Posted on 03/28/2004 6:09:29 PM PST by chance33_98
Text of Remarks by John Kerry at New Northside Baptist Church in St. Louis March 28
3/28/2004 4:14:00 PM
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To: National Desk, Political Reporter
Contact: Stephanie Cutter, 202-712-3000 or David Wade, 202-528-7475, both of John Kerry for President
ST. LOUIS, March 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is the text of remarks by John Kerry as prepared for delivery today at the New Northside Baptist Church in St. Louis:
Thank you for inviting me to this house of God and home of good works.
Thank you my good friend, Lacy Clay, and Bishop Ellis, for your light and leadership in this community.
My friends, I come here today with hope in my heart but resolve on my mind.
When I look around this city -- when I look around neighborhoods and towns and cities all over our country -- I see what so many of you do every day. We see that there is so much work to be done in America.
We see jobs to be created.
We see families to house.
We see violence to stop.
We see children to teach -- and children to care for.
We see too many people hungry in a country where food is abundantand too many working families living in shelters, when a living wage should provide them with a place to live.
The scriptures say: "It is not enough, my brother, to say you have faith, when there are no deeds."
We look at what is happening in America today and we say: "Where are the deeds?"
We are now told by some to ignore our greatest needs -- to forget about the pain around us. We are told that, after 3 million lost jobs and so many lost hopes, America is now "turning a corner."
But those who say America has turned the corner aren't standing on the corner of Highland Street, where two 15-year old teenagers were hit in a drive-by shooting last week.
They're not standing on the corner of North 19th Street, where the only place single mothers have to leave their children when they go to work is at the homeless shelter.
And those who say that "our economy is getting stronger and stronger" aren't standing on the corners across this state where closed factories speak the loss of 42,000 manufacturing jobs in Missouri in the past 3 years.
My brothers and sisters, our present national leadership may be taking us around a corner, but it is a corner that leads to a dead end road paved with broken promises.
Well, I'm here to say that if we stand together we can set a new direction for America.
A new direction of hope and opportunity for all our children.
It's time to reach for that future. It's time to hear and heed the ancient proverb that should guide us today: "When you pray, move your feet."
It was just 50 years ago that a little girl called Linda Brown had to walk a mile through a railroad yard everyday just to catch a bus to her segregated elementary school.
Her parents, Darlene and Oliver Brown, saw the closed doors of the white elementary school just 3 blocks from their house -- and they turned their daughter and their nation in a new direction. They "prayed by moving their feet."
Because of them America took a giant step forward, but there are still miles to go. In too many ways our school systems are still separate and unequal. Our society still falls short of our ideals.
We still have doors to open, prayers to say, and feet to move.
My friends, we are called to restore a government of the people instead of a tool of the privileged. To honor hard work and the dream of a better life. To give every child the best possible start in life. To bring back good jobs and give new life to the pledge of liberty and justice for all. To end the moral outrage of an America which is the only industrialized nation on the planet which doesnt understand that healthcare is a right and not a privilege. We are called to end the worry of all the mothers and fathers who fear that their children may become casualties of unsafe streets.
The scriptures tell us that there is "a time to break down and a time to build up."
This is our time to break down division, not build it up. It's time to reject the politics of falseness and fear calculated to divide black from white, rich from poor, neighborhood from neighborhood, region from region.
I know, we all know, why some want to widen those divisions, not heal them. They want us, as a people, pointing fingers at each other so no one shines the light of truth on their own failed ways.
This is our time to start building up America again. Time to build up the material things that matter -- from our schools to health centers to depressed communities that can thrive again. But even more, time to build up the things of the spirit that lift us up -- the sense that no matter where we come from, what we have or what we lack -- we are all God's children, linked together by the dignity of each and the shared destiny of all.
So let us pray. Let us move our feet. Let us march together and let us lead America in a new direction toward that mountain top which has always been our destination. We won't get there in one year or one election. But this year is our time to take another giant step toward the country we can and should become.
This was straight out of the Democrat Playbook.
Also out of the playbook.....JFK is just going through the motions, it would appear.
I couldn't help but hear Adolph Hitler in this 'speech'.
The ACLU would sue all the way to the Supreme Court that it's un-constitutional and Justices would rule in their favor.
John Kerry has two views of the world, one was set in cement 50 years ago and the other 30 years ago. It's pretty hard to have a new idea when your only references are decades old.
Obviously they make up new rules as needed.
Oh, yeah... ketchup boy.... government has been a tool used by priviledged and arrogant wussys like yourself to make tons of money and to find ways to satisfy your evil lust for power over the little people of America.
People living in glass mansions ought not to toss stones, ketchup boy!
Well....it certainly would be interesting to have a conservative go to the SAME church the NEXT week, and proselytize.....THAT would be a TEST.
This is a HUGE Pet Peeve with me. Dogmatic politicians pretending that HUNGER is a major problem in this country. You want to know the true nutritional problem afflicting poor people? They eat too much and are too fat. Obesity is a big problem among lower class people because they don't know much about nutrition and eat gobs of sweet and fatty foods. And here comes Demagog Kerry to tell us that STARVATION is a problem. Hey, Kerry! Name ONE starving person in this country. I swear if I ever see Ketchup Boy on the campaign trail I will challenge him to name JUST ONE starving person in the U.S.A..
This is our time to break down division, not build it up. It's time to reject the politics of falseness and fear calculated to divide black from white, rich from poor, neighborhood from neighborhood, region from region.
That is why you vote Republican.... :)
I know, we all know, why some want to widen those divisions, not heal them. They want us, as a people, pointing fingers at each other so no one shines the light of truth on their own failed ways.
Yup, you can locate them at www.democraticunderground.com or just go to your local democratic representitive or senator.
And EVERY segregationist politician back then was DEMOCRAT. Not ONE segrationist politician of that era was a Republican. Something else to ask Ketchup Boy about on the campaign trail---Name JUST ONE segregationist Republican politician from back then.
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