SPEECHES
FROM THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
John Kerry
Remarks to
the National Baptist Convention
September 9, 2004 • New Orleans, LA
Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace hath
brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.
Thank you Reverend Shaw for that gracious introduction
and thank you all for giving me this opportunity to speak
to this great convention. I opened with a stanza from “Amazing
Grace.” It was my father’s favorite hymn and
probably many of yours, too. And I know that in the next
seven weeks, as we seek the America of our dreams, we will
need every voice and every vote in this room and all across
this broad land to bring this election home. And I know,
as you do, that we cannot finish that journey and reach
the mountaintop without the blessings of amazing grace.
So many of you know the story of how an English slave
trader named John Newton was inspired to write that hymn
as his ship was battered and tossed in the midst of a violent
storm while he was on a slave trading voyage. It was then
and there that he decided to give his life to God. When
he returned home, he became a minister and an abolitionist.
His life shows us that faith can calm troubled waters and
that amazing grace will always bring us home.
The National Baptist Convention has lived that lived that
truth throughout your history. In your individual churches
and as a collective body, as you quietly go about your
mission everyday -- feeding the hungry, clothing the naked
and nourishing the soul of our nation, you are turning
faith into deeds and making a difference in the lives of
millions of Americans. Some people want to take credit
for the faith-based service that you’ve been doing
for years. They want to turn it into a political issue.
But we know that you’ve been working in partnership
with government and community-based organizations for years
to bring hope to communities across our country. And on
this eve of the third anniversary of September the 11th,
2001, I want to offer a special thanks to Rev. Shaw and
the entire membership of the National Baptist Convention
for your amazing deeds in the aftermath of that tragedy.
I especially thank you for your contribution to the families
of the Vulcan Society firefighters of New York who, on
September 11th, gave their lives so that others might live.
Your dedication and your service live out the teaching
of the Scripture: “It is not enough, my brother,
to say you have faith, when there are no deeds…Faith
without works is dead.” As you know, my friends,
we are taught to walk by faith not by sight.
And when we look around us – when we look around
neighborhoods and towns and cities all across this country,
we see faith to be lived out, and so many deeds to be done.
As it’s said, faith is the substance of things hoped
for, evidence of things not seen. [Hebrews 11:1] And we
all know, you can’t separate faith from substance.
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 without health
care and too many people of color suffering and dying from
diseases like AIDS and cancer and diabetes.
We look at what is happening in America today and forget
to ask: Where are the deeds? Where is the substance in
our faith?
Fifty years ago, with the decision in Brown v. the Board
of Education, this nation had a great moment of conscience.
A moment when we finally acknowledged God’s truth
that we are each made in His image and likeness – that
separate but equal is not just unequal – but immoral.
I will never forget the lessons I learned from the Reverend
John Walker, the first African-American teacher at my high
school. He taught me that the real gift of the civil rights
movement was not progress for African Americans because
of the benevolence of white Americans, but progress for
all Americans because of the courageous efforts of a multi-racial
coalition of conscience -- led by Black ministers and white
ministers, young and old, South and North -- countless
unsung heroes determined to bring about a better day.
In the hardest passages of the long march for civil rights
-- amid lynchings and beatings and unyielding discrimination,
the stalwart foot soldiers of justice did not look around
and say, as we have heard so often from Washington these
days, that we’ve turned the corner or that the job
was getting done or that this was the best that we could
do. Like us, they were a generation of optimists. They
believed that America’s best days lay ahead…that
America could always do better. Against all odds, they
saw a new dawn of liberty. They had a dream of a more perfect
union – a dream of one America.
But that dream – our dream – is dim and denied
in the Washington of today. 140 years after President Lincoln
signed the Emancipation Proclamation, it is time to again
emancipate this land, to live up to our ideals; it is time
for a new moment of conscience in America.
The fact is, the wrong choices of the Bush Administration – reduced
taxes for the few and reduced opportunities for the middle
class and those struggling to join it – are taking
us back to two Americas -- separate and unequal. Our cities
and communities are being torn apart by forces just as
divisive and destructive as Jim Crow – crumbling
schools robbing our children of their potential…rising
poverty…rising crime, drugs and violence. I say
again: Where are the deeds? Where is the substance in our
faith?
Four years ago, George Bush came to office calling himself
a “compassionate conservative.” Well, in the
story of the Good Samaritan we are told of two men who
pass by or cross to the other side of the street when they
come upon a robbed and beaten man. They felt compassion,
but there were no deeds. Then the Good Samaritan gave both
his heart and his help. [Luke 10]
It is clear: For four years, George W. Bush may have talked
about compassion, but he’s walked right by. He’s
seen people in need, but he’s crossed over to the
other side of the street.
As I have traveled this land, I’ve thought a lot
about why America is heading in the wrong direction. Lost
jobs, health care costs through the roof, the surplus gone,
our alliances shredded, our influence challenged.
