The Nonfiction of Robert Heinlein Volume I.
The excerpt is from 1952 and it was for Edward R. Murrow's
radio show "This I Believe".
"...I believe that for every coward there are countless
unknown heroes. I believe in Rodger Young. I am safe today because of endless,
unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River.
I believe in—I am proud to belong to—the United States.
Despite its shortcomings, from lynchings to bad faith in high places, I believe
that this our nation has and has had the most decent and kindly internal
practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.
And finally, I believe in my whole race, yellow, white,
black, red, brown—in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability ...and
goodness...of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere
on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come
this far by
the skin of our teeth, that we will always make it just by
the skin of our teeth—but that we will always make it, survive...endure. I
believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize braincase and the
opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes, will endure—will endure
longer than his home planet, will spread out to the other planets, to the
stars, and beyond, carrying with him his honesty, his unlimited courage—and his
noble essential decency. This I believe with all my heart."
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