【名人演讲】Jesse Jackson: Address to the Democratic National Convention

2012-01-22作者：出处：

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Tonight, we pause and give praise and honor to God for being good enough to allow us to be at this place at this

time. When I look out at this convention, I see the face of America: Red,Yellow, Brown, Black and White. We are all

precious in God's sight the real rainbow coalition.
All of us all of us who are here think that we are seated. But we're really standing on someone's shoulders. Ladies

and gentlemen, Mrs. Rosa Parks the mother of the civil rights movement.
[Mrs. Rosa Parks is brought to the podium.]
I want to express my deep love and appreciation for the support my family has given me over these past months. They

have endured pain, anxiety, threat, and fear. But they have been strengthened and made secure by our faith in God,

in America, and in you. Your love has protected us and made us strong. To my wife Jackie, the foundation of our

family; to our five children whom you met tonight; to my mother, Mrs. Helen Jackson, who is present tonight;and to

our grandmother, Mrs. Matilda Burns; to my brother Chuck and his family; to my motherinlaw,Mrs. Gertrude Brown, who

just last month at age 61 graduated from Hampton Institute a marvelous achievement.
I offer my appreciation to Mayor Andrew Young who has provided such gracious hospitality to all of us this week.
And a special salute to President Jimmy Carter. President Carter restored honor to the White House after Watergate.

He gave many of us a special opportunity to grow. For his kind words,for his unwavering commitment to peace in the

world, and for the voters that came from his family, every member of his family, led by Billy and Amy, I offer my

special thanks to the Carter family.
My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won, won in my lifetime, by the blood and the sweat of

the innocent.
Twentyfour
years ago, the late Fannie Lou Hamer and Aaron Henry who sits here tonight from Mississippi were locked out onto the

streets in Atlantic City; the head of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
But tonight, a Black and White delegation from Mississippi is headed by Ed Cole, a Black man from Mississippi;

twentyfour years later.
Many were lost in the struggle for the right to vote: Jimmy Lee Jackson, a young student,gave his life; Viola

Liuzzo, a White mother from Detroit, called "nigger lover," and brains blown out at point blank range; [Michael]

Schwerner, [Andrew] Goodman and [James]
Chaney two Jews and a Black found in a common grave, bodies riddled with bullets in Mississippi; the four darling

little girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. They died that we might have a right to live.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lies only a few miles from us tonight. Tonight he must feel good as he looks down upon

us. We sit here together, a rainbow, a coalition the sons and daughters of slavemasters and the sons and daughters

of slaves, sitting together around a common table, to decide the direction of our party and our country. His heart

would be full tonight.
As a testament to the struggles of those who have gone before; as a legacy for those who will come after; as a

tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of our forefathers and mothers; as an assurance that their

prayers are being answered, that their work has not been in vain, and, that hope is eternal, tomorrow night my name

will go into nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.
We meet tonight at the crossroads, a point of decision. Shall we expand, be inclusive, find unity and power; or

suffer division and impotence?
We've come to Atlanta, the cradle of the Old South, the crucible of the New South. Tonight,there is a sense of

celebration, because we are moved, fundamentally moved from racial battlegrounds by law, to economic common ground.

Tomorrow we'll challenge to move to higher ground.
Common ground. Think of Jerusalem, the intersection where many trails met. A small village that became the

birthplace for three great religions Judaism,Christianity, and Islam. Why was this village so blessed? Because it

provided a crossroads where different people met,different cultures, different civilizations could meet and find

common ground. When people come together, flowers always flourish the air is rich with the aroma of a new spring.
Take New York, the dynamic metropolis. What makes New York so special? It's the invitation at the Statue of Liberty,

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free." Not restricted to English only. Many

people, many cultures, many languages with one thing in common: They yearn to breathe free. Common ground.
Tonight in Atlanta, for the first time in this century, we convene in the South; a state where Governors once stood

in school house doors; where Julian Bond was denied a seat in the State Legislature because of his conscientious

objection to the Vietnam War; a city that,through its five Black Universities, has graduated more black students

than any city in the world. Atlanta, now a modern intersection of the New South.
Common ground. That's the challenge of our party tonight left
wing, right wing.
Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual

survival not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the
critical mass of mutual survival. It takes two wings to fly. Whether you're a hawk or a dove,you're just a bird

