Barbara Jordan on Uncertainty of the 1970s

We are a people in a quandary about the present... attempting to fulfill the promise of America... to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal... Many fear the future. Many are distrustful of their leaders, and believe that their voices are never heard... But this is the great danger America faces — that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual; each seeking to satisfy private wants... Are we to be one people bound together by common spirit, sharing in a common endeavor; or will we become a divided nation?... We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor... There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals, and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.