We should embark upon a major effort to provide self-help assistance to the forgotten in our midst—­the American Indians and the migratory farm workers.  And we should reach with the hand of understanding to help those who live in rural poverty.

And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress.

So let us keep on improving the quality of life and enlarging the meaning of justice for all of our fellow Americans.

We should transform our decaying slums into places of decency through the landmark Model Cities program.  I intend to seek for this effort, this year, the full amount that you in Congress authorized last year.

We should call upon the genius of private industry and the most advanced technology to help rebuild our great cities.

We should vastly expand the fight for dean air with a total attack on pollution at its sources, and—­because air, like water, does not respect manmade boundaries—­we should set up “regional airsheds” throughout this great land.

We should continue to carry to every corner of the Nation our campaign for a beautiful America—­to dean up our towns, to make them more beautiful, our cities, our countryside, by creating more parks, and more seashores, and more open spaces for our children to play in, and for the generations that come after us to enjoy.

We should continue to seek equality and justice for each citizen—­before a jury, in seeking a job, in exercising his civil rights.  We should find a solution to fair housing, so that every American, regardless of color, has a decent home of his choice.

We should modernize our Selective Service System.  The National Commission on Selective Service will shortly submit its report.  I will send you new recommendations to meet our military manpower needs.  But let us resolve that this is to be the Congress that made our draft laws as fair and as effective as possible.

We should protect what Justice Brandeis called the “right most valued by civilized men”—­the right to privacy.  We should outlaw all wiretapping—­public and private—­wherever and whenever it occurs, except when the security of this Nation itself is at stake—­and only then with the strictest governmental safeguards.  And we should exercise the full reach of our constitutional powers to outlaw electronic “bugging” and “snooping.”

I hope this Congress will try to help me do more for the consumer.  We should demand that the cost of credit be clearly and honestly expressed where average citizens can understand it.  We should immediately take steps to prevent massive power failures, to safeguard the home against hazardous household products, and to assure safety in the pipelines that carry natural gas across our Nation.

We should extend Medicare benefits that are now denied to 1,300,000 permanently and totally disabled Americans under 65 years of age.

We should improve the process of democracy by passing our election reform and financing proposals, by tightening our laws regulating lobbying, and by restoring a reasonable franchise to Americans who move their residences.