Well, as the president likes to say, there’s nothing
complicated about it. It all comes down to one letter --
W. So the next time you hear George W. Bush, remember the
W stands for wrong. Wrong choices for Americans, and the
wrong direction for America. This election all comes down
to one decision: Do we want four more years of wrong choices
for our country, or do we want to move America in a new
direction?
Of all George Bush’s wrong choices, the most catastrophic
one is the mess he’s made in Iraq. It’s not
that I would have done one thing differently in Iraq, I
would have done almost everything differently. It was wrong
to rush to war without a plan to win the peace. It was
wrong not to build a strong international coalition of
our allies.
And because we went it alone, we are bearing the burden
and paying almost any price almost alone. Almost all the
casualties are the sons and daughters of America. And 90
percent of the costs are being met by Americans – the
total so far: $200 billion and rising every day. That’s
$200 billion we’re not investing in health care and
education That’s $200 billion we’re not investing
to make sure no child is left behind. That’s $200
billion we’re not investing in incentives to create
and keep good jobs in the United States of America. That’s
$200 billion we’re not investing in homeland security
to keep cops on the street, to protect our airports, our
subways, our bridges and tunnels. That’s W. Wrong
choices, wrong direction, wrong leadership for America.
At that convention in New York last week, the Bush Administration
actually said that outsourcing jobs is good for this nation.
That shouldn’t be a surprise because that’s
what they’ve done for four years, and, if they have
the chance, that’s what they will do for four more
years. In the last three years, America has lost 1.6 million
jobs. And just this week, a report showed that we’ve
replaced those good jobs with low wage jobs – ones
that pay an average of $9,000 less. A lot of them are part-time
or temporary and don’t provide any health care or
benefits. And African-American unemployment is nearly 10
percent – double the rate for whites. That’s
more than a twenty-five percent increase since George Bush
took office.
My friends, the promise of a better America is not being
met when nearly one in three African American children
are living in poverty or when half the black men in New
York City are out of work. Here in Louisiana, the poverty
rate is more than 20 percent – the highest in the
nation. Is that compassionate? No.
For every complex problem there’s a simple answer.
And it’s almost always wrong.
That’s W. Wrong choices, wrong direction, wrong
leadership for America.
As President, I will set a new direction. We’re
going to close the tax loopholes that reward companies
for shipping jobs overseas. Instead, we’re going
to use common sense. We’re going to reward companies
that create and keep good jobs here in America.
At that convention in New York last week, George Bush
actually promised the American people that after four years
of failure, he now had a plan to get health care costs
under control. Well, we only had to wait twenty-four hours
to find out what he meant. The day after he spoke, he raised
Medicare premiums by 17 percent -- the biggest increase
in Medicare premiums in the history of the program.
Under the Bush Administration, 5 million Americans have
lost their health insurance, including 400,000 African
Americans. People of color are significantly more likely
to suffer diseases like cancer and asthma and diabetes
and AIDS. And yet nearly 60 percent of Hispanics and 43
percent of African Americans went without health coverage
for all or part of the last two years. Is that compassionate?
George W. Bush believes when it comes to health care,
the big drug companies come first, the insurance companies
come second, and you come last. Well, that’s W. Wrong
choices, wrong direction, wrong leadership for America.
As President, I will set a new direction. I’m going
to put you first. Our plan will take on the waste and greed
in the health care system and save the average family up
to $1,000 a year on their premiums. Our plan will help
small businesses deal with the most expensive cases. Our
plan will cover all children – automatically -- day
one. Go to school, you’re covered. Go to day care,
you’re enrolled. Every child in America will be covered.
It’s a long time overdue. When I am president, America
will stop being the only advanced nation in the world which
fails to understand that health care is not a privilege
for the wealthy, the connected, and the elected, it is
a right for all Americans.
At that convention in New York last week, George Bush
said that he actually had a new idea. And you know what
it was? The bad, old idea of privatizing social security
-- and cutting your benefits. That’s W. Wrong choices,
wrong direction, wrong leadership for America. As President,
I will set a new direction.
Let me say it plainly: I will not privatize Social Security.
I will not cut benefits. I will not raise the retirement
age. Because when you’ve worked for a lifetime, America
owes you what you’ve earned.
At that convention in New York last week, George Bush
actually talked about demanding accountability from everybody
in education -- except his own administration. We know
that you can’t really get the job done in our classrooms
when too many children, especially children of color, are
forced to attend overcrowded and crumbling schools and
are being taught by overworked and underpaid teachers.
The promise of a better America is not being met when only
50 percent of African Americans are finishing high school
and only 18 percent are graduating college. The promise
of a better America is not being met, when, fifty years
after Brown, in too many parts of our country we still
have two school systems – separate and unequal.
That’s W. Wrong choices, wrong direction, wrong
leadership for America.
As President, I will set a new direction. We know the
answer to closing the achievement gap is both higher expectations
and greater resources. You cannot promise to leave no child
behind and then leave the money behind. John Edwards and
I have a plan to invest in our future, provide the needed
funding and put a good teacher in every classroom – so
that all our children will have the chance to develop their
God-given potential.
