"The Day Of Affirmation"

The other day, John Gum, my totally cool roommate, was watching a Hillsong worship DVD. It was really cool, and in the middle of one of the songs, I heard a familiar voice giving a speech that was playing behind the music. I couldn't recollect who it was that was speaking, even though the voice sounded familiar... And I knew for certain that I'd never heard the speech itself before. So I googled some of the words, and came across and amazing speech written and given by Robert F. Kennedy (who was assassinated during his campaign for President, he was also the brother of President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated.) Anyway, R.F. Kennedy was giving a speech entitled "The Day Of Affirmation" which he delivered to a host of university students in South Africa. He was expressing his deep belief that it is the young people of this world which change it, and re-create it. That the real power in this world isn't wielded in the hands of world leaders, or other positions, but in the control of the influence of young people. Last night, I shared a portion of this speech with our Youth students at Hope. As we've been encouraging them to chase their dreams, and pursue the desires of their hearts, I felt that this portion of the speech was relevant to what we're encouraging them in. Here's what I read to them, from a portion of RFK'S speech:

"...The answer to the cry for hope in this world lies in this worlds youth. We must guard them against futility. Futility is the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's problems -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single young person. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men and women moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples together build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance..."