"I Stand In Awe"

I Stand In Awe
Loret Miller Ruppe

In 1983, I was invited to the White House for the state visit of Prime Minister Ratu Mara of Fiji. Everyone took their seats around an enormous table—President Reagan, Vice-President Bush, Caspar Weinberger, the rest of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister and his delegation, and me. They talked about world conditions, sugar quotas, nuclear-free zones. The President asked the Prime Minister to make his presentation. A very distinguished gentleman, he drew himself up and said: “President Reagan, I bring you today the sincere thanks of my government and my people.” Everybody held their breath and there was total silence. “For the men and women of Peace Corps who go out into our villages, who live with our people.” He went on and on. I beamed. Vice-President Bush leaned over afterwards and whispered, “What did you pay that man to say that?”

A week later, the Office of Management and Budget presented the budget to President Reagan with a cut for the Peace Corps. President Reagan said, “Don’t cut the Peace Corps. It’s the only thing I got thanked for last week at the state dinner.” Peace Corps’ budget was increased. Vice-President Bush asked again: “What did you pay?”

Well, we know one thing: it isn’t for pay that Volunteers give their blood, their sacred honor. I can never forget the sweat, the tears, the frustrations, the best efforts and successes of thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers. I stand in awe and with the deepest respect. I always thought I could be a Volunteer until I went out and met them.

I ended many speeches when I was Peace Corps Director with this: Peace, that beautiful five-letter word we all say we crave and pray for, is up for grabs in the ‘90s. A question must be answered above and beyond this special forum: Is peace simply the absence of war? Or is the absence of the conditions that bring on war—hunger, disease, poverty, illiteracy, and despair?

When fifty percent of the children die in a village before they are five; when women walk miles for water and then search for wood to cook by; when farmers leave their villages where there are no jobs to flock to cities where there are no jobs; when neighbors ethnically cleanse their neighbors, then let’s face it America, the world is not at peace.

And here at home, when fifty percent of our children live below the poverty level in many of our cities, when the homeless abound on our streets, when our nation’s capital is bankrupt and our schools require metal detectors, racial tensions abound and immigrant bashing and downsizing terrorizes loyal workers, then, let’s face it America, we are not at peace.

The Peace Corps family must respond again to “Ask not what your country can do for you, rather ask what you can do for your country.” And today, in our world, it is, as President Kennedy said, the “towering task.” We can do it!