Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (64 page)

Contrary to what’s been published, I did not interfere with the court, I didn’t suggest anything to the court, I didn’t have anything to do with his sentencing. I really didn’t—didn’t know, and didn’t inquire. Maybe that’s bad judgment. I didn’t inquire as to the exact nature of the crime. The sheriff’s office in Fairfax County called and asked me if I would know of any job that I could help this young man get. They wanted to parole him; they said he’s been a model rehabilitated prisoner. And I gave him a job as a file clerk, you know, $9,000 a year.

After that he really blossomed and grew and developed, and those of you who know him can’t conceive, as I never could conceive when finally, just two years ago, I read in the newspaper the precise nature of that crime. It just didn’t fit his character. He married and had two beautiful children, wonderfully responsible, and I think became a very fine person.

Now, was that bad judgment? Yes, maybe so. It doesn’t have anything to do with the rules, but it’s got all mixed up with it. And I don’t think, though, that it’s bad judgment to try to give a young man a second chance.

Maybe I should have known more about it, but in this case I think—I think he has turned out well. and I don’t believe that America really stands for the idea that a person should ever, forever, be condemned, and I think maybe he ought to have a second chance. And that’s what I thought in the case of John Mack and, good judgment or bad, I mean, that’s it. And I believe in giving somebody a second chance.

Have I contributed unwittingly to this manic idea of a frenzy of feeding on other people’s reputation? Have I—have I caused a lot of this stuff? Maybe I have—God, I hope I haven’t, but maybe I have. Have I been too partisan? Too insistent? Too abrasive? Too determined to have my way? Perhaps. Maybe so. If I’ve offended anybody in the other party, I’m sorry. I never meant to—would not have done so intentionally. I’ve always tried to treat all of our colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, with respect.

Are there things I’d do differently if I had them to do over again? Oh, boy! How many may I name for you!

Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to make you a proposition: Let me give you back this job you gave to me as a propitiation for all of this season of bad will that has grown up among us. Give it back to you. I will resign as Speaker of the House effective upon the election of my successor. And I’ll ask that we call a caucus on the Democratic side for next Tuesday to choose a successor.

I don’t want to be a party to tearing up the institution; I love it. Tell you the truth, this year it has been very difficult for me to offer the kind of moral leadership that the organization needs, because every time I’ve tried to talk about the needs of the country, about the needs for affordable homes—Jack Kemp’s idea and the idea developing here.

Every time I’ve tried to talk about the need for a minimum wage, tried to talk about the need for day care centers, embracing ideas on both sides of the aisle, the media have not been interested in that. They wanted to ask about petty personal finances.

You need—you need somebody else, someone to give you that back. We’ll have the caucus on Tuesday. And then I will offer to resign from the House sometime before the end of June. Let that be a total payment for the anger and hostility we feel toward each other. Let’s not try to get even with each other. Republicans, please don’t get it in your heads you need to
get
somebody else because of John Tower. Democrats, please don’t feel that you need to
get
somebody on the other side because of me. We ought to be more mature than that.

Let’s restore to this institution the rightful priorities of what’s good for this country, and let’s all work together to try to achieve them. The nation has important business, and it can’t afford these distractions, and that’s why I offer to resign.

I’ve enjoyed these years in Congress. I am grateful for all of you who have taught me things and been patient with me. Horace Greeley had a quote that Harry Truman used to like—and fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow, only one thing endures: character.

I’m not a bitter man—I’m not going to be. I’m a lucky man. God has given me the privilege of serving in this, the greatest institution on earth, for a great many years. And I’m grateful to the people of my district in Texas, I’m grateful to you, my colleagues, all of you.

God bless this institution. God bless the United States.

