Famous Quotes - Section 8: Modern America

Famous Quotes in
Fasttrack to America's Past
Section 8: Modern America

Use this page to help you identify the famous quotes and historical images on the Section 8 Title Page in Fasttrack to America's Past. Limited reproduction rights are granted to teachers - please see details below.

The Famous Quotes:

1. "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

This is a passage from Rev. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It electrified the crowd of blacks and whites at the 1963 March on Washington, and remains a powerful call for racial justice even today.

2. "Make Love, Not War!"

This was a favorite saying of hippies and many other young people of the late 1960s caught up in what was often called "the movement." It expressed at once the free approach to sexuality that grew at the time, as well as opposition to war. At the time, of course, this meant the Vietnam War. To many older people, however, the expression was an outrageous rejection of traditional morality and duty to country.

3. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

These words were radioed back to earth when Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar lander in 1969 and became the first man to set foot on the moon. The landing was a historic accomplishment watched around the world by hundreds of millions of people.

4. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

This famous challenge to the Russian leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, was made at the Berlin Wall in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan. The wall was built in 1961 by communist East Germany (backed by the Soviet Union) to stop East Germans from escaping to freedom in West Germany (supported by the U.S.).
The wall became a symbol of the tensions of the

Cold War. In the late 1980s, however, Gorbachev was trying to push for reforms in the Soviet Union and a loosening of some of the restrictions there on citizens' lives. Gorbachev hoped these changes would keep communism a workable system.
President Reagan's bold speech at the wall, however, highlighted the fact that at the heart of the communist system was always a denial of personal freedom.
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 as a rising tide of discontent led the East German people themselves to attack it with sledgehammers and bare hands. It was a clear sign that the Soviet Union and communism itself were already starting to collapse.

5. "Let's roll!"

   The final words heard from a group of passengers in a jetliner over Pennsylvania as they attempted to stop terrorists who had taken control of the aircraft. It was Sept. 11, 2001. The passengers, secretly using a cell phone, learned that other hijacked jetliners had just been flown into the World Trade Center towers. The passengers decided to try to stop the hijackers on their flight. (The terrorists probably intended to crash the airplane into the White House or the Capitol.)
   The wife of one of the passengers, listening at home to the still-connected cell phone, heard the group saying a prayer together, followed by the words, "Let's roll!"
   The jetliner crashed into a field, apparently as a result of the passengers' fight to stop the terrorists. As the story of their heroism spread, the passengers' last words seemed to many people to be a particularly noble expression of the American spirit.

The Pictures:

1. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great civil rights leader who helped break down the walls of racial segregation in America. He emerged as a leader during the 1950s, as the first big cracks began appearing in the racial divide. In the early 1960s, he led Americans of both races past the sometimes violent confrontations that accompanied the struggle.

2. This image of a woman working on a car engine is an illustration of the changes brought about by the women's liberation movement that began in the 1960s. Women increasingly sought to break out of the traditional roles that confined them to home or "women's work" such as nurse, teacher, or social worker. The movement had, and continues to have, a far-reaching impact on American society.

3. The World Trade Center towers in New York City were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001 by terrorists organized by Osama bin Laden. The terrorists flew two airliners into the towers, and a third into the Pentagon building just outside Washington, D.C. Over 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, including those on a fourth jetliner that crashed when passengers on board mounted a heroic fight to stop the terrorists who had seized control of the aircraft.

Copyright 2006 by David Burns
www.fasttrackteaching.com

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