to CanaDa.

It turned out to my good fortune and Blessing I met someone driving to upper New York State not that far from home in Quebec with a spare ticket for the Eagles Concert at the Kemper Arena. We flew away right after the show. I have not visited the US since then.

Even though it is 42 years later, I am still trying to make sense of it all in a David vs Goliath struggle to prevent the coming Armageddon in a world where people don’t care and don’t give a damn.

I have come full circle. That Dream apartment in 1975 was on Hotel De Ville Street in the heart of  Montreal close to Sherbrooke Street, one of Montreal’s main arteries, and St. Laurent Blvd., the dividing line between East and West.

Today, I live on Hotel De Ville Street in downtown Ottawa-Hull and it’s still a Dream apartment. I’m paying $566/month for a large 1 bedroom apartment and heated, with a parking space. Smaller apartments on my Block are now going for $1300/month with electric heat extra. It’s perfect for me, having so many reasons to thank God for something every Day.

For transparency, I lived on Hotel de Ville in Hull for 2 years before I thought of the connection with that Dream apartment I gave up on Hotel de Ville in Montreal in 1975.

It was being saved for me by the Spirit making it possible in this Year of the Lord 2023, I have a Good Dream apartment enabling me to survive these Days as rents are a Nightmare for so many people these Days.

The LORD IS my Shepherd. I shall not want. Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the Days of my Life and I will dwell in the House of The LORD forever.      

Psalm 23

Biography of Ray Joseph Cormier

What is in the record is this:

Paterson, Kathleen (13 September 1976), “Prophet Choose Park for Vigil”, Kansas City Times

¨There are 30 months before the fate of the world will be sealed with EITHER destruction OR the Universal Brotherhood of Man,¨ he said. ¨The 30 month figure concerned a Treaty between Israel and Egypt.¨

Not 29 or 31 but exactly 30 months later, in March 1979, history shows a Treaty between Israel and Egypt was signed, The Camp David Accord.  History shows the talks broke down on the 12th day and no Treaty was to be signed. Begin and Sadat were leaving.

It was on the 13th Day, as in the date of the article and the picture accompanying it, an unexpected window of opportunity appeared and opened the way for the Treaty to be signed.

This signified the Universal Brotherhood part of the quote.

The Destruction part is signified in the November 2nd article. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 was also foretold in the September 13, 1976 report. With the looming conflict between Israel and Iran visible on the horizon only these Days, all things are possible.

To see for yourself, the original reports of The Kansas City Times appearing on September 13 and on All Souls Day, November 2 in the Spirit of ’76 can be read in the 1st article of this Blog, ‘From the Revolutionary Spirit of ’76 to the Revolutionary Spirit of ’11‘ bearing in mind I had no editorial control over what was written, the dates of publication or the images used by that major daily newspaper.)

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the thieves, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.     

Luke 23:33-34

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.        

Matthew 27:38

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 

Isaiah 53:6-9

After 36 years, I have come full circle. That Dream apartment in 1975 was on Hotel De Ville Street close to Sherbrooke Street, one of Montreal’s main arteries, and St. Laurent Blvd., the dividing line between East and West.

Today, I live on Hotel De Ville Street in Ottawa-Hull. It is still a Dream apartment being a large 1 bedroom, heated for $550/month, right downtown in the National Capital District, on a City block where apartments smaller than mine cost $1300/month with electric heat extra. It’s perfect for me, having so many reasons to thank God for something every Day.

The LORD IS my Shepherd. I shall not want.

……………….

Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the Days of my Life and I will dwell in the House of The LORD forever.      

Psalm 23

What you are reading and seeing in the Secular, non-religious, Main Stream Media Today, the pictures and possibilities they propagate, is the Revelation of this Biblical Vision of a Future Time that has Finally Arrived as the Final Final Solution.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. (false beliefs about God in Judaism, Christianity & Islam. Written some 500 years before Islam, the 3rd arm from the Jewish religious record appeared)

For they are the spirits of DEVILS, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth (Billionaires, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Senators, CEOs, and other Idols of the People) and of the whole world, (the rest of Humanity – us) to gather them to the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty. (the war is already underway Today between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, leading to the climax of that Great Day. Trump’s War with Islam is acting that line out in Real Time)

Behold, I come as a thief. (when you least expect it)
Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Revelation 16:13-16

Armageddon was derived from Har Megiddo, located in Judea and Samaria of occupied Palestine 2000 years ago. Israel as a kingdom disappeared some 800 years before Jesus walked in that area during the occupation.

Har Megiddo/Armageddon still exists as a physical place in this material world, but is now under the control of temporal Israel re-created from the Bible after an absence of some 2800 years.

After all those 2000 years, the occupation of Judea and Samaria in Palestine is still an unresolved, violent, open wound in the Middle East and this Material world. That is Spirit

It’s the DEVIL’s work, not God’s Will according to ALL Christian Bibles!

 

GENERAL/PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER – The Last Real Commander-In-Chief

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander WWII and President of the United States reached the dual pinnacles of earthly power as a Military Commander and President.

Very few people have had that kind of experience in their lifetimes. He saw first hand how underlings and other people vied for influence with him, ass-kissing and brown nosing their way to the top.

It is now 50 years since he delivered his farewell Military-Industrial Complex speech to the American People. It is only with the benefit of hindsight can we see the Wisdom of his experience and the Truthful Spirituality in his Prophetic admonitions.

The Unites States is now the biggest supplier of weapons of mass destruction to the world, and spends more than 6 times on Defence annually than the closest world rival, China. Chins is spending about $120 Billion on Defence compared to the US spending over $800 Billion

The thrust of that speech was to warn against the rising influence of Lobbyists he experienced 1st hand.

We have ignored that wise council, and Lobbyists for special interests have proliferated to the extent that the interests of the common people and common good take a back seat to the special interests that spent almost $4,000,000,000 in 2010 to influence government and the People’s Representatives to frame Laws that benefit those Corporate concerns.

We are now experiencing the negative consequences he warned would be the result of too much influence by special interest groups in the councils of government.

Congress opens with a prayer every day of Business. Those prayers from the lips will do no good. Reading General/President Eisenhower’s speech everyday might produce better results for the People and their Representatives.

From President Eisenhower’s 1953 ‘Cross of Iron’ speech in the clip above.

The link to the whole speech – Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

President Eisenhower’s January 17, 1961 Military-Industrial Complex speech on Retiring,

My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.

My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

II.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

III.

Throughout America’s adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology — global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger is poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle — with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research — these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs — balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage — balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

IV.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mould, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system — ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

V.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

VI.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war — as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years — I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

VII.

So — in this my last good night to you as your President — I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I — my fellow citizens — need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

From this video as it appeared on TV that night, we can see how the technology has improved from then to now. We can also see how the Imperial Presidency has grown.

For Now we have Faith, Hope and Love, but the Greatest of these is Love.

1 Corinthians 13

Sunday, December 21, 2014.

This video of a speech by President Kennedy in 1961 was brought to my attention just this morning, and is more appropriate for our Times than when the President gave it.