Note: Golden First UMC's Stephen Mitchell was honored to be a guest of Rev. Harold Rickard and Rev. Doug Smith at the CWS "Harvest of Hope" Dinner.

This document was written at Rev. Harold Rickard's request. The italicized portions which follow do not represent direct quotes -- the author did not have access to a transcript of this speech. However, the italicized portions do represent the style and essence of McGovern's statements.

... They'd come from New York. Connecticut. Pennsylvania. New Jersey. Riding the Milwaukee Railroad, headed west in search of jobs.

Why they thought it'd be any better in South Dakota -- I don't know. But we live in a country where there's always been this idea you can move west... That there's opportunity in the West.

So on every train that came through, young men would get off, and they'd somehow make their way to our front door. They'd come to our house. I don't know what it was, but there must have been something about our house, for they'd find their way there. Every day they'd come to our door, and my Dad...

My... My Dad was a great man!

These boys would come to our door, and my Dad would say,

"Brothers, come on in!"

and he'd invite them in for a meal. Not once-- Not once-- did he turn one away. He'd always invite them in to share a meal.

Now, it's not like we were rich or something. It's not like we had extra. Nobody had anything those days. We needed what food we had for ourselves. But my Father believed it was important to share, and every evening we'd share our dinner...

...They were shouting, and as we approached, we were finally able to make out what it was that they were yelling about. They were shouting things like,

'Baby Ruth! Butterfinger! Wrigley's Gum!'.

And then the Captain's voice came over the ship's loudspeaker issuing a stern order to all onboard:

'DO NOT THROW ANYTHING OVERBOARD!'

You see, these children weren't really shouting because they wanted American candy-bars or gum. They were shouting because they were starving -- and they knew that American soldiers carried such items.

We learned that only a few days before, when another American ship had entered port, American soldiers did throw candy overboard. Some of it landed in the water, and in the frenzy to get it, hundreds of children either dove or were pushed into the water -- and many drowned.

These children were shouting because they were hungry. They were malnourished. They were starving. Their fathers had been forced north into Russia by the Germans. Naples had become a city of mothers and children.

In the evenings, as we lay sleeping, we would hear rustling in the trash cans outside our camp. The rustling was from mothers who were trying to find food scraps so that they might feed their children.

During the day, we would sometimes see these same women selling themselves -- desperate to find some way to support and feed their children.

... The camera happened to follow the children as they made their way to the cafeteria at lunch time, and I'll never forget what happened.

It turned out that the children who didn't have money to pay for their meals had to stand against the walls around the edge of the cafeteria and just watch the other children as they ate.

... As the camera moved along past the children standing along the wall, it stopped and focused on one young man. As the camera zoomed in, you heard the reporter ask him,

'How do you feel?'

The young man just stood there a moment, his head bowed, fidgeting with his feet, and then he said,

'Ashamed.'

'Why do you feel ashamed?'

'Cause I ain't got no money.'

This young man felt ashamed??? I felt ashamed. I had no idea, that if you didn't have money, then you couldn't eat in the school lunch program!

I had been in the U.S. Senate for six years! I was Chairman of the Agriculture Committee. We oversaw the funding for that program.

... When I ran for the Presidency in 1972, Bob Dole happened to be the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

There'd be times when I would wake up in the morning and he had already taken a bite out of me for breakfast!"

And sometimes he'd take a bite out of me for lunch! Dinner, too, on occasion!

...I've walked through village after village after village in Africa, and I've noticed just what John (Rev. John McCullough, Executive Director, Church World Service, who spoke earlier in the evening) has noticed -- and that is, that Africa is fast becoming a continent of the very young and the very old!

...It's the people your age who are missing. That whole generation is gone.

They've died of AIDs, or they've died of malnutrition and starvation, or they've died of complications brought on by AIDs and malnutrition and starvation.

And so grandparents are raising their grandchildren. The elderly are again parenting children...

It's so sad... It's so unnecessary.

...I called Bob up and told him I wanted him to team with me again on this program. He asked a lot of tough questions. Republican questions:

'How much is it going to cost?'

and when it was all done, he said,

'I'm with you on this!'

...I think we all know that education is the key to improving one's lot in life. But, you can't go to school if you're hungry or if you're malnourished. You can't learn.

And I'm a teacher! But I know I wouldn't be able to learn anything during the day if I were hungry or starving.

At a minimum, we must be able to feed our children at least one nourishing meal during the course of the school day.

...If I had a chance tonight, I would tell our President that I don't think we're going about this right.

Now don't get me wrong. I want George W. Bush to be a great President. I wanted his Dad to be a great President. I want ALL Presidents to be great Presidents -- it's in our best interests!

That said, if President Bush were to call me on the phone, I'd tell him he's going about this wrong.

What drives a yong man to get up in the morning, board a plane, and then to drive that plane into the World Trade Center? To 'fly into the arms of Allah'?

I want to fly into the arms of Allah -- I know him as God -- but I don't want to do it today! And certainly not in that fashion.

Where does that sort of hatred come from?

Our leaders would tell us that it's about 'freedom'. That it's an attack on our freedom. That the terrorists want to destroy our freedom. Well, I don't believe this is about freedom at all. Perhaps they envy our freedom, but I do not believe that freedom is at the core of their hatred...

...We can kill Osama Bin Laden. We can militarily oust Saddam Hussein. We can militarily change a regime. But we won't be able to militarily eliminate terrorism.

All we will do is increase the perception of America as a imperialistic military giant that does whatever it wants whenever it wants...

If you truly want to end terrorism then you have to dig a lot deeper:

You have to get serious about poverty.
You have to get serious about hunger.
You have to get serious about hopelessness.
You have to get serious about dispair.