John F. Kennedy

“ Never before in our history has there been a greater need for the people to take up willingly the responsibility of free government. Certainly you as educated Catholics are committed to bear your share of the burden, for the philosophy that you have been taught here at Boston College is needed in the solution of the problems we face. As graduates of the Jesuit Ivy, facing war and peace, with the fate of Western civilization hanging in the balance, the somber question indeed of the survival of our Faith and country at stake, each man among you can afford to answer that call to service. ”

“ I do not mean by this that it is necessary that all of you should take up politics or government as a career, though that may be appropriate for many of you, I hope, if by temperament and opportunity you should feel equipped and inclined.
But I would like to emphasize the obligation of all who have had the benefit of your training, to assume their proportionate share of the burden of self-government. The phrase "self-government" seems so far removed from us that we tend unconsciously in our minds to divide ourselves into two groups, the governors and the governed. ”

“ In spite of the elaborate solar system of local, state, and national units of government that encircle our lives, most of us tend to regard ourselves as the objects of governmental policy and not the makers. ”