Excerpt: The Great Society Speech (Essay Sample)

Excerpt: The Great Society Speech Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Class Professor’s Name Date Excerpt: The Great Society Speech The excerpt is the Great Society Speech made by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the 36th president of the United States, and this is the commencement speech he made in 1964 at the University of Michigan. Here, the audience was mostly the graduating students and the attendees. He emphasized the need to leverage the country’s expertise, wisdom, and wealth gained in the past to build a great society (Johnson, 1964, p. 230). Specifically, the speech is about his vision of building a great nation by addressing three main issues, including underdeveloped cities, a poor education system, and environmental pollution or degradation. Therefore, the excerpt is not information written by a scholar, an author, or a researcher. It is a political speech taken from the Michigan Quarterly Review. Moreover, the president had no institutional affiliation with the campus. He only used the commencement speech to explain how to prevent an “Ugly America” and instead build a “Great Society” in America. The first central issue President Johnson firmly explained was the importance of building great cities in order to ensure a great society. Some of the challenges in urban areas that he noted included poor and inadequate housing, failure to follow old-land marks, poor transportation infrastructure, and the violation of community values that have been historically upheld (Johnson, 1964, p. 231). He explained the need to build better infrastructure and facilities, such as housing and highways, for the growing urban population. Another main issue President Johnson explained was that the water, food, and air in America were “threatened by pollution” (Johnson, 1964, p. 231). Moreover, he explained the problem of continued deforestation, overcrowded parks, loss of green fields, and pollution in the seashores. According to President Johnson, preventing an ugly America would require creating a beautiful America and not just a free and strong one. The last central issue President Johnson raised was the poor education system in the country. He noted that schools had outdated education curricula, unqualified educators,...