>>All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
Yes- but he wasn't talking about taxing the rich to fund Medicare. In that Cold War era with the US at the height of its wealth and power, he was talking about world prosperity and peace, reminding people not to focus on what they expect for themselves but what they can offer to make humanity great.
Now the trumpet summons us again- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need;
not as a call to battle, though embattled we are- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out,
"rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West,
that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?...
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1