The Buddha is a title—The Enlightened One, or The Awakened One—given a prince named Siddhartha Gautama, born about the year 563
B.C.
in a kingdom on the border of what today is Nepal and India. At twenty-nine he became an ascetic, then searched for a “middle way” between the hedonist’s self-indulgence and the ascetic’s self-mortification. Seated cross-legged under a banyan tree, he achieved what Buddhists call the great Enlightenment: the central truths are that mankind’s life is filled with suffering; it is caused by craving; and there is freedom from such craving that is called the state of Nirvana, a cool and liberating detachment.

To a gathering of one thousand ascetics in the region of Uruvela, the Buddha delivered a
sutra
, or discourse, known as the “Fire Sermon.” It is one of the basic scriptures of one of the world’s great religions, driven by a drumbeat of repetition of key words and the evocation of all the senses.

Modern Westerners became more familiar with this particular sermon of the Buddha’s when its title was used to head Section III of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” one of the seminal poems of the twentieth century, its metaphor a landscape of moral bleakness and its final word
burning
. The Buddha’s message in this 2,500-year-old speech is both more positive and intellectually accessible.

***

ALL THINGS, O
priests, are on fire. And what, O priests, are all these things which are on fire?

The eye, O priests, is on fire; forms are on fire; eye-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the eye are on fire; and whatever sensation,
pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the eye, that also is on fire.

And with what are these on fire?

With the fire of passion, say I, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation; with birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and despair are they on fire.

The ear is on fire; sounds are on fire;… the nose is on fire; odors are on fire;… the tongue is on fire; tastes are on fire;… the body is on fire; things tangible are on fire;… the mind is on fire; ideas are on fire;… mind-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the mind are on fire; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the mind, that also is on fire.

And with what are these on fire?

With the fire of passion, say I, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation; with birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and despair are they on fire.

Perceiving this, O priests, the learned and noble disciple conceives an aversion for the eye, conceives an aversion for forms, conceives an aversion for eye-consciousness, conceives an aversion for the impressions received by the eye; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the eye, for that also he conceives an aversion. Conceives an aversion for the ear, conceives an aversion for sounds,… conceives an aversion for the nose, conceives an aversion for odors,… conceives an aversion for the tongue, conceives an aversion for tastes,… conceives an aversion for the body, conceives an aversion for things tangible,… conceives an aversion for the mind, conceives an aversion for ideas, conceives an aversion for mind-consciousness, conceives an aversion for the impressions received by the mind; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the mind, for this also he conceives an aversion. And in conceiving this aversion, he becomes divested of passion, and by the absence of passion he becomes free, and when he is free he becomes aware that he is free; and he knows that rebirth is exhausted, that he has lived the holy life, that he has done what it behooved him to do, and that he is no more for this world….

Preached in the third decade of the first century
A.D.
, the Sermon on the Mount remains the single most important discourse on Christian law and living. It was delivered by Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish teacher whom Christians recognize as Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God. The Greek
Christos
literally means “anointed,” and
Christ
was originally a title, not a proper name.

Recounted in the Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, the Sermon on the Mount was delivered to Jesus’ disciples and the multitude. The sermon reinterprets the laws of the Old Testament in light of Christian doctrine and contains two of the central statements of Christian ethics. First, the Beatitudes express a promise of blessings to come; these sayings take the rhetorical form of anaphora, repeating the opening words “Blessed are….” Also invoked in the sermon is the Lord’s Prayer, an apostrophe directed to “Our Father, which art in heaven.”

Among the many figures of speech used in the Sermon on the Mount, foremost is metaphor. Listeners are identified as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world,” the latter image introducing what has become the frequently revived image of “a city that is set on a hill.” The elegant and slightly archaic English of the King James Version supports the sermon’s extended use of parallel structure (“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”) and of antithesis (“Judge not, that ye be not judged”).

***

BLESSED ARE THE
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For verily I say unto you, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, “Thou shalt not kill”; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say unto you, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, ‘Thou fool,’ shall be in danger of hellfire.”

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say
unto thee, “Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou has paid the uttermost farthing.”

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” But I say unto you, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

It hath been said, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.” But I say unto you, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”