2. The Speech that Moved the World
The speech that inaugurated the campaign of Professor Feynman to governorship was not as long as the thirty minute speech his soon-to-be main opponent, the actor Ronald Reagan, would give; although they touched on similar points, Feynman’s speech would have a greater focus on the matter he was most keen on – the education and the development of the people.
“Good evening. It is a pleasure to be here before you. Before me, I see some of the brightest minds of this great State of ours. Many who I have had the opportunity to meet, and many others I hope to meet in the future. I see brilliant researchers, the creators of astounding theories, and, most importantly, the most vital link in our scientific system, teachers who extend their knowledge unto their students and help spread the know-how and the abilities of our human race.
I also see students. It is good for me to see students here, for I have dedicated these last years for helping to shape the education of the fine young minds of this State. I have seen what they are taught, and what science is to them, and although I saw a great deal of potential, I also saw the tools to lay it to waste. Our education system is failing our children, and the proof is that they are not interested in science. Our children should adore science, and want to learn how this beautiful world of ours functions. Only through that sheer curiosity has our nation been blessed with such fine minds as Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and Albert Einstein, among countless others who have been vital in pushing our country to the forefront of the world. If we are to continue strong, then this issue must be addressed. Educational reform is needed for now.
California is a great State, and the finest example perhaps above all of Earth of the sheer power of what science, technology and human curiosity can achieve if invested upon. Almost twenty million people live in this State, almost one in each ten Americans. Just one hundred years ago, it would be less than half a million. That growth, that constant adding of strength and manpower to feed our labour force, our factories and our farms, it is only possible due to technology, due to science. The telegraph, the Transcontinental Railroad, electricity and the creation of water projects, those are all great feats of the Californian people bent on making this land, which had been left untended and was deemed worthless, the Golden State that it is.
In 1841, it took 110 days for news of the death of President Harrison to reach Los Angeles from Washington DC. Today, news from the Capitol can come in a matter of seconds to the televisions of any Californian house, and our people can speak with their representatives by phone and express their grievances. Technology has been an important part of making these United States, and in making California the integral and vital part of the United States that it is. We should be mindful of continuing our forefather’s legacy and invest in our future. The future of California and the future of technology walk hand to hand.
California has a long record of fostering the brilliant minds this nation seems so fruitful with. This century we have seen the rise of the cinematic arts, and California can have the pride of having the place people think of whenever they think of cinema, glamour and filmography – Hollywood. Hollywood began as a refuge of filmmakers being persecuted for patent infringement in the early days of film, which the good people of California took under their wing and treated as their own. Having come to California in my adult life, I can say something about the hospitality of the Californians.
That alliance between California and the rogue filmmakers became the most successful pact in the cultural history of our country. Today, it is the universal capital of cinema and a landmark of all that California has to offer. It is in the interest of all Californians to promote and expand such agreements, and make California the place where young, bright minds want to invest and live in, and where their dreams may come true.
I have come under the public eye since last year, when I was jointly awarded with Doctor Julian Schwinger from Harvard University and Doctor Sin-Itiro Tomonaga from Tokyo University the Nobel Prize for Physics, for our work on quantum electrodynamics. Don’t worry, I won’t try to explain it to you. And, last December, I got to be in Stockholm and thank all my friends and family for the kind notes they had sent me to congratulate me on this great honour.
Among those notes was one sent by our Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey, a man who I admire greatly for his work in the service of this nation. In this letter he hoped that I would continue to make many more notable contributions to Man’s unending quest for knowledge. It was that moment I understood what I must do next.
I reflected about this land I have come to call home. California. I have grown roots here, I have had a son in this beautiful land, and I have made great work in this State and for this State. Besides my work at the University, I represented our scientific community in the atomic peace conference in Geneva, wrote textbooks to teach our students in physics, in a way that will make them more enthusiastic and better at physics and all other sciences they set their minds unto, and I have served in the State Curriculum Commission, where I saw first-hand the sorry state of textbooks used in our education system.
If we are to create science, we must first create scientists. If I am to fulfil what Mr. Humphrey asked of him, I believe it is my duty to, more than pursue my own questions in the closed rooms of the University, to build a better and stronger foundation for the scientific achievements of everybody, out here, in the open skies of our fine State.
With that in mind, I have decided to officially stand as candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of California. I have chosen to run for the Democratic Party because I have come to see its work has been paramount for the technological and cultural development of our nation, one in which our State of California has always been a leader.
I embark on a great quest, one that goes beyond my usual tasks. I face many challenges, but I have hope that, through sheer determination, I may come to face them all. I believe in the people of California and ask that, if you believe in me, if you believe in science and in the progress of the United States, that you support this quest to have it be so. I think we live in an Age of Science, an age in which each man is challenged to overcome barriers that once stood on his way and in which we, as a nation, advance beyond all odds to create something grander than ourselves. I believe that, if we put our minds to it, we, the people of California, can accomplish anything. I hope you too can believe in the Age of Science. Let us then see this age fulfilled.
Thank you.”
The full speech took around ten minutes to be said, with a few intervals for laughter and clapping. Although somewhat short, the point was set across – Professor Feynman intended to become Governor of California. His approach, based on his experience with the education policies of the State, and in his hopeful view of the future as ultimately scientific, was odd but very well received, not only by the audience in the room, but by the many Californians witnessing it through their televisions.
So near the climax of the Space Race that had the United States in uproar around building increasingly better spacecrafts to accomplish late President Kennedy’s goals of landing a man on the Moon, the ideals that Feynman took as his own, of technological progress and of being leaders in innovation, resonated with the people, especially among the younger generations, who saw in Feynman’s call for education reform a gateway for the grievances of the university students, whose protests at Berkeley had sparked a debate that would have paramount importance during the campaign.