英语演讲12. Jesse Jackson - 1984 DNC

英语演讲12. Jesse Jackson - 1984 DNC
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12. Jesse Jackson - 1984 DNC
Thank you
very much.
Tonight we come together bound by our faith
in a mighty God, with genuine respect and love
for our country, and inheriting the legacy of a great Party, the Democratic Party, which
is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just, and peaceful course.
This is not a perfect party. We are not a perfect
people. Yet, we are called to a perfect
mission. Our mission: to feed the hungry. to
clothe the naked. to house the homeless. to
teach the illiterate. to provide jobs for the jobless. and to
choose the human race over the nuclear race.
We are gathered here this week to
nominate a candidate and adopt a platform which will
expand, unify, direct, and inspire our Party and the nation
to fulfill this mission. My
constituency is the desperate, the damned,
the disinherited, the disrespected, and the
despised. They are restless and seek relief. They have voted in record numbers. They have
invested the faith, hope, and trust that they have in
us. The Democratic Party must send them a signal that we care.
I pledge my best not to let them down.
There is the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity. Leadership must
heed the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity, for they are the key to
achieving our mission. Time is neutral and does not
change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
No generation can
choose the age or circumstance in which it is born, but
through leadership it can choose to make the age in which
it is born an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs, and
peace, and justice. Only leadership that
intangible combination of gifts, the discipline,
information, circumstance, courage, timing, will and divine inspiration can
lead us out of the crisis in which we find ourselves. Leadership can mitigate the misery of our nation. Leadership
can part the waters and lead our nation
in the direction of the Promised Land. Leadership can
lift the boats stuck at the bottom.
I have had
the rare opportunity to watch seven
men, and then two, pour out their souls, offer
their service, and heal and heed the call of duty to direct the course of our nation. There is a
proper season for everything. There is a time to
sow and a time to reap. There's a time to
compete and a time to cooperate.
I ask for your vote on the first ballot as a vote for a new direction for this Party and this
nation a
vote of conviction, a vote of conscience. But I will be proud to support the nominee
of this convention for the Presidency of the United States of America. Thank you.
I have watched the leadership of our party develop and grow. My respect for both Mr. Mondale
and Mr. Hart is great. I
have watched them struggle with
the crosswinds and crossfires of
being public servants, and I believe they will both continue to
try to serve us faithfully.
I am elated by the knowledge that for the first time in our history a woman, Geraldine
Ferraro, will be recommended to share our ticket.
Throughout this campaign, I've tried to offer leadership to
the Democratic Party and the nation. If, in my high
moments, I have done some good, offered some service, shed some
light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and
indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody,
then this campaign has not been in vain.
For friends who loved and cared for me, and for a God who spared me, and for a family who
understood, I am eternally grateful.
If, in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through
some error of temper, taste, or
tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created
pain, or revived someone's fears, that was
not my truest self. If there were occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell
lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to
my heart. My head so
limited in its finitude. my heart, which is boundless in
its love for the human family. I am
not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against
the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient: God is not finished with
me yet.
This campaign has taught me much. that
leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender
enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough
to admit them, strong
enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.
For leaders, the pain is often
intense. But you must smile through your tears and keep moving
with the faith that there is a brighter side somewhere.
I went to see Hubert Humphrey three days before he died.
He had just called Richard Nixon
from his dying bed, and many people wondered
why. And I asked him. He said, "Jesse, from
this vantage point, the sun
is setting in my life, all of the speeches, the political conventions,
the crowds, and the great fights are behind me
now. At a time like this you are forced to
deal with your irreducible essence, forced to grapple
with that which is really important to you. And
what I've concluded about life," Hubert Humphrey said, "When all
is said and done, we must forgive each other, and redeem each other, and move on."
Our party is emerging from one of its most hard fought battles for the Democratic Party's
presidential nomination in our history. But our healthy competition
should make us better, not
bitter. We must use the insight, wisdom, and experience of the late Hubert
Humphrey as a balm for the wounds in our Party, this nation, and the world.
We must forgive each other,
redeem each other, regroup, and move one. Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is
a rainbow red, yellow, brown, black and white and
we're all precious in God's sight.
America is not like a blanket one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture,
the same size.
America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many
sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black,
the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the
environmentalist, the peace activist, the young,
the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled
make up the American quilt.
Even in our fractured state, all of us count and fit somewhere. We have proven
that we can
survive without each other. But we have not proven that we can win and make progress
without each other. We must come together.
