Why Freedom Matters

by Katz, Daniel R.

• ISBN13: 9780761131656
• ISBN10: 0761131655
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-10
• Publisher: Workman Pub Co

Summary

Freedom. It's an idea worth pledging a life for, in the words of Thomas Jefferson. A gift outright to the poet Robert Frost. A difficult responsibility, writes Frederick Douglass. Defiant and enduring, for Maya Angelou. Quarrelsome, to Kurt Vonnegut. Open-armed and welcoming-Emma Lazarus. Why Freedom Matters celebrates freedom in over 100 speeches, letters, essays, poems, and songs, all infused with the spirit of democracy. Here are the voices of presidents and slaves, founding fathers and hip-hop artists, suffragettes, civil rights workers, preachers, labor leaders, and baseball players. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the book is published in conjunction with The Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a 31/2-year cross-country educational tour of an extremely rare, original hand-printed copy of the Declaration, bought at auction by Norman Lear. The DOI Road Trip's mission is to energize Americans by bringing our founding document to towns small and large across the country; in 2003, for example, the Declaration and its accompanying exhibit will visit 27 cities from Birmingham to Billings, New Orleans to New York. Like the document itself, this compelling anthology reveals America's soul as it wrestles with questions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and strives to fulfill the ideals of Thomas Jefferson's words.

