Posted on 02/25/2004 7:44:04 AM PST by NormsRevenge
DELANO -- Teresa Heinz Kerry promised Tuesday that her husband, if elected president, would work to establish universal health care for children and create an "earned legalization" program for immigrants.
The wife of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, considered the front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary, spoke Tuesday night at the United Farm Workers' Forty Acres compound in Delano. Her appearance was part of the couple's campaign through the state in advance of the March 2 primary vote.
Kerry, 65, took care to highlight differences between her husband's politics and those of President Bush -- especially in regard to immigrants and working people.
"My husband, John Kerry, has a very keen understanding and feeling for the issues affecting people from other parts of the world," she told a crowd of about 300. "I think we need the leaders of our country to understand the realities of the world, not just of our own country."
She said her husband would create a program to grant instant citizenship to the 35,000 immigrants in America's armed forces, as well as an earned legalization program for immigrant workers after a certain number of years in the work force.
She also said her husband would create a program to ensure that every child in America has access to health care on par with that enjoyed by senators, congressmen and the president himself.
"We cannot have a leader of this country who does not show curiosity about the world and some conciliation toward those who have less," she said. "Health care should be a right for all."
She also described a program that would allow students to attend college free for four years if they do two years of volunteer work in their communities after high school. Another program would allow retirees who volunteer 10 hours a week for a year in their communities to earn $2,000 toward a grandchild's college education.
Kerry indirectly criticized the Bush administration's policies abroad, saying America now must start over to make friends around the world.
"We have to have a politics based on hope, and the highest aspirations of the history of this country," she said.
Kerry, a naturalized citizen who is half-Portuguese, defies easy categorization. She was born in Mozambique to European parents and speaks five languages.
She is known as a highly intelligent and devoted spouse who looks after her husband. Where Sen. Kerry, 60, is guarded and cautious, his wife is uninhibited. Where he appears stiff, she is spontaneous. She has a reputation as being offbeat if not a little eccentric.
Yet in Delano she was well-spoken and poised. The crowd was wowed by her appearance, and found significance in the campaign's decision to visit Kern County. Earlier in the day, Kerry also conducted an interview at the UFW-affiliated La Campesina radio network in Bakersfield.
After the speech, she took time to meet people, to hear their concerns, and to sign flags and handbills.
"She's concerned. She's taking time and she's listening," said Jackie Peppars, who drove from Fresno for the event. And in a reference to one recent Bush administration proposal, Peppars added of the Kerrys: "They're not going to be worried about going to the moon and things like that. They're going to be worried about the humans down here where the trouble is."
The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.
For instance, we had this one maid, Lucita, whom we liked very much. I think she was from Spain. Or maybe Puerto Rico. Someplace like that. Occasionally we let her eat in the dining room. And the pool boy, Ivan Griigoriovasilyiskavich, he was about 18 and he was Russian. Or Puerto Rican. He was muscular. I remember him. Fondly. Very. [dreamy, faraway look in eyes] Where was I? Oh yes, understanding of people from around the world.
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