From Fannie Lou Hamer in Atlantic City in 1964 to the Rainbow Coalition
in San Francisco today. from the Atlantic to the Pacific, we have
experienced pain but progress, as we ended
American apartheid laws. We got public accommodations. We secured voting rights. We
obtained open housing, as young people got
the right to vote. We lost Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, Bobby, John, and Viola. The team that
got us here must be expanded, not abandoned.
Twenty years ago, tears welled up in our eyes as the bodies of Schwerner, Goodman, and
Chaney were dredged from the depths of a river in Mississippi. Twenty years later, our
communities, black and Jewish, are in anguish, anger, and pain. Feelings have been
hurt on both sides. There is a crisis in communications.
Confusion is in the air. But we cannot afford
to lose our way. We may agree to agree. or agree to disagree on issues. we must bring back
civility to these tensions.
We are copartners in a long and rich religious history the
JudeoChristian traditions. Many
blacks and Jews have a shared passion for social justice at home and peace abroad. We must
seek a revival of the spirit, inspired by a new vision and new possibilities. We must return
to higher ground.
We are bound by Moses and Jesus, but also connected with
Islam and Mohammed. These
thre great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, were all born
in the revered and holy
city of Jerusalem.
We are bound by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi
Abraham Heschel, crying out from their
graves for us to reach common ground.
We are bound by shared blood and shared sacrifices.
We are much
too intelligent, much too bound by our JudeoChristian heritage,
much too victimized by racism, sexism, militarism, and antiSemitism,
much too threatened as historical
scapegoats to go on divided one from another.
We must turn from finger pointing to
clasped hands. We must share our burdens and our joys with
each other once again. We must turn to each other and not on each other and choose higher ground.
Twenty years later, we cannot be satisfied by just restoring the old coalition. Old wine skins
must make room for new wine. We must heal and expand.
The Rainbow Coalition is making room for Arab
Americans. They, too, know the pain and hurt of racial and religious rejection.
They must not continue to be made pariahs. The Rainbow Coalition
is making room for
Hispanic Americans who this very night are living under the threat of the SimpsonMazzoli
bill. and farm workers from Ohio who are fighting the Campbell Soup Company with a boycott
to achieve legitimate workers' rights.
The Rainbow is making room for the Native American, the most exploited people of all, a
people with the greatest moral claim amongst us. We support them as they seek the
restoration of their ancient land and claim amongst us. We support them as they seek the
restoration of land and water rights, as they seek to preserve their ancestral
homeland and the beauty of a land that was once all theirs. They can
never receive a fair share for all they have given us. They must finally have a fair chance to develop their great resources and to preserve their people and their culture.
The Rainbow Coalition includes Asian
Americans, now being killed in our streets scapegoats
for the failures of corporate,
industrial, and economic policies.
The Rainbow is making room for the young Americans. Twenty years ago, our young people
were dying in a war for which
they could not even vote.
Twenty years later, young America
has the power to stop a war in Central America and the responsibility to vote in great
numbers. Young America must be politically active in
1984. The choice is war or peace. We
must make room for young America.
The Rainbow includes disabled veterans. The color scheme fits in
the Rainbow. The disabled
have their handicap revealed and their genius concealed. while the ablebodied
have their genius revealed and their disability concealed.
But ultimately, we must judge people by their
values and their contribution. Don't leave anybody out. I would rather have Roosevelt in a
wheelchair than Reagan on a horse.
The Rainbow is making room for small farmers.
They have suffered tremendously under the
Reagan regime. They will either receive 90 percent parity or 100 percent charity. We must
address their concerns and make room for them. The Rainbow
includes lesbians and gays. No
American citizen ought be denied equal protection from the law.
We must be unusually committed and caring as we expand our family to
include new members. All of us must be tolerant and understanding as the fears and anxieties of the
rejected and the party leadership express themselves in
many different ways. Too often what
we call hate as if it were some deeplyrooted
philosophy or strategy is
simply ignorance,
anxiety, paranoia, fear, and insecurity. To be strong leaders, we must be longsuffering
as we seek to right
the wrongs of our Party and our nation. We must expand our Party, heal our
Party, and unify our Party. That is our mission in 1984.
We are often reminded that we live in a great nation
and we do. But it can be greater still.
The Rainbow is mandating a new definition of greatness. We must not measure greatness
from the mansion down, but the manger up. Jesus said that we should not be judged by the
bark we wear but by the fruit that we bear. Jesus said that we must measure greatness by
how we treatthe least of these.
