When I listen to the current bluster and bullying that comes from our leaders now in this 250th anniversary year of our American experiment in democracy, I realize that trash talk may work in wrestling matches, but it has no place in negotiations on war when decency and diplomacy could save lives and allow people on earth to live in peace and harmony.

With good rhetoric in mind, I have been looking in Jon Meacham’s book, American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: an Anthology. This Pulitzer Prize winning collection of speeches by great Americans confirms my idea that words matter.

Honesty, thoughtfulness, and kindness have characterized the speeches of our greatest presidents. They did not always get what they wanted, but they understood human nature and respected the rights of other people and the limits of the Presidency.

In his farewell speech, George Washington warned against political revenge. “Let me now take a comprehensive view & warn against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally…. this spirit is inseparable from our nature, having its roots in the strongest passions of the human Mind [revenge] in its greatest rankness and is truly our worst enemy.”

In his Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln recalled, “The first sounds that startled my ear and sent me shuddering through my soul were the cracking of the whip and the clanking of chains. These sad memories mar the beauties of my native shore and darken all the slave-land, which, but for the reign of despotism, had been a paradise. But those shores are fairer now.” Lincoln felt the pain of others and worked to end that pain.

After the Supreme Court Decision on same sex marriage, Barack Obama spoke in the Rose Garden on June 26, 2015. He said, “Our nation was founded on the bedrock principle that we are all created equal. The project of each generation is to bridge the meaning of those founding words with the realities of changing times – a never-ending quest to ensure those words ring true for every single American.”

Jon Meacham did not include presidential speeches about giving women the right to vote, or the 1965 voting rights act, or the passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Nevertheless, these are examples of legislation that has helped make our country a more perfect union in my view.

Being a great leader in a great democracy is not about amassing land and wealth, nor is it about getting even with enemies. It is about enlarging the nation’s understanding of what other people really need both at home and abroad. It is about bringing true equality to everyone.

We have known since the end of World War II that we have the power to kill every living thing on earth, but we have not learned how to take care of this earth and all its various people.