American Rhetoric: Movie Speech

The West Wing: "College Kids"

(S4/E3, 2002)

"Joy Cometh in the Morning"

Thank you very much. Thank You.

"Joy cometh in the morning," Scripture tells us.
I hope so.
I don't know if life would be worth living, if it didn't.

And I don't yet know who set off the bomb at Kennison State.
I don't know if it's one person or ten, and I don't know what they want.
All I know for sure, all I know for certain,
Is that they weren't born wanting to do this.

There's evil in the world.
There'll always be --
And we can't do anything about that.

But there's violence in our schools.
Too much mayhem in our culture --
And we can do something about that.

There's not enough character and discipline and depth in our classrooms.
There aren't enough teachers in our classrooms.
There isn't nearly enough, not nearly enough,
Not nearly enough money in our classrooms --
And we can do something about that.

We're not doing nearly enough, not nearly enough to teach our children well.
And we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better --
And we will start this moment today.

They weren't born wanting to do this.