living in the same environment, in the same world.
The Bible teaches that when lions and lambs lie down together, none will be afraid, and there will be peace in the

valley. It sounds impossible. Lions eat lambs. Lambs sensibly flee from lions. Yet even lions and lambs find common

ground. Why? Because neither lions nor lambs want the forest to catch on fire. Neither lions nor lambs want acid

rain to fall. Neither lions nor lambs can survive nuclear war. If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we

can as well as civilized people.
The only time that we win is when we come together. In 1960, John Kennedy, the late John Kennedy, beat Richard Nixon

by only 112,000 votes less than one vote per precinct. He won by the margin of our hope. He brought us together. He

reached out. He had the courage to defy his advisors and inquire about Dr. King's jailing in Albany, Georgia. We won

by the margin of our hope, inspired by courageous leadership. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson brought both wings together

the thesis, the antithesis, and the creative synthesis and together we won. In 1976, Jimmy Carter unified us again,

and we won. When do we not come together, we never win. In 1968, the division and despair in July led to our defeat

in November. In 1980, rancor in the spring and the summer led to Reagan in the fall. When we divide, we cannot win.

We must find common ground as the basis for survival and development and change and growth.
Today when we debated, differed, deliberated, agreed to agree, agreed to disagree, when we had the good judgment to

argue a case and then not selfdestruct,George Bush was just a little further away from the White House and a little

closer to private life.
Tonight, I salute Governor Michael Dukakis. He has run He
has run a wellmanaged and a dignified campaign. No matter how tired or how tried, he always resisted the temptation

to stoop to demagoguery.
I've watched a good mind fast at work, with steel nerves, guiding his campaign out of the crowded field without

appeal to the worst in us. I've watched his perspective grow as his environment has expanded. I've seen his

toughness and tenacity close up. I know his commitment to public service. Mike Dukakis' parents were a doctor and a

teacher; my parents a maid, a beautician, and a janitor. There's a great gap between Brookline, Massachusetts and

Haney Street in the Fieldcrest Village housing projects in Greenville, South Carolina.
He studied law; I studied theology. There are differences of religion, region, and race;differences in experiences

and perspectives. But the genius of America is that out of the many we become one.
Providence has enabled our paths to intersect. His foreparents came to America on immigrant ships; my foreparents

came to America on slave ships. But whatever the original ships, we're in the same boat tonight.
Our ships could pass in the night if we have a false sense of independence or they could collide and crash. We would

lose our passengers. We can seek a high reality and a greater good. Apart, we can drift on the broken pieces of

Reagonomics, satisfy our baser instincts,and exploit the fears of our people. At our highest, we can call upon noble

instincts and navigate this vessel to safety. The greater good is the common good.
As Jesus said, "Not My will, but Thine be done." It was his way of saying there's a higher good beyond personal

comfort or position.
The good of our Nation is at stake. It's commitment to working men and women, to the poor and the vulnerable, to the

many in the world.
With so many guided missiles, and so much misguided leadership, the stakes are exceedingly high. Our choice? Full

participation in a democratic government, or more abandonment and neglect. And so this night, we choose not a false

sense of independence, not our capacity to survive and endure. Tonight we choose interdependency, and our capacity

to act and unite for the greater good.
Common good is finding commitment to new priorities to expansion and inclusion. A commitment to expanded

participation in the Democratic Party at every level. A commitment to a shared national campaign strategy and

involvement at every level.
A commitment to new priorities that insure that hope will be kept alive. A common ground commitment to a legislative

agenda for empowerment, for the John Conyers bill universal, onsite, sameday registration everywhere.
A commitment to D.C. statehood and empowerment D.C. deserves statehood. A commitment to economic

setasides,commitment to the Dellums bill for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa. A shared commitment to a

common direction.Common ground.
Easier said than done. Where do you find common ground? At the point of challenge. This campaign has shown that

politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits. Politics can be a moral arena where

people come together to find common ground.
We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice. We find common ground at the farm

auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets. Common ground at the school

yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can't make a loan. Common

ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to

a bed that's empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick. We are a better nation than that. We must do

better.
Common ground. What is leadership if not present help in a time of crisis? And so I met you at the point of

challenge. In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages; in Greenville, Iowa, where family

farmers struggle for a fair price; in Cleveland, Ohio, where working women seek comparable worth; in McFarland,

California, where the children of Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with

cancer; in an AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by their own

parents and friends.
Common ground. America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up

in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a blanket, she didn't complain and we did not freeze.

