Kerry: Children Are the Most Tragic Victims of Government’s Indifference

[kerrygoddess]

Finally - here's today speech...

John Kerry: Children Are the Most Tragic Victims of Government’s Indifference
October 20th, 2005

This morning I posted a media alert that John Kerry was delivering the keynote address at a conference on “Keeping the Promise to At-Risk Youth” today in Washington, D.C. The Democratic Daily has obtained a copy of the text of his speech today.

On a personal note, as a single mother/only parent, I know full well the struggles of raising a child in today’s world. I have experienced many of the concerns described today in this speech. Parents of low to moderate income struggle daily with providing for their children’s needs, as the current administration continues to make cuts to the budget for fundamental basics like education and healthcare, more and more children are suffering. It’s tragic, it’s heartbreaking and it’s wrongminded.

It’s time for the grassroots to make a stand and fight for the children of America.

Remarks by Senator John Kerry - As prepared.
October 20, 2005 - Children United Nations, Washington, DC

Today, you’re hearing from a banner list of speakers. No doubt you’re hearing all the right things. But the truth is this kind of talk is nothing new.

Politicians are talented when it comes to telling an audience what they came to hear, but that doesn’t mean anything happens when it’s time to pass the budget. Year after year, challenges faced by our children are ignored – and nothing is going to change until grassroots pressure forces this town to make fundamentally different choices – putting our most urgent challenges, and those least fortunate – ahead of the wealthy, powerful and connected.

In recent months America has felt the full force of the failure to heed warning signs of impending or potential disaster. We have been painfully reminded of the price we pay in lives and in dollars for waiting too long to address critical challenges over-talked about but under-responded to.

Hurricane Katrina has certainly shown Americans at their best - and their government at its worst. And we are reminded starkly that government’s failures have consequences for all of us.

If you don’t invest in levee construction or wetlands preservation, and instead turn your emergency management agency into a holding pen for the cronies of your cronies–there will be consequences.

If you deliberately move away from energy independence–there will be consequences.

If you run up federal spending at a faster rate than any administration since World War II, and nonetheless insist on a wild spree of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and most powerful corporations–there will be consequences.

If you attack science and deny its findings, and disinvest in research and technology–there will be consequences.

It’s easy to understand why so many Americans just don’t trust anything they hear from Washington anymore.

Actions in public life do have consequences, my friends. And that’s why if you listen carefully, beneath all the talk and debate and rumors and recriminations in Washington, you can hear another sound–the steady clucking of chickens coming home to roost.

It comes down to this: at the very moment when we should be carefully planting the seeds that will provide for America’s future prosperity and security, kids have fallen victim to some of the most powerful special interests in Washington.

MORE - READ THE FULL SPEECH HERE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=911

[elshiva]

1. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. Why isn't this guy president?

[MH1]

7. America didn't deserve him.

:cry:

(there is a quote, don't know from whom - de Tocqueville? - that "in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." Either America isn't really a democracy, or we "deserved" *. Sobering thought.)

Maybe we will deserve John Kerry in 2008 though. I know a lot of us are trying very hard!

[Island Blue]

2. Thanks for posting. He really covers all bases here

in regard to the things our nation needs to do to make life better for all of our children. (It takes a village, people.) I was happy that he made mention of the need to fund mentoring programs. That's a subject near and dear to my heart because that's my job. I work for a mentoring program and I've seen over the past few years the funding for programs like ours start to dry up at the national level (it's complicated how our funding works, but the stream starts in Washington). There just isn't the commitment there for mentoring programs like there was during the Clinton Administration. (I know you're all shocked to hear that. :crazy: ) The budget cuts that have occurred during the past five years have been stunning, with programs for kids (not just mentoring programs) often being the first on the chopping block. The short sidedness of the Republicans and the * Administration boggles my mind - always.

And I agree, tell me again why John Kerry is not president?

