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We Must Listen and Lead by Example
Text of John
Kerry speech
Thank you so much.
Four years ago, you gave me the honor of fighting our
fight. I was proud to stand with you then, and I am
proud to stand with you now, to help elect Barack Obama
as President of the United States.
In 2004, we came so
close to victory. We are even closer now, and let me
tell you, this time we're going to win. Today, the call
for change is more powerful than ever, and with more
seats in Congress, with more people with more passion
engaged in our politics, and with a President Obama, we
stand on the brink of the greatest opportunity of our
generation to move this country forward.
The stakes could
not be higher, because we do know what a McCain
administration would look like: just like the past, just
like George Bush. And this country can't afford a third
Bush term. Just think: John McCain voted with George
Bush 90 percent of the time. Ninety percent of George
Bush is just more than we can take.
Never in modern
history has an administration squandered American power
so recklessly. Never has strategy been so replaced by
ideology. Never has extremism so crowded out common
sense and fundamental American values. Never has
short-term partisan politics so depleted the strength of
America's bipartisan foreign policy.
George Bush, with
John McCain at his side, promised to spread freedom but
delivered the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong
time. They misread the threat and misled the country.
Instead of freedom, it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban
and dictators everywhere that are on the march. North
Korea has more bombs, and Iran is defiantly chasing one.
Our mission is to
restore America's influence and position in the world.
We must use all the weapons in our arsenal, above all,
our values. President Obama and Vice President Biden
will shut down Guantanamo, respect the Constitution, and
make clear once and for all, the United States of
America does not torture, not now, not ever.
We must listen and
lead by example because even a nation as powerful as the
United States needs some friends in this world. We need
a leader who understands all our security challenges,
not just bombs and guns, but global warming, global
terror and global AIDS. And Barack Obama understands
there is no way for America to be secure until we create
clean energy here at home, not with a little more oil in
five, 10 or 20 years, but with an energy revolution
starting right now.
I have known and
been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But
every day now I learn something new about candidate
McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a
maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say,
let's compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.
Candidate McCain
now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain
once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes
Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate
McCain says he would now vote against the immigration
bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk
about being for it before you're against it.
Let me tell you,
before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should
finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator
McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove
when he was the target, has morphed into candidate
McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same
"Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and
smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The
Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America
will reject them in 2008.
So remember, when
we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are
electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate
or years on this earth. Time and again, Barack Obama has
seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And
time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.
When John McCain
stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three
months after 9/11 and proclaimed, "Next up, Baghdad!"
Barack Obama saw, even then, "an occupation of
"undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined
consequences" that would "only fan the flames of the
Middle East." Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.
So who can we trust
to keep America safe? When Barack Obama promised to
honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to
our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it
"the soft comfort of appeasement." But today, Bush's
diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said: talking
with Iran.
So who can we trust
to keep America safe? When democracy rolled out of
Russia, and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John
McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of
the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a statesman of
the 21st century.
So who can we trust
to keep America safe? When we called for a timetable to
make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home,
John McCain called it "cut and run." But today, even
President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister
Maliki agree on - guess what? - a timetable.
So who can we trust
to keep America safe? The McCain-Bush Republicans have
been wrong again and again and again. And they know they
will lose on the issues. So, the candidate who once
promised a "contest of ideas," now has nothing left but
personal attacks. How insulting to suggest that those
who question the mission, question the troops. How
pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed
policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the
son of a single mother who chose community service over
money and privilege that he doesn't put America first.
No one can question
Barack Obama's patriotism. Like all of us, he was taught
what it means to be an American by his family: his
grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line in
World War II, his grandfather who marched in Patton's
army, and his great uncle who enlisted in the army right
out of high school at the height of the war. And on a
spring day in 1945, he helped liberate one of the
concentration camps at Buchenwald.
Ladies and
gentlemen, Barack Obama's uncle is here with us tonight.
Please join me in saluting this American hero, Charlie
Payne. Charlie, your nephew, Barack Obama, will end this
politics of distortion and division. He will be a
president who seeks not to perfect the lies of Swift
boating, but to end them once and for all.
This election is a
chance for America to tell the merchants of fear and
division: you don't decide who loves this country; you
don't decide who is a patriot; you don't decide whose
service counts and whose doesn't.
Four years ago I
said, and I say it again tonight, that the flag doesn't
belong to any ideology. It doesn't belong to any
political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation,
and it belongs to all the American people. After all,
patriotism is not love of power or some cheap trick to
win votes; patriotism is love of country.
Years ago when we
protested a war, people would weigh in against us
saying, "My country right or wrong." Our answer?
Absolutely, my country right or wrong. When right, keep
it right. When wrong, make it right. Sometimes loving
your country demands you must tell the truth to power.
This is one of
those times, and Barack Obama is telling those truths.
In closing, let me
say, I will always remember how we stood together in
2004, not just in a campaign, but for a cause. Now again
we stand together in the ranks, ready to fight. The
choice is clear; our cause is just; and now is our time
to make Barack Obama the next President of the United
States.
Thank you.
John Kerry DNC Speech 2008
(video)
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 30 August 2008
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