Yesterday I watched a movie called Good Night and Good Luck. It documents the struggle between CBS reporter Edward Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin back in the 1950s. The film starts with Murrow giving a speech in 1958 and a particular section stood out:
… This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.This weapon of television could be useful …
Both Leftantler and I thought the same thing as we watched. Swap the word television for internet and the sentiment is as true today as it was spoken by Murrow over half a century ago. Sadly, the battle with regard to television has been lost, maybe there is still time for the Internet?
It made me think of the written word and how as the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the sword. Personally I love JFK’s:
… we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win …
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve thought of that quote and how many different situations I’ve applied it to! I’m not alone in having a collection of inspirational quotes, Churchill, JFK, Biko to name a few. Murrow was a new one to me and a worthy addition to the pack. Welcome.
Who’s in your list?
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