Statement from President Obama on the Passing of Dick Goodwin
Dick Goodwin led an extraordinary life. He was a clerk on the Supreme Court, a Congressional aide who helped lay bare a national scandal, a speechwriter to President Kennedy – and that was all before his thirtieth birthday. But the way he chose to live that life; the values and principles for which he toiled – that’s why Dick will be long remembered. He helped John F. Kennedy push to expand peace and prosperity in our hemisphere, and to prove that the moral force of our values could win hearts and minds around the world. He helped Bobby Kennedy send those ripples of hope a little farther. Perhaps most importantly, he helped President Johnson battle the twin forces of deprivation and discrimination in America. Together, they forged Great Society guarantees like Medicare and Medicaid that freed millions of seniors from fear. Together, they lifted the voices of protest until “We Shall Overcome” was not just the anthem of a movement, but the promise of a President who’d ultimately sign t...