President Reagan says the nation is in recovery. Those 90,000 corporations that
made a profit last year but paid no
federal taxes are recovering. The 37,000 military contractors who have
benefited from Reagan's more than doubling of the military budget in peacetime, surely they
are recovering. The big corporations and rich
individuals who received the bulk of a threeyear,
multibillion tax cut from Mr. Reagan are recovering.
But no such recovery is under way for the least of these.
Rising tides don't lift all boats, particularly those stuck at the bottom. For the boats stuck at
the bottom there's a misery index.
This Administration has made life more miserable for the
poor. Its attitude has been contemptuous. Its policies and programs have been cruel and
unfair to working people. They must be held accountable in November for increasing infant
mortality among the poor. In Detroit one of the great
cities of the western world, babies are
dying at the same rate as Honduras,
the most underdeveloped nation
in our hemisphere. This
Administration must be held accountable for policies that have contributed to the growing
poverty in America. There are now 34
million people in poverty, 15 percent of our nation. 23
million are White. 11 million Black, Hispanic, Asian, and others mostly
women and children.
By the end of this year, there will be 41 million
people in poverty. We cannot stand idly by.
We must fight for a change now.
Under this regime we look at
Social Security. The '81 budget cuts included
nine permanent Social Security benefit cuts totaling 20 billion over five years. Small businesses have suffered under Reagan tax cuts. Only 18 percent of total
business tax cuts went to them. 82 percent to
big businesses. Health care under Mr. Reagan has already been sharply cut. Education
under Mr. Reagan has been cut 25 percent. Under Mr.
Reagan there are now 9.7 million female head
families. They represent 16 percent of all families. Half of all of them are poor. 70 percent of
all poor children live in a house headed by a woman, where there is no man. Under Mr.
Reagan, the Administration
has cleaned up only 6 of 546 priority toxic waste dumps. Farmers' real net
income was only about half its level in 1979.
Many
say that
the race in November will be decided in the South. President Reagan is
depending on the conservative South to return him to office. But
the South, I tell you, is unnaturally conservative. The South is the poorest
region in our nation and, therefore, [has] the least to conserve. In
his appeal to the South, Mr. Reagan is trying to substitute flags and
prayer cloths for food, and clothing, and education, health
care, and housing.
Mr. Reagan will ask us to pray, and I believe in
prayer. I have come to this way by the power of prayer. But then, we must watch
false prophecy. He cuts energy assistance to
the poor, cuts breakfast programs from children, cuts lunch programs from children, cuts job training
from children, and then says to an empty table,
"Let us pray." Apparently, he is not familiar
with the structure of a prayer. You thank the Lord for the food that you are about
to receive, not
the food that just left. I think that we should pray, but don't pray for the food that left.
Pray for the man that took the food to leave. We need a change.
We need a change in November.
Under Mr. Reagan, the misery index has risen for the poor. The danger index has risen for
everybody. Under this administration, we've lost the lives of our boys in Central America and
Honduras, in Grenada, in Lebanon, in nuclear standoff
in Europe. Under this Administration,
onethird of our children believe they will die in a nuclear war. The danger index is increasing
in this world. All the talk about the defense against Russia.
the Russian submarines are closer, and their missiles are more accurate.
We live in a world tonight more miserable and a world
more dangerous.
While Reaganomics and Reaganism is talked about often, so often we miss the real meaning.
Reaganism is a spirit, and Reaganomics represents the real economic facts of life. In 1980,
Mr. George Bush, a man with reasonable access to Mr. Reagan, did an analysis of Mr.
Reagan's economic plan. Mr. George Bush concluded
that Reagan's plan was ''voodoo economics.'' He was right. Thirdparty candidate John Anderson
said "a combination of
military spending, tax cuts, and a balanced budget by '84 would be accomplished with blue
smoke and mirrors." They were both right.
Mr. Reagan talks about a dynamic recovery. There's some measure of recovery. Three and a
half years later, unemployment has inched just below where it was when
he took office in 1981. There are still 8.1 million people officially unemployed. 11 million working only parttime. Inflation
has come down, but
let's analyze for a moment who has paid the price for this superficial economic recovery.
Mr. Reagan curbed inflation by cutting consumer demand.
He cut consumer demand with conscious and callous fiscal and monetary policies. He used the Federal budget to deliberately
induce unemployment and curb social spending. He then weighed and supported tight
monetary policies of the Federal Reserve Board
to deliberately drive up interest rates, again to
curb consumer demand created through borrowing. Unemployment reached 10.7 percent. We
experienced skyrocketing interest rates. Our dollar inflated abroad. There were record bank
failures, record farm foreclosures, record business bankruptcies. record budget deficits, record
trade deficits.
