Walter Cronkite accepts the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award from the World Federalist Association (World Federalist Movement). Hillary Clinton also makes an appearance in this video. Below are highlights from speeches given during the ceremony.
Host: “World government is the structure necessary for global justice. You, Sir have been a lifelong advocate of this principle and it is appropriate that we present you with this amethyst geo.”
Walter Cronkite: First priority of humankind in this difficult era is to established an effective system of world law that will assure peace with justice among the people’s of all the world. . . . You know those of us who are living today can truly influence the future of civilization. We can incluence whether our planet is going to live or die, whether ist going to drift into chaos and violence or whether through a monumental educational and political effort, a monumental effort we will achieve a world of peace under a system of law where individual violators of that law are brought to justice. For how many thousands of years now have we humans been what we insist on calling civilized and yet in total contradiction we also persist in the savage belief that we must occasionally at least settle our arguments by killing each other or we spend much of our time and a great deal of our treasury in preparing for war. We say no comparable effort in establishing peace. Meanwhile, emphasizing the sloth in this regard those advocates who work for world peace by urging a system of world law and order, world government, if you please, are called impractical dreamers. those impractical dreamers are entitled, it seems to me, to ask their critics what is so darn practical about war. First we Americans are going to have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That’s going to be, to many, a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith, a lot of persuasion for them to come along with us on this necessity. Our forefathers believed that the closer the laws are to the people the better. Cities legislate on local matters, of course. States makes decisions on matters within their borders and the national government deals with issues that transcend the states, such as interstate commerce, foreign relations, that’s what we mean by federalism. Today we must develop federal structures on a global level to deal with world problems we need a system of enforceable world law, a democratic world government. You know, what Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the 13 states applies today to the approximately 200 sovereignty’s in our global village, all of which will have to be convinced to give up some of that sovereignty to the better greater union. Hamilton said, and it not going to be easy. Hamilton said, to look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignty’s in the same neighborhood would be to disregard the uniform course of human events and a set of defiance the accumulated experience of ages. Most important we should sign and ratify the treaty for a permanent international criminal court. That is now at the core of the World Federalist Movement drive. That court will enable the world to hold individuals accountable for their crimes against humanity. Their leader, Pat Robinson has written in a book a few years ago that we should have a world government but only when the Messiah arrives. He wrote that that literally any attempt to receive world order before that time must be the work of the devil. Well, join me I am glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan. Let us hear the peal of a new international liberty bell that calls us all to the creation of a system of enforceable world law in which the universal desire for peace can place its hope and its prayers. Thank you.
Host: We would like to bring you a message from the First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Hillary Clinton: Good evening and congratulations, Walter, on receiving the World Federalist Associations Global Governance Award. For more than a generation in America it wasn’t the news until Walter Cronkite told us it was the news. Every night a six o’clock we welcomed you into our living rooms and listened as you explained the complex events of the day. Weather it was the space race or the Vietnam War, presidential elections, or peace treaties, you were there telling us its simple, yet riveting prose, what was happening. You became a trusted member of my family and the families across America. For decades you’ve told us the way it is, but tonight we honor you for fighting for the way it could be. We honor you for lending your voice to the cause of human rights around the world and for your lifelong commitment to international human rights law. From your reporting on the Nuremberg trials to your work with the WFA (World Federalist Associations) campaign to end genocide, you have stirred our consciences and challenged all of us to live closer to the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, so thank you, Walter. Thank you for inspiring all of us to build a more peaceful and just world. We’re still listening to your every word and with your continuing leadership, we can sail all across these unnavigable seas into the 21st century and there’s no better captain I can imagine than you. Thank you.
