From Hagan.Heller@Eng.Sun.COM Wed Aug 12 21:07:35 1992 Return-Path: Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 12:35:11 PDT From: Hagan.Heller@Eng.Sun.COM (Hagan Heller) To: bzs@world.std.com Subject: Jordan Text of Jordan Address Here is the keynote address delivered Monday night by former Rep Barbara Jordan of Texas to the Democratic Natl Convention: "It was at this time, it was at this place, it was at this event 16 years ago I presented a keynote address to the Democratic Natl Convention. I remind you, with modesty, that that year, 1976, we won the presidency. Why not repeat that performance in 1992? We can do it. We can do it. What we need to do, Democrats, is believe that it is possible to win. It is possible. We can do it. Now you have heard a lot about change tonight. Every speaker here has said something about change. I want you to talk with me for a few minutes about change. I want you to listen to the way I have entitled my remarks: "Change: From What to What?" This change, which is very rhetorically oriented, this change requires substance when each of us contemplates the public mind. There appears to be a general apprehension about the future. That apprehension undermines our faith in each other and our faith in ourselves, undermines that confidence. The idea that America today will be better tomorrow has become destabilized. It has become destabilized by the recession and a sluggish economy. Jobs lost have become permanent unemployment rather than cyclical unemployment. Public policymakers are held in low regard. Mistrust abounds. In this kind of environment, it is understandable that change would become the watchword of this time. What is the catalyst that will bring about the change we are all talking about. I say that catalyst is the Democratic Party and our nominee for president. We are not strangers to change. Twenty years ago we changed the whole tone of the nation after Watergate abuses. We did that 20 years ago. We know how to change. We have been the instrumental change in the past. We know what needs to be done and how to do it. We know we can impact policies in education, human rights, civil rights, economic and social opportunity and the environment. These are policies which are imbedded in the soul of our party, and imbedded in our soul, they will not disappear easily. We as a party will do nothing to erode our essence. We will not. But there are some things that ought to change. We need to change them. The fact we are going to change things should not cause any apprehension in our minds because the Democratic Party is alive and well. We will change in order to satisfy the present, in order to satisfy the future, but we will not die. We will change but we will not die. From what to what? Why not change from a party with a reputation of tax and spend to one with a reputation of investment and growth? Change. Change. A growth economy is a must. We can grow the economy and sustain and improve environment at the same time. When the economy is growing and we are taking care of our air and soil and water, we all prosper. When I say something like that, I certainly do not mean the thinly disguised racism and elitism of some kind of trickle-down economics. I'll tell you the kind of economy I'm talking about. I'm talking about an economy where a young black woman or man from the 5th Ward in Houston, my town, or south-central Los Angeles, or a young person in the colonias of the lower Rio Grande valley, I'm talking about an economy where those persons can go to a public school, learn the skills that will enable her or him to prosper. We must have an economy that does not force that migrant worker's child to miss school for a full day so she can work at less than the minimum wage and doing that, the family can only afford 1 meal a day. That is the moral bankruptcy of trickle-down economics. Change. Change. We can change the direction of America's economic engine and become competitive again. We can make that change and become proud of the country that we are. The American dream is not dead. It is not dead. It is gasping for breath but it is not dead. We can applaud that statement and know there is no time to waste because the American dream is slipping away from too many people. It is slipping away from too many black and brown mothers and their children; the American dream is slipping away from the homeless of every color and sex; it's slipping away from those immigrants living in communities without water and sewer systems. The American dream is slipping away from those persons who have jobs that no longer pay the benefits that will enable them to live and thrive because America seems to be better at building war equipment that sits in warehouses than we are at building decent housing. The American dream is slipping away from those workers who are on indefinite layoffs while their chief executive officers are making bonuses that equal more than the worker will make in 10 or 20 years."