U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.)

DASCHLE: It is an honor to be co-chair of this great gathering tonight, along with the next Speaker of the House, Dick Gephardt. (APPLAUSE)

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Senator Chris Dodd, Don Fowler, Mayor Rich Daley, Debra DeLee, Don Foley, Michael Berman, and so many others who will make this convention the most successful of them all.

We come from vast corners in this great land -- from Aberdeen, South Dakota, to St. Louis, Missouri; from Bangor, Maine, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, ethnic Americans from every country in Europe.

But most importantly we are Americans, and we are Democrats.

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We're as diverse as any political party can be, and tonight we are as united.

We're a nation that prizes individuals, but we're also a nation in which communities come together to help their neighbors do what they can't do alone.

We also know the meaning of community. My great-grandparents homesteaded on the Great Plains. They were rugged individualists. And yet, they came together with their neighbors to work the land, plant the crops and raise the barns.

Those two traditions -- diversity and unity, rugged individualism and community -- are alive and well in our party. This election -- this election gives Americans a very clear choice. Two very different ideas about our future and the freedom we cherish for all generations.

It's been said that Republicans and Democrats have a fundamentally different notion of freedom.

Republicans think in terms of the freedom from, and Democrats believe in the freedom to.

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We believe -- we believe that every child should have the freedom to go to a good school.

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And every adult should have the freedom to go to college or learn a new work skill so they can get a better job. That's why we fought back against this Republican Congress when it tried to make the biggest education cuts in our nation's history, and we won.

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We believe. We believe that every person should have the freedom to see a doctor when they're sick, and that's why we fought so hard in this Congress to make sure that people don't lose their health care if they take a different job.

And guess what? We won that, too.

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In the next Congress, we're going to build on that success. Every parent should be able to buy health care for their children, and Democrats are going to work to make that so in the next Congress.

DASCHLE: And we believe that every American should have the freedom to walk the streets without worrying about crime. That's why we fought so hard when the Republican Congress tried to cut the president's budget and his commitment to put 100,000 community police on the street, and that's why a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president passed the Brady Bill and banned assault weapons. America's neighborhoods should not be battlefields. And as a South Dakota sportsman, let me say, we don't need battlefield weapons.

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We believe that every American who works 40 hours a week should have the freedom to earn a decent living. That's why we forced this Congress to raise the minimum wage one month ago, and we won that battle, too.

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But the real winners, the real winners were America's families. We believe that men and women who have worked hard all their lives should have the freedom to retire with dignity. That's why when Republicans tried to make it easier for corporations to raid your pensions, we stopped them. And that's why we passed a bill to protect the pensions of people who have earned all of that pension and made it easier for millions to get them in the first place. And that's why we refused to allow this Republican Congress to slash Medicare and give our seniors second rate health care.

Medicare will not wither on the vine.

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Not as long as a Democratic president in the White House and Democrats in Congress will be there to protect it.

Freedom, the freedom to make the best lives we possibly can for ourselves and our families, that's what unites us as Democrats tonight. So much of this and far more I've learned from the people of my state of South Dakota.

After I was elected, after I was elected Democratic leader on a very cold January evening, I visited an old friend, a man who'd spent his life in politics and public service. He'd been a farmer all of his life, and he had some of the best corn in Lincoln County. His name was Dick Reiners (ph).

I asked him what advice he'd have for me in my new job. Dick thought a minute and he said, "Well, first, Tom, never forget where you came from. Never forget the people and the values that made you who you are."

And then he turned to a picture on the wall of his grandchildren and said, "The second thing you have to do, the second thing you have to do is to give us hope. My children and grandchildren are counting on you to give them hope and opportunity and a life as good as I've had."

Well, Dick Reiners (ph) was never able to give me another piece of advice. He died later that night, but then he'd given me all the advice I'd never have -- ever have to use.

You have to give people hope. You have to give people opportunity. And with President Clinton and a Democratic Congress, there will be more hope. There will be more opportunity for all Americans.

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And we're going to make it so this week. Thank you all very, very much.

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