Table of Contents

EDITORS NOTE	xii
FOREWORDS
President Jimmy Carter	xiv
President Gerald R. Ford	xv
INTRODUCTION
Norman Lear	xvi
1: IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS
DAVID MCCULLOUGH
"The Argonauts of 1776"	2	(3)
ABIGAIL AND JOHN ADAMS
An Exchange of Letters	5	(6)
MORGAN FREEMAN
Introduction to Dramatic Reading of the Declaration of Independence	11	(2)
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE	13	(4)
ROBERT FROST
"The Gift Outright"	17	(1)
CHIEF SEATTLE
Public Speech	18	(4)
IRVING BERLIN
"God Bless America"	22	(1)
WOODY GUTHRIE
"This Land Is Your Land"	23	(1)
GERALD R. FORD
Bicentennial Speech	24	(3)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Speech at Independence Hall	27	(2)
LANGSTON HUGHES
"Let America Be America Again"	29	(3)
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
"The American Dream"	32	(10)
STEVEN VAN ZANDT
"I Am a Patriot"	42	(2)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Speech on the Dred Scott Decision	44	(1)
MICHAEL SHAARA
The Killer Angels	45	(6)
DALTON TRUMBO
The Remarkable Andrew	51	(1)
RONALD REAGAN
"What July Fourth Means to Me"	52	(3)
THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL
"Reasoning the Fourth"	55	(3)
2: LIFE
MARION LEE "SANDY" KEMPNER
Letter to Aunt Fannie Adoue	58	(1)
E.O. WILSON
Prologue: A Letter to Thoreau	59	(15)
PABLO NERUDA
"October Fullness"	74	(2)
ARTHUR KOESTLER
"The Cell Door Closes"	76	(2)
VÁCLAV HAVEL
Letter to Olga	78	(3)
ARTHUR W. MITCHELL
Letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt	81	(1)
ANNE FRANK
The Diary of a Young Girl	82	(1)
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
"The Four Freedoms"	83	(3)
ELIE WIESEL
"The Perils of Indifference"	86	(5)
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
"Freedom from Fear"	91	(5)
TRADITIONAL NEGRO SPIRITUAL
"Oh Freedom"	96	(1)
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Inaugural Address	97	(4)
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech: "To Endure and Prevail"	101	(2)
WALT WHITMAN
"Song of Myself"	103	(2)
EMMA LAZARUS
"The New Colossus"	105	(1)
BOB DYLAN
"Chimes of Freedom"	106	(2)
MAHNAZ AFKHAMI
Women in Exile	108	(8)
JIMMY CARTER
Farewell Address	116	(6)
KATHRYN D. SULLIVAN
"A Glimpse of Home"	122	(1)
GRAHAM NASR
"Teach Your Children"	123	(3)
3: LIBERTY
SOJOURNER TRUTH
"Ain't I a Woman?"	126	(1)
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
Democracy in America	127	(2)
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions	129	(5)
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
Courtroom Speech on Women's Right to Vote	134	(3)
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
Letter to Elizabeth Cady Stanton	137	(1)
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT
Speech before Congress on Women's Suffrage	138	(5)
MAYA ANGELOU
"Still I Rise"	143	(2)
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Letter to His Former Master, Captain Thomas Auld	145	(10)
TRADITIONAL NEGRO SPIRITUAL
"Down by the Riverside"	155	(2)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The Emancipation Proclamation	157	(2)
W.E.B. DU BOIS
Address to the Niagara Conference	159	(4)
U.S. SUPREME COURT
Brown v. Board of Education	163	(5)
JAMES BALDWIN
My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the 100th Anniversary of the Emancipation	168	(5)
JAMES TAYLOR
"Shed a Little Light"	173	(2)
THURGOOD MARSHALL
"Reflections on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution"	175	(5)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
Speech from the Pulpit	180	(9)
SIDNEY BUCHMAN
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	189	(3)
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Special Message to the Congress: "The American Promise"	192	(11)
MOTHER JONES
Letter to Theodore Roosevelt	203	(2)
CESAR E. CHAVEZ
Letter to E.L. Barr Jr	205	(5)
CURT FLOOD
Letter to Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn	210	(1)
GIL SCOTT HERON
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"	211	(3)
KURT VONNEGUT
Letter to Charles McCarthy	214	(3)
D.H. LAWRENCE
"Censors"	217	(1)
JUDGE LEARNED HAND
"Spirit of Liberty"	218	(2)
STEVE CONNELL
"I Am an American"	220	(8)
4: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Self-Reliance"	228	(5)
ROBERT FROST
"The Road Not Taken"	233	(1)
HARRIET MCBRYDE JOHNSON
"Courage"	234	(2)
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
Letter to His Son	236	(3)
MARY SCHMICH
"Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young"	239	(3)
WALT WHITMAN
"Poem of Remembrances for a Girl or a Boy of These States"	242	(3)
MARK TWAIN
Letter to Walt Whitman	245	(1)
WILLIAM SAFIRE
Commencement Address at James Madison University	246	(6)
ALBERT CAMUS
"The Myth of Sisyphus"	252	(4)
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER JR.
"I Believe"	256	(2)
NEIL FEART AND GEDDY LEE
"Something for Nothing"	258	(1)
URSULA K. LE GUIN
"A Left-Handed Commencement Address at Mills College"	259	(3)
KATHERINE LEE BATES
"America the Beautiful"	262	(2)
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
"I Have a Dream"	264	(6)
5: OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES, OUR SACRED HONOR
ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
"Pay Attention, Kids"	270	(3)
HENRY DUMAS
"America"	273	(1)
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
"Great Society"	274	(4)
TRACY CHAPMAN
"Talkin' Bout a Revolution"	278	(1)
PEARL S. BUCK
"What America Means to Me"	279	(2)
ARCHIBALD MACLEISH
The American Cause	281	(8)
CARL SANDBURG
"Open Letter to the Poet Archibald MacLeish Who Has Forsaken His Massachusetts Farm to Make Propaganda for Freedom"	289	(2)
JOHN BALZAR
"Let That Old-Time Freedom Ring Out"	291	(3)
ADRIENNE RICH
"Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts"	294	(5)
AMY LOWELL
"The Congressional Library"	299	(4)
BARBARA JORDAN
Democratic National Convention Keynote Address: "Who Then Will Speak for the Common Good?"	303	(5)
WILMA MANKILLER
Commencement Address at Northern Arizona University	308	(3)
MARGARET CHASE SMITH
Speech on Senate Floor: "Declaration of Conscience"	311	(5)
TOM BROKAW
Commencement Address at the College of Santa Fe	316	(5)
IRINA RATUSHINSKAYA
"I Will Live and Survive"	321	(1)
BILL BRADLEY
"America's Challenge: Revitalizing Our National Community"	322	(4)
TONY KUSHNER
Commencement Address at Vassar College	326	(1)
ARIANA WAYNES
"To the Patriots and the Activist Poets"	327	(4)
CLARENCE DARROW
Closing Argument in the Henry Sweet Trial	331	(4)
AARON SORKIM
The American President	335	(5)
NIYI OSUNDARE
"I Sing of Change"	340	(1)
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
"Keepers of Democracy"	341	(5)
BEAU SIA
"Generations of Lost Angels Found"	346	(5)
JOHN DONNE
"Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Number XVII"	351
APPENDIX
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA	354	(26)
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS	380	(7)
SOURCES AND PERMISSIONS	387	(12)
INDEX	399