[karynnj]

3. Wow! Wonderful speech _ Thanks (as always) for posting it

It's interesting seeing how bits and pieces from the Brown speech and others combine with new stuff in each speech. With each one I regret that so few people are hearing what he is saying - but then stop to realize that he's speaking to a different group each time. (We're among the lucky smallish group reading all of them)

In addition to Kerry and the actual content, I wonder if this is a typical example of how stump speeches develop.

[TayTay]

4. I think it's both a stump speech and a work in progress.

This part of the speech is new, sort of:

I was talking to Jim Wallis the other day, and he made a simple point I don’t think these politicians understand. The word “poverty” is mentioned so often and so prevalently in the bible, that if you removed the word you’d essentially be left with a bible full of holes – a tattered, unintelligible document robbed of one of its core principles. Yet when you look at the legislative record of the politicians who run Washington today, the bottom line is that they have removed the word “poverty” from their vocabulary – and by extension our government’s policies.

Who is Jim Wallis and why is John Kerry talking to him? Jim Wallis is an ordained minister and he runs the Sojourners site on the web. http://www.sojo.net/ This group was gounded in 1971 in an effort to bring together a more liberal faith community in order to advance the cause of social justice. It is a Christian movement, but non-denominational. (There are reps in Sojourners from the Jewish, Hindu and Muslim community.) This group sepcifically wants to reframe the religious debate in America and take it away from the simplistic guns, god and gays debate that frames the religious right's view of faith in America. This is a vital movement and, in a very real sense, wishes to restore to the progressive movement the moral underpinnings that so propelled the civil rights movement.

This movement does NOT want to legislate morality or blue the lines between Church and State. It wants to take citizens who have been chruch-goes, wo have moral consciences that are based on religious teachings and bring those teachings and that moral vision into the public arena. The religious right does NOT represent all Chrisitans or all people of faith and these folks are determined to fight back against that impression. (I am, by the way, an agnostic. That doesn't mean I don't recognize the good stuff when I see it. Mr. Wallis and his movement are teh genuine article and I subscribe to his magazine and have read his book.)

I know that Sen. Kerry has spoken before with Jim Wallis. It is fascinating that he is starting to specifically mention Mr. Wallis in his stump speeches. Mr. Kerry began to specifically mention certain phrases and quotes from the New Testament last year, to a mixed effect. (I'm not blaming him. The media thinks liberals are fakers when they mention religion. It is a very deep obstacle to overcome.) My husband heard a blistering denunciation of the Bush Admin and the Repubs in Congress who hide behind misunderstood verses of the Bible from Mr. Kerry in April when he went to DC. (And that got reported in the papers.) I think Mr. Kerry is putting a very good floor under his 'stump speeches' and his ideas and it is starting to become one of the most coherent and interesting of all the Dems who are speaking out.

The media credits John Edwards with a compassionate outlook on pverty. Mr. Edwards had his 'Two Americas' speech last year and the media has assigned him credibility as a spokesman advocating for America to deal with poverty. Mr. Kerry is constructing a coherent platform that also deals with this. He is nailing in the actual concern for the poor, as witnessed in both his speeches and the amendments and bills he has filed this year. (He is walking the walk, as well as talking the talk.) He is advancing the idea that citizen advocates need to come forward to push hard for a preogressive, pro-people agenda in Congress. (In health care, in environmentalism, in energy issues and so forth.) He is also starting to build a moral argument, a coherent moral argument that is a direct in-your-face answer to Repubs and conservatives who undermine Democrats by saying they suport the sin and disparage the sinner.

What do you guys see in this. I se all the good stuff from last year carried forward, but with a better emphasis on people and on how ordinary Americans think and a plan to sinc up with that. (But I could be wrong.) What do you see in this evolving speech?

[Island Blue]

6. I was excited to see that he mentioned Jim Wallis.

I've seen him on various television programs and like what he has to say. I think both he and Kerry understand the true meaning of "moral values" and it has nothing to do with pushing your religon on someone else, but rather helping people in need.

[politicasista]

5. Nice speech.

:yourock: :hi: