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THE REVEREND JESSE JACKSON DELIVERS REMARKS AT DEMOCRATIC
CAMPAIGN 2000: JESSE JACKSON DELIVERS REMARKS AT DEMOCRATIC
NATIONAL CONVENTION
AUGUST 15, 2000
SPEAKERS: REVEREND JESSE JACKSON
FOUNDER, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION
JACKSON: The long arm of justice reaches neither for the
political left nor the political right, but for the moral center.
Vanity asks the question, Is it popular? Politics asks the question,
Will it work? Can I win? Morality and conscience ask the question,
Is it right? In the end, if it is morally right, politics and
popularity has to adjust to the unyielding power of the moral center.
There was a left and right in slavery but no moral center, a left and
a right in denying women the right to vote but no moral center.
Tonight we gather here in Los Angeles, home to dream makers who
entice the world, but also home of the janitors and sanitary workers
who clean up your world. Los Angeles, home of a handful of America's
richest people and hundreds of America's poorest workers.
This Democratic convention is set in that great divide between
Beverly Hills and South Central, between the dream makers and dream
breakers. And we commit ourselves today to make America better, to
stand with the janitors who had to strike to get a dollar more an
hour, to stand with the hotel workers who work every day but don't get
health care. We are on your side.
JACKSON: Two weeks ago, in Philadelphia, the nation was treated
to a staged show -- smoke, mirrors, hired acts the Republicans called
inclusion. That was the inclusion illusion.
In Philadelphia...
(APPLAUSE)
... diversity ended on that stage. They could not mention the
words "Africa," "Appalachia" or "AIDS" once.
So it's good to be in Los Angeles, to look over this great
assembly and see the real deal, the quilt with many patches that is
America. There are 1,000 union workers here...
(APPLAUSE)
... a thousand African Americans, 1,000 Latinos and Asian
Americans. As many women as men...
(APPLAUSE)
America's working families are here, headed by a Southern Baptist
and an Orthodox Jew. This is America's dream team, the Democratic
Party.
(APPLAUSE)
In this diversity is our strength. Mr. Bush stood with Jefferson
Davis and the Confederate flag in South Carolina and Abe Lincoln and
the American flag in Baltimore, but Mr. Gore and Lieberman can say:
One America, one flag.
(APPLAUSE)
Last week, when Al Gore chose Joe Lieberman as his running mate,
he stood up for justice. He appealed to the best in America. In
selecting Joe Lieberman, Al Gore has brought the sons and daughters of
slaves and slave master together with the sons and daughters of
Holocaust survivors, women fighting for self-determination, workers
fighting for wage security and dignity.
Al Gore has raised the moral chin bar. When a barrier falls to
one of the locked out, it opens doors for all.
JACKSON: I've devoted much of my life striving to bring light to
dark places. Four decades ago, on July 17, 1960, I was jailed with
several of my classmates, trying to use a library in Greenville, South
Carolina. On July 17, 1984, I addressed you in San Francisco.
We've come a long way. We are making America better.
I know something about the tides of change. I moved with it when
the tide was coming in, and labored against it when it was flowing
out. I've seen enough and done enough to know when the moment is
right for history to be made again.
My fellow Americans, we face such a moment today. This is a
moment pregnant with possibility, a moment that we have waited for
more than a generation to come our way.
Remember the dream of Dr. King, the dream of genuine economic
opportunity for all. It has been deferred for too long, deferred by
the assassination of Dr. King, by the Vietnam War, by the Cold War, by
stagnant (ph) deficits (ph). Our imaginations have been shackled.
Now, America has no global military rival, deficits that become
surpluses, promises to keep. This economy has enjoyed record growth,
but America's working families are still struggling to get by. Jobs
are plentiful, but less secure. Wages are up but haven't made up
ground lost over the last 25 years.
Forty-five million Americans have no health insurance. They're
one illness away from bankruptcy. We cannot rest until every American
is covered with health insurance.
(APPLAUSE)
In the midst of great wealth, one in five children still grow up
in poverty. It's a moral disgrace we cannot accept. A coal miner
dies every six hours from black lung disease.
In Mud Creek (ph), Kentucky; in Hazzard (ph), in Nelsonville,
Ohio, in Big Stone Gap, children live in trailers and go to school in
trailers.
Think of Appalachia and remember most poor people are not on
welfare, they work every day. They do their heavy lifting. They take
the early bus. They work the late shift. Most poor people are
neither brown nor black. They're white. They're female. They're
young. They're invisible. But they're all God's children.
JACKSON: Let's have a one big tent America.
(APPLAUSE)
On this November, there'll be two teams on the field, two plans
and two directions. On the right side, the Republican team is trying
to change its uniform colors to blur the differences. But don't be
fooled. Just look at the team.
It's not just Bush and Cheney, but the grizzled old veterans such
as Jesse Helms, and Dick Armey, and Tom DeLay, and Bob Barr, and Strom
Thurmond, and Trent Lott, and Pat Robertson, and Ralph Reed. This
grizzly old team wants to take the surplus and give it away in tax
breaks to benefit those who already are wealthy just to pay for their
party.
But then, there's another team, the team of Gore and Lieberman...
(APPLAUSE)
...and Gephardt, and Bonior, and Daschle, and Wellstone, and
Jackson, Jr...
(APPLAUSE)
... and Charlie Rangel, and John Lewis, and Jim Clyburn, Luis
Gutierrez, Velasquez, Sanchez, Wu. This is the all-American team.
(APPLAUSE)
They want to use the surplus to bolster Medicare, their
prescription drug benefit. The question is clear. What shall we do
with the surplus?
JACKSON: How shall we make America better? Bush and Cheney says
give it to those who are already doing just fine. The Gore-Lieberman
team says that money should make America stronger. That's our choice.
George W. says, tell us, we should look into his heart. But whatever
is in his heart, the question is what is in his budget.
(APPLAUSE)
He says, "Leave no one behind." But this contest is not about
race or religion, it's about resource distribution and budget
priorities.
(APPLAUSE)
It's about the airport security workers who have no health
insurance. It's about cooks at schools. It's about farm workers.
It's about chicken plant workers who get carpal syndrome bending their
wrists. It's about cab drivers, hotel maids. It's about janitors.
This land is our land.
(APPLAUSE)
It's our land.
George Bush says -- George Bush says, don't mess with Texas.
That's fair. I just left Houston where I visited a children's
hospital.
JACKSON: In Texas, 1.5 million children live in poverty. Ten
percent of the nation's poor, 500,000, are eligible for the Children's
Health Insurance Program but can't get it because of bureaucracy. Six
hundred thousand eligible for Medicare but they can't get it.
Don't mess with Texas. Last in children's health care, last in
environmental protection, third worst state to raise a child, the
fourth worst drop-out rate, and 38th in teacher's salary. Don't mess
with Texas any more. Don't mess with New York and California. Don't
mess with Illinois.
(APPLAUSE)
Don't mess with America.
(APPLAUSE)
Don't mess with America.
(APPLAUSE)
Let us go forward.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: Jesse! Jesse!
JACKSON: What (inaudible) it is is, a one big tent and there are
struggles within our party. We cannot duck the challenge of making
the global economy work for working people, or fair trade, protecting
labor rights and the environment so we lift wages at home and abroad,
not just drive them down at home.
We affirm protest. We must make room for protesters and turn
their idealism and creative energy into progress; build on their
tradition.
JACKSON: In 1960, public accommodations was a protest; in '64 it
was a law. In '64, the right to vote was a protest; in '65 it was a
law.
(APPLAUSE)
In '88, affirming PLO and Israel talking was a protest; today it
is law. Free Mandela was a protest; today it is law.
(APPLAUSE)
We must fight for protest and progress to make America better.
(APPLAUSE)
We must fight to include all Americans. We can not keep fighting
a failed war on drugs; it must be a war against drug addiction. We
can't keep spending more on prisons than on colleges.
When Governor Ryan of Illinois can -- says because those who are
dying are mostly black, brown, poor, don't have a lawyer, mistaken
identity or wrongful convictions, we must not risk killing innocent
people. There must be a moratorium on the death penalty until there
is fairness for everybody.
(APPLAUSE)
As I close my friends, one thing I'm convince of, within our
party we can fight for the right to do what's right. We can change.
We can challenge. We can agree to disagree. We can agree to be
agreeable. But we're a family.
When I look at these two teams and these two choices, Papa Bush
gave us Clarence Thomas.
JACKSON: Baby Bush gave us an end to affirmative action and
women's right for self-determination in Florida. George W. will not
stand against -- for hate crime legislation. I say, America, stay out
the Bushes. Stay out the Bushes. Stay out the Bushes.
(APPLAUSE)
Stay out the Bushes. Stay out.
AUDIENCE: Stay out the Bushes. Stay out the Bushes. Stay out
the Bushes.
JACKSON: My brothers and my sisters, your vote counts. And you
count, and you matter. In 1960, Kennedy beat Nixon by 112,000 votes,
less than one vote per precinct. Every vote counts.
In 1960, we won by the margin of our hope. In '68, Dr. King was
killed, Robert Kennedy killed, explosion in Chicago, we were in
despair, we lost to Nixon by 500,000 votes. We lost by despair.
In '76, again, we came together. Carter beat Ford by 1.7
million. Every vote counts, and everybody counts.
JACKSON: One vote decided that America would speak English
rather than German in 1776. One vote kept Aaron Burr, later charged
with treason, from becoming our president. One vote made Texas part
of the United States of America in 1845. One vote changed France from
a monarchy to a republic. One vote has the power to change our
course.
And so tonight, I say, America, if we don't have a prosperity
deficit disorder, there's more with Gore, more health care with Gore,
more education with Gore, more health with Gore, more wages with Gore,
more freedom with Gore, more strength with Gore, more security with
Gore, more prosperity with Gore, it's more and Gore.
It's more and Gore. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep
hope alive. Louder.
AUDIENCE: Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.
JACKSON: Louder.
AUDIENCE: Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: Jesse. Jesse. Jesse.
END
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