Instead she took pieces of old cloth patches,wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack only patches, barely good enough to

wipe off your shoes with. But they didn't stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord,she sewed

them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. Now,Democrats, we must build such a quilt.
Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right but you cannot stand alone. Your patch is not big enough.
Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right but your patch labor is not big enough.
Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right but your patch is not big enough.
Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care

and welfare on the back side of life, you are right but your patch is not big enough.
Students, you seek scholarships, you are right but your patch is not big enough.
Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right but our patch is not big enough.
Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right but your patch is not

big enough.
Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing,hawk, dove, you are right

from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.
But don't despair. Be as wise as my grandmamma. Pull the patches and the pieces together,bound by a common thread.

When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing

and jobs and education and hope to our Nation.
We, the people, can win.We stand at the end of a long dark night of reaction. We stand tonight united in the

commitment to a new direction. For almost eight years we've been led by those who view social good coming from

private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth. They have been prepared to sacrifice

the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few.
We believe in a government that's a tool of our democracy in service to the public, not an instrument of the

aristocracy in search of private wealth. We believe in government with the consent of the governed, "of, for and by

the people." We must now emerge into a new day with a new direction.
Reaganomics: Based on the belief that the rich had too much money [sic] too little money and the poor had too much.

That's classic Reaganomics. They believe that the poor had too much money and the rich had too little money,so they

engaged in reverse Robin Hood took from the poor, gave to the rich, paid for by the middle class. We cannot stand

four more years of Reaganomics in any version, in any disguise.
How do I document that case? Seven years later, the richest 1 percent of our society pays 20 percent less in taxes.

The poorest 10 percent pay 20 percent more: Reaganomics.
Reagan gave the rich and the powerful a multibilliondollar party. Now the party is over. He expects the people to

pay for the damage. I take this principal position, convention, let us not raise taxes on the poor and the

middleclass,but those who had the party, the rich and the powerful, must pay for the party.
I just want to take common sense to high places. We're spending one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year

defending Europe and Japan 43 years after the war is over. We have more troops in Europe tonight than we had seven

years ago. Yet the threat of war is ever more remote.
Germany and Japan are now creditor nations; that means they've got a surplus. We are a debtor nation means we are in

debt. Let them share more of the burden of their own defense. Use some of that money to build decent housing. Use

some of that money to educate our children. Use some of that money for longterm health care. Use some of that money

to wipe out these slums and put America back to work!
I just want to take common sense to high places. If we can bail out Europe and Japan; if we can bail out Continental

Bank and Chrysler and Mr. Iacocca, make [sic] 8,000 dollars an hour we can bail out the family farmer.
I just want to make common sense. It does not make sense to close down six hundred and fifty thousand family farms

in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S. Government. Let's make sense.
It does not make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying $2.50 for every one

dollar worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped in Texas,Oklahoma, and Louisiana. I just want to make

sense.
Leadership must meet the moral challenge of its day. What's the moral challenge of our day?
We have public accommodations. We have the right to vote. We have open housing. What's the fundamental challenge of

our day? It is to end economic violence. Plant closings without notice economic violence. Even the greedy do not

profit long from greed economic violence.
Most poor people are not lazy. They are not black. They are not brown. They are mostly White and female and young.

But whether White, Black or Brown, a hungry baby's belly turned inside out is the same color color it pain; color it

hurt; color it agony.
Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can't read the wanted sections. And when they

can, they can't find a job that matches the address. They work hard everyday.
I know. I live amongst them. I'm one of them. I know they work. I'm a witness. They catch the early bus. They work

every day.
They raise other people's children. They work everyday.
They clean the streets. They work everyday. They drive dangerous cabs. They work everyday.
They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract.
They work everyday.
No, no, they are not lazy! Someone must defend them because it's right, and they cannot speak for themselves. They

work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their

bedpans. They clean out their commodes.
No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that

is not right. We are a better Nation than that. We are a better Nation than that.
We need a real war on drugs. You can't "just say no." It's deeper than that. You can't just get a palm reader or an

astrologer. It's more profound than that.
We are spending a hundred and fifty billion dollars on drugs a year. We've gone from ignoring it to focusing on the

children. Children cannot buy a hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of drugs a year; a few highprofile athletes

athletes are not laundering a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year bankers are.
I met the children in Watts, who, unfortunately, in their despair, their grapes of hope have become raisins of

despair, and they're turning on each other and they're selfdestructing.
But I stayed with them all night long. I wanted to hear their case.
They said, "Jesse Jackson, as you challenge us to say no to drugs, you're right; and to not sell them, you're right;

and not use these guns, you're right." (And by the way, the promise of CETA [Comprehensive Employment and Training