Mr. Reagan brought inflation down by destabilizing our economy and disrupting family life. He
promised he promised in 1980 a balanced budget. But
instead we now have a record 200
billion dollar budget deficit. Under Mr. Reagan, the cumulative budget deficit for his four years
is more than the sum total of deficits from George Washington to
Jimmy Carter combined. I tell you, we need a change.
How is he paying for these shortterm
jobs? Reagan's economic recovery is being financed by deficit spending 200
billion dollars a year. Military spending, a major cause of this deficit, is
projected over the next five years to be nearly 2 trillion dollars, and will cost about
40,000 dollars for every taxpaying family. When
the Government borrows 200 billion dollars annually
to finance the deficit, this encourages the private sector to make its money off of interest
rates as opposed to development and economic growth.
Even money abroad, we don't have enough
money domestically to finance the debt, so we are
now borrowing money abroad, from foreign banks, governments and financial institutions: 40
billion dollars in 1983. 7080 billion dollars in 1984 40
percent of our total. over 100 billion dollars 50 percent of our total in
1985. By 1989, it is projected that 50 percent of all individual
income taxes will be going just to pay for interest on that debt. The United States
used to be the largest exporter of capital, but under Mr. Reagan we will quite likely become
the largest debtor nation.
About two weeks ago, on July the 4th, we
celebrated our Declaration of Independence, yet
every day supplyside economics is making our nation
more economically dependent and less
economically free. Five to six percent of our Gross National Product is now being eaten
up with President Reagan's budget deficits. To depend on foreign
military powers to protect our
national security would be foolish, making us dependent and less secure. Yet, Reaganomics
has us increasingly dependent on foreign economic sources. This consumerled
but deficitfinanced
recovery is unbalanced and artificial. We have a challenge as Democrats to point a
way out.
Democracy guarantees opportunity, not
success.
Democracy guarantees the right to participate, not a license for either a majority or a minority
to dominate.
The victory for the Rainbow Coalition
in the Platform debates today was not whether we won
or lost, but that we raised the right issues. We could afford to
lose the vote. issues are nonnegotiable.
We could not afford to avoid raising the right questions. Our selfrespect
and our
moral integrity were at stake. Our heads are perhaps bloody, but not bowed. Our back is
straight. We can go home and face our people. Our vision is clear.
When we think, on this journey from slaveship
to championship, that we have gone from the
planks of the Boardwalk in Atlantic City in 1964 to fighting to
help write the planks in the
platform in San Francisco in '84, there is a deep and abiding sense of joy in our souls in spite
of the tears in our eyes. Though there are missing planks, there is a solid foundation upon
which to build.
Our party can win, but we must provide hope which will
inspire people to struggle and
achieve. provide a plan that shows a way out of our dilemma and then
lead the way.
In 1984, my heart is made
to feel glad because I know there is a way out justice.
The requirement
for rebuilding America is justice. The linchpin of progressive politics in our nation
will not come from the North. they, in fact, will
come from the South. That is why I argue over
and over again. We look from Virginia around to Texas, there's only one black Congressperson
out of 115. Nineteen years later, we're locked out of the Congress, the Senate and the
Governor's mansion. What does this large black vote mean? Why do
I fight to win second primaries and fight
gerrymandering and annexation and atlarge [elections]. Why do we fight
over that? Because I tell you, you cannot hold someone in the ditch
unless you linger there with them. Unless you linger there.
If you want a change in this nation, you enforce that Voting Rights Act. We'll get
12 to 20 Black, Hispanics, female and progressive congresspersons from the South. We can save the
cotton, but we've got to fight the boll weevils. We've got to make a judgment. We've got to
make a judgment.
It is not enough to hope ERA will pass. How can
we pass ERA? If Blacks vote in great numbers, progressive Whites win. It's the only
way progressive Whites win. If Blacks vote in great
numbers, Hispanics win. When Blacks, Hispanics, and progressive Whites vote, women
win. When women win, children win. When women and children win, workers win. We must all
come up together. We must come up together.
Thank you.
For all of our joy and excitement, we must
not save the world and lose our souls. We should never shortcircuit
enforcing the Voting Rights Act at every level. When one of us rise[s], all
of us will rise. Justice is the way out. Peace is the way out. We should not act as if nuclear
weaponry is negotiable and debatable.
In this world in which we live, we dropped the bomb on Japan and felt guilty, but
in 1984 other folks [have] also got bombs. This time, if
we drop the bomb, six minutes later we, too, will be destroyed. It's not about
dropping the bomb on somebody. It is about dropping the
bomb on everybody. We must choose to develop minds over guided
missiles, and think it out and not fight it out. It's time for a change.
