At the end of the 1940 movie, “The Great Dictator,” the once silent film star Charlie Chaplin gave a speech that has transcended through cinematic time and is still considered relevant today.

I have taken the privilege to quote many of his words spoken 86 years ago and I have modernized his theme. Quotation marks designate where Chaplin speaks.

“I should like to help everyone — if possible — Jew, Gentile — black man — white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness — not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

“Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.” We do everything faster now, but what we need to do is to slow down and look into each other’s eyes.

Technology “that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind.” We speak in loud words, but we think and feel too little. More than technology, “we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost …

“To those who can hear me, I say — do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed — the bitterness of men who fear the collective unity of our diversity. The hate of men will pass, and dictators will die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men can die, liberty will never perish …

“Then — in the name of democracy,” let our lives not be ruled by politics — rather, let us live together in harmony. “Let us fight for a new world — a decent world that will give men and women a chance to work — that will give youth a future, and old age a security.”

For the sake of our nation’s tomorrows, we must leave a legacy of hope with a promise delivered by the words of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg address” — “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This will be our battle cry for the next 250 years.

We must be aware that our worst enemy is us. We are dangerously divided by our difference of opinions with fear of retribution, with worry to offend.

Survival of our nation demands that we respect each other. This is where we call home and this is where we live, work and play. Place ourselves in the mind of the kindergarten child who does not know prejudice and is blind to color and culture. Share the cookies and the milk. Break bread with our neighbors for it is within our unity that we gather strength to remove the abusive powers that try to control our thoughts and our actions.

We must wipe the tears of the downtrodden with the sleeves of our souls. Encourage the addict to get help. Protect our schools from deadly attacks that leave parents to never again see their children get off the school bus and come home to them.

Instead of leading the world in gun violence, incarcerated citizens, the clinically depressed and number of dysfunctional families, we must take responsibility to return to kindness and to generosity.

We must require that our children have a work ethic that will sustain their independence, for as the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Our forefathers planted a seed and that seed has grown into a flourishing garden of diversity. Never give consent to any law that excludes Americans from equal opportunity and forces the marginalized to feel inferior to others.

Our faces may be of different colors, our ancestries of different origins, our worship of different gods, but inside us all, we bleed red, the color of blood that was shed by those who fought on the battlefields to preserve our nation of numbers of nationalities.

We must form an unbreakable brotherhood and sisterhood. Clasp our hands in a human chain that begins in the mountains and continues through the prairies and to the shores of the oceans white with foam. Let us never lose our way again. Let the eagle guide our journey out of the dark shadows and into the light of God’s blessing.

We have the power — the power to create artificial intelligence. “The power to create happiness! We, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.” Now let us fight to fulfill our legacy. “Let us fight to free the world — to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance.”

Just look into the eyes of our children. See their perfect innocence. The hand of God is upon their young hearts. We were them not so very long ago. We know them. We owe them a country filled with love and joy.

Let us fight to return to a country of common sense and reason, where humanity matters more than money and more than power. This must be our unbreakable will, so we may write the next chapter of our story of the glory of the greatest country in the world.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com