State of the Union AddressesNixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous)
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State of the Union Addresses
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
As our cities and suburbs relentlessly expand, those priceless open spaces
needed for recreation areas accessible to their people are swallowed
up--often forever. Unless we preserve these spaces while they are still
available, we will have none to preserve. Therefore, I shall propose new
financing methods for purchasing open space and parklands now, before they
are lost to us.
The automobile is our worst polluter of the air. Adequate control requires
further advances in engine design and fuel composition. We shall intensify
our research, set increasingly strict standards, and strengthen enforcement
procedures--and we shall do it now.
We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to
be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should
begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to
contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard.
This requires comprehensive new regulations. It also requires that, to the
extent possible, the price of goods should be made to include the costs of
producing and disposing of them without damage to the environment.
Now, I realize that the argument is often made that there is a fundamental
contradiction between economic growth and the quality of life, so that to
have one we must forsake the other.
The answer is not to abandon growth, but to redirect it. For example, we
should turn toward ending congestion and eliminating smog the same
reservoir of inventive genius that created them in the first place.
Continued vigorous economic growth provides us with the means to enrich
life itself and to enhance our planet as a place hospitable to man.
Each individual must enlist in this fight if it is to be won.
It has been said that no matter how many national parks and historical
monuments we buy and develop, the truly significant environment for each of
us is that in which we spend 80 percent of our time--in our homes, in our
places of work, the streets over which we travel.
Street litter, rundown parking strips and yards, dilapidated fences, broken
windows, smoking automobiles, dingy working places, all should be the
object of our fresh view.
We have been too tolerant of our surroundings and too willing to leave it
to others to clean up our environment. It is time for those who make
massive demands on society to make some minimal demands on themselves. Each
of us must resolve that each day he will leave his home, his property, the
public places of the city or town a little cleaner, a little better, a
little more pleasant for himself and those around him.
With the help of people we can do anything, and without their help, we can
do nothing. In this spirit, together, we can reclaim our land for ours and
generations to come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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