I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. Furthermore, I refuse to accept the idea that the "illness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "lightness" that forever confronts him. Furthermore, I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. Furthermore, I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.