Tonight, I want to address my remarks in two parts.
One, I'm honored to address the delegates here.
Last Friday, I had the experience in Detroit of hearing President George Bush make a speech. And in the speech, he aksed [asked] certain questions. I hope he's watching tonight. I would like to answer your questions, Mr. President.
To the/our chairman, our delegates, and all that are assembled...
More »Tonight, I want to address my remarks in two parts.
One, I'm honored to address the delegates here.
Last Friday, I had the experience in Detroit of hearing President George Bush make a speech. And in the speech, he aksed [asked] certain questions. I hope he's watching tonight. I would like to answer your questions, Mr. President.
To the/our chairman, our delegates, and all that are assembled, we're honored and glad to be here tonight.
I'm glad to be joined by supporters and friends from around the country. I'm glad to be joined by my family, Kathy, Dominique, who will be 18, and Ashley.
We are here 282 [228] years after right here in Boston we fought to establish the freedoms of America. The first person to die in the Revolutionary War is buried not far from here, a Black man from Barbados, named Crispus Attucks.
Forty years ago, in 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party stood at the Democratic convention in Atlantic City fighting to preserve voting rights for all America and all Democrats, regardless of race or gender.
Hamer's stand inspired Dr. King's march in Selma, which brought about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Twenty years ago, Reverend Jesse Jackson stood at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, again, appealing to the preserve those freedoms.
Tonight, we stand with those freedoms at risk and our security as citizens in question.
I have come here tonight to say the only choice we have to preserve our freedom at this point in history is to elect John Kerry the president of the United States.
I stood with both John Kerry and John Edwards over 30 occasions in debates during the primary season. I not only debated them, I watched them. I observed their deeds. I looked into their eyes. I am convinced that they are men who say what they mean and mean what they say.
I'm also convinced that at a time when a vicious spirit in the body politic of this country that attempts to undermine America's freedoms -- our civil rights, our civil liberties -- we must leave this city and go forth and organize this nation for victory for our party and John Kerry and John Edwards in November.
But let me quickly say, this is not just about winning an election. It's about preserving the principles on which this very nation was founded.
Look at the current view of our nation worldwide as a result of our unilateral foreign policy. We went from unprecedented international support and solidarity on September 12th, 2001, to hostility and hatred as we stand here tonight. We can't survive in the world by ourselves.
How did we squander this opportunity to unite the world for democracy and to commit to the global fight against hunger and disease? We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were going to Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We lost hundreds of soldiers. We spent $200 billion dollars at a time we had record state deficits. And when it became clear that there were no weapons, they changed the premise for the war and said: No, we went because of other reasons.
If I told you tonight to, "Let's leave the FleetCenter; we're in danger," and when you get outside, you ask me, "Reverend Al, What is the danger?" and I say, "It don't matter. We just needed some fresh air," I have misled you -- and we were misled.
We -- We are also faced with the prospect of in the next four years that two or more Supreme Court Justices' seats will become available. This year we celebrated the anniversary of Brown versus the Board of Education.
This court has voted five to four on critical issues of women's rights and civil rights. It is frightening to think that the gains of civil and women rights and those movements in the last century could be reversed if this administration is in the White House in these next four years.
I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the court in '54,
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