Act]; they displaced CETA they did not replace CETA.)"We have neither jobs nor houses nor services nor training no

way out. Some of us take drugs as anesthesia for our pain. Some take drugs as a way of pleasure, good shortterm

pleasure and longterm pain. Some sell drugs to make money. It's wrong, we know, but you need to know that we know.

We can go and buy the drugs by the boxes at the port. If we can buy the drugs at the port, don't you believe the

Federal government can stop it if they want to?"
They say, "We don't have Saturday night specials anymore." They say, "We buy AK47's and Uzi's, the latest make of

weapons. We buy them across the along these boulevards."
You cannot fight a war on drugs unless and until you're going to challenge the bankers and the gun sellers and those

who grow them. Don't just focus on the children; let's stop drugs at the level of supply and demand. We must end the

scourge on the American Culture.
Leadership. What difference will we make? Leadership. Cannot just go along to get along. We must do more than change

Presidents. We must change direction.
Leadership must face the moral challenge of our day. The nuclear war buildup is irrational.
Strong leadership cannot desire to look tough and let that stand in the way of the pursuit of peace. Leadership must

reverse the arms race. At least we should pledge no first use. Why?
Because first use begets first retaliation. And that's mutual annihilation. That's not a rational way out.
No use at all. Let's think it out and not fight it our because it's an unwinnable fight. Why hold a card that you

can never drop? Let's give peace a chance.
Leadership. We now have this marvelous opportunity to have a breakthrough with the Soviets. Last year 200,000

Americans visited the Soviet Union. There's a chance for joint ventures into space not Star Wars and war arms

escalation but a space defense initiative.
Let's build in the space together and demilitarize the heavens. There's a way out.
America, let us expand. When Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev met there was a big meeting.
They represented together oneeighth of the human race. Seveneighths of the human race was locked out of that room.

Most people in the world tonight half are Asian, onehalf of them are Chinese. There are 22 nations in the Middle

East. There's Europe; 40 million Latin Americans next door to us; the Caribbean; Africa a halfbillion people.
Most people in the world today are Yellow or Brown or Black, nonChristian,poor, female,young and don't speak English

in the real world.
This generation must offer leadership to the real world. We're losing ground in Latin America,Middle East, South

Africa because we're not focusing on the real world. That's the real world.
We must use basic principles support international law. We stand the most to gain from it.
Support human rights we believe in that. Support selfdetermination we're built on that.
Support economic development you know it's right. Be consistent and gain our moral authority in the world. I

challenge you tonight, my friends, let's be bigger and better as a Nation and as a Party.
We have basic challenges freedom in South Africa. We've already agreed as Democrats to declare South Africa to be a

terrorist state. But don't just stop there. Get South Africa out of Angola; free Namibia; support the front line

states. We must have a new humane human rights consistent policy in Africa.
I'm often asked, "Jesse, why do you take on these tough issues? They're not very political. We can't win that way."
If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political. It may be political and never be right.
Fannie Lou Hamer didn't have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have outlasted every delegate who

voted to lock her out. Rosa Parks did not have the most votes,but she was morally right. Dr. King didn't have the

most votes about the Vietnam War, but he was morally right. If we are principled first, our politics will fall in

place.
"Jesse, why do you take these big bold initiatives?" A poem by an unknown author went something like this: "We

mastered the air, we conquered the sea, annihilated distance and prolonged life, but we're not wise enough to live

on this earth without war and without hate."
As for Jesse Jackson: "I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar. I want to go out where the

big ships float, out on the deep where the great ones are. And should my frail craft prove too slight for waves that

sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down in the stirring fight than drowse to death at the sheltered shore."
We've got to go out, my friends, where the big boats are.
And then for our children. Young America, hold your head high now. We can win. We must not lose you to drugs and

violence, premature pregnancy, suicide, cynicism, pessimism and despair. We can win. Wherever you are tonight, I

challenge you to hope and to dream. Don't submerge your dreams. Exercise above all else, even on drugs, dream of the

day you are drug free. Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you will be up on your feet again.
You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes, but don't stop with the way things are.
Dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the

pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress,but you keep on dreaming, young America. Dream of

peace. Peace is rational and reasonable.
War is irrationable [sic] in this age, and unwinnable.
Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living. Dream of doctors who are concerned more about public

health than private wealth. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship. Dream of preachers who

are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering. Dream on the high road with sound values.
And then America, as we go forth to September, October, November and then beyond,America must never surrender to a

high moral challenge.
Do not surrender to drugs. The best drug policy is a "no first use." Don't surrender with needles and cynicism.

Let's have "no first use" on the one hand, or clinics on the other. Never surrender, young America. Go forward.
America must never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
We must never surrender. We must go forward.
We must never surrender to illiteracy. Invest in our children. Never surrender; and go forward. We must never

surrender to inequality. Women cannot compromise ERA or comparable worth. Women are making 60 cents on the dollar to

what a man makes. Women cannot buy meat cheaper. Women cannot buy bread cheaper. Women cannot buy milk cheaper.

Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do. It's right! And it's fair.
Don't surrender, my friends. Those who have AIDS tonight, you deserve our compassion.
Even with AIDS you must not surrender.
In your wheelchairs. I see you sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs. I've stayed with you.
I've reached out to you across our Nation. And don't you give up. I know it's tough sometimes. People look down on

you. It took you a little more effort to get here tonight. And no one should look down on you, but sometimes mean

people do. The only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up.
But even in your wheelchairs, don't you give up. We cannot forget 50 years ago when our backs were against the wall,

Roosevelt was in a wheelchair. I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan and Bush on a horse. Don't

you surrender and don't you give up.
Don't surrender and don't give up!
Why I cannot challenge you this way? "Jesse Jackson, you don't understand my situation. You be on television. You

don't understand. I see you with the big people. You don't understand my situation."
I understand. You see me on TV, but you don't know the me that makes me, me. They wonder, "Why does Jesse run?"

because they see me running for the White House. They don't see the house I'm running from.
I have a story. I wasn't always on television. Writers were not always outside my door. When I was born late one

afternoon, October 8th, in Greenville, South Carolina, no writers asked my mother her name. Nobody chose to write

down our address. My mama was not supposed to make it, and I was not supposed to make it. You see, I was born of a

teenage mother, who was born of a teenage mother.
I understand. I know abandonment, and people being mean to you, and saying you're nothing and nobody and can never

be anything.
I understand. Jesse Jackson is my third name. I'm adopted. When I had no name, my grandmother gave me her name. My

name was Jesse Burns 'til I was 12. So I wouldn't have a blank space, she gave me a name to hold me over. I

understand when nobody knows your name. I understand when you have no name.
I understand. I wasn't born in the hospital. Mama didn't have insurance. I was born in the bed at [the] house. I

really do understand. Born in a threeroom house, bathroom in the backyard,slop jar by the bed, no hot and cold

running water. I understand. Wallpaper used for decoration? No. For a windbreaker. I understand. I'm a working

person's person. That's why I understand you whether you're Black or White. I understand work. I was not born with a

silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hand.
My mother, a working woman. So many of the days she went to work early, with runs in her stockings. She knew better,

but she wore runs in her stockings so that my brother and I could have matching socks and not be laughed at at

school. I understand.
At 3 o'clock on Thanksgiving Day, we couldn't eat turkey because momma was preparing somebody else's turkey at 3

o'clock. We had to play football to entertain ourselves. And then around 6 o'clock she would get off the Alta Vista

bus and we would bring up the leftovers and eat our turkey leftovers,the carcass, the cranberries around 8 o'clock

at night. I really do understand.
Every one of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast tonight in the

projects, on the corners, I understand. Call you outcast, low down, you can't make it, you're nothing, you're from

nobody, subclass, underclass; when you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in

nomination.
I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me. And it wasn't born in you, and you can make it.
Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Hold your head high; stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark

sometimes, but the morning comes. Don't you surrender! Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith. In the

end faith will not disappoint.
You must not surrender! You may or may not get there but just know that you're qualified!
And you hold on, and hold out! We must never surrender!! America will get better and better.
Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive!
I love you very much. I love you very much.