Our foreign policy must be characterized by mutual respect, not by gunboat diplomacy, big
stick diplomacy, and threats. Our nation at its best feeds the hungry. Our nation at
its worst, at its worst, will mine the harbors of Nicaragua,
at its worst will try to overthrow their government, at its worst will cut aid to
American education and increase the aid to
El Salvador. at its worst, our nation will have partnerships with South
Africa. That's a moral disgrace. It's a moral disgrace. It's a moral disgrace.
We look at Africa.
We cannot just
focus on Apartheid in Southern Africa. We must fight for trade with
Africa, and not just aid to Africa.
We cannot stand idly by and say we will not relate
to Nicaragua unless they have elections there, and then embrace military regimes in Africa
overthrowing democratic governments in Nigeria and Liberia and Ghana.
We must fight for democracy all around the world and play the game by one set of rules.
Peace in this world. Our present
formula for peace in
the Middle East is inadequate. It will
not work. There are 22
nations in the Middle East. Our nation must be able to
talk and act and
influence all of them. We must build upon Camp David, and measure human
rights by one
yard stick. In that region we have too many interests and too few friends.
There is a way out jobs.
Put
America back to
work. When I was a child growing up in
Greenville,
South Carolina, the Reverend Sample used to preach
every so often a sermon
relating to Jesus. And he said, "If I be lifted up,
I'll draw all men unto me."
I didn't quite
understand what
he meant as a child growing up, but I understand a little better now. If you
raise up truth, it's magnetic. It
has a way of drawing people.
With all this confusion
in this Convention, the bright lights and parties and big fun, we must
raise up the simple proposition: If we lift
up a program to
feed the hungry, they'll come
running. if we lift
up a program to study war no
more, our youth will come running. if we lift
up a program to put America back to work, and an alternative to welfare and despair, they will
come working.
If we cut that military budget without cutting our defense, and use that
money to rebuild
bridges and put
steel workers back to work, and use that money and provide jobs for our
cities, and use that
money to build schools and
pay teachers and educate our children and
build hospitals and train doctors and train
nurses, the whole nation will come running to us.
As
I leave you now, we vote in this convention and get ready to go back across this nation
in a couple of days. In this campaign, I've tried to be faithful to my promise. I
lived in old barrios, ghettos, and reservations and housing projects. I
have a message for our youth. I
challenge them to put
hope in their brains and not dope in their veins. I
told them that like
Jesus, I, too, was born
in the slum. But just because you're born in the slum does not
mean the slum is born in you, and you can rise above it if your mind is made
up. I told them in every slum there are two
sides. When I see a broken window that's the slummy side.
Train some youth to become a glazier that's
the sunny side. When I see a missing brick that's the slummy side. Let
that child in the union and become a brick mason and build that's
the sunny side. When I see a missing door that's the slummy side. Train some youth to become
a carpenter that's the sunny side. And when I see the vulgar words and hieroglyphics of
destitution on the walls that's the slummy side. Train
some youth to become a painter, an artist that's the sunny side.
We leave this place looking for the sunny side because there's a brighter side somewhere. I'm
more convinced than ever that we can win. We will vault up the rough side of the mountain.
We can win. I just want young America to do me one favor, just one favor. Exercise the right
to dream. You must face reality that which is.
But then dream of a reality that ought to be
that must be. Live beyond the pain of reality with
the dream of a bright tomorrow.
Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress. Use love to
motivate you and obligate you to serve the human family.
Young America, dream. Choose the human race over the nuclear race.
Bury the weapons and don't burn the people. Dream dream
of a new value system. Teachers who teach for life
and not just for a living. teach because they can't help it. Dream of lawyers more concerned
about justice than a judgeship. Dream of doctors more concerned about
public health than
personal wealth. Dream of preachers and priests who will prophesy and not just profiteer.
Preach and dream!
Our time has come. Our time has come. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In
the end, faith will not disappoint. Our time has come. Our faith, hope, and dreams will prevail.
Our time has come.
Weeping has endured for nights, but now joy cometh
in the morning. Our
time has come. No grave can hold our body down. Our time has come. No lie can
live forever. Our time has come. We must leave racial battle ground and come to
economic common ground and moral higher ground.
America, our time has come. We come from disgrace to
amazing grace. Our time has come. Give me your tired, give me your poor, your huddled
masses who yearn
to breathe free and come November, there will be a change because our
time has come.