You know, I used to be a prosecutor. I sent criminals
to jail for murder and rape for the rest of their lives.
But I also spent a lot of time talking to kids in trouble.
There wasn’t one of those kids I met who didn’t
come from a place of neglect, a background of abuse, poverty
or violence. They are where they are because adults weren’t
able – or just weren’t doing – what they
should have been. We can’t be a nation that abandons
our children. Our promise will never be met until we stop
being a nation content to spend $50,000 a year to keep
a young person in prison for the rest of their life, when
we could invest $10,000 to give them Head Start, Early
Start, Smart Start, the best possible start in life.
Fifty years after the Brown decision, we are also reminded
that now, more than ever, we need a Supreme Court that
will protect our hard won victories.
It was just four short years ago that the Court – by
one vote – decided the outcome of the race for president.
It was less than a year ago that the Court – by one
vote – decided the fate of affirmative action. One
vote can make the difference for millions of Americans,
and over the next four years the President of the United
States will appoint as many as four Supreme Court justices.
George W. Bush has said that Antonin Scalia and Clarence
Thomas are the kind of judges he will put on the Supreme
Court. Make no mistake – justices like them are out
of the mainstream, and we don’t need more of them
on the Court. But that’s W. Wrong choices, wrong
direction, wrong leadership for America.
We have fought too hard and come too far to let George
W. Bush roll back generations of progress. John Edwards
and I know that the whole future of civil rights and affirmative
action may hinge on a single Supreme Court vote.
And that bring me to another fundamental choice in this
election: The other side says that a million African American
votes not counted, continuing acts of voter suppression
and the most tainted election in American history is the
best that we can do. That’s W. That’s wrong.
And we’re not going to let it happen again. This
time, we will fight to make sure every vote is counted
and every vote counts. And we are already on the ground
in Florida and elsewhere to make sure that nothing stands
in the way.
We have many deeds to do here at home. But to keep the
faith, we also have to set a new direction for America’s
leadership in the world. The U.S. and the UN Security Council
now face a testing moment of truth – they must decide
whether to take action to halt the killing in Darfur or
remain idle in the face of the second African genocide
in 10 years. If I were president, I would act now. As I’ve
said for months, I would not sit idly by. We simply cannot
accept another Rwanda. The United States should ensure
the immediate deployment of an effective international
force to disarm militia, protect civilians, and facilitate
delivery of humanitarian assistance in Darfur. The Sudanese
government has thus far rejected such force. The US should
lead the United Nations to impose tough sanctions now and
make plain, we will not accept Khartoum continuing to block
its deployment. And the President should immediately appoint
an American Ambassador to the African Union, as we have
long had an Ambassador to the European Union. The United
States should not treat Africa as a second-class continent.
I also know that George Bush has asked the question, “Does
the Democratic Party take African American voters for granted?” Well,
here is my answer. The Book of Matthew reminds us, “Beware
of false profits which come to you in sheep’s clothing.” [Matthew
7:15]. The president who in the last four years couldn’t
even find time to meet with NAACP… the Black Caucus … or
the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The president
who turns away from African American needs…who scorns
economic justice and affirmative action…who traffics
in the politics of division – and then claims he
is a friend of Black America can not conceal his identity
no matter what clothes he wears. And here is the other
part of my answer: We will march with you every step of
the way to full equality for all Americans. This November
we’re going to have a new march on Washington to
bring your voice and our concerns right to 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue. I’m ready to march with you. Will you march
with me?
Together, we can close the gaps of inequality that impede
the progress of our nation. Together, we can stop being
what W.E.B. DuBois called, “a nation within a nation,” and
what John Edwards and I have called two Americas. Some
have questioned this idea. But, Mr. President, I ask you
to spend time with struggling families in the hills of
Appalachia … or in public housing in Detroit … or
in the barrios of East LA and then tell me our journey
to build one America is finished. Our job, between now
and November is to end the division between the fortunate
America and the forgotten America. We must come to together
to build one America.
On issue after issue, the other side has been trying to
muddy the waters to keep you from seeing the real differences
and the real choices in this election. The Bible tells
us that we must sometimes see through a glass darkly. But
on every issue, from Iraq to health care, from jobs to
education to America’s role in the world, the choice
is clear. If you believe that this country is heading in
the right direction, you should support George Bush. But
if you believe a vote for W is a vote for the wrong choices,
wrong direction, and the wrong leadership for America,
then join with us. If you believe we need good jobs, health
care for all, energy independence, and a new direction
in Iraq, then I ask you to stand with us for an America
that’s stronger at home and respected in the world.
My friends, this is the most important election of our
lifetime. Everything is on the line: our jobs, our health
care, our role in the world, the character of our country – the
Supreme Court of the United States. And while you have
heard this many times before, we all know that the black
community can help lead the way. We can’t afford
to take any vote for granted – and we won’t.
We can’t afford to sit this one out or leave it up
to our neighbor – and we won’t.
We have 54 days left until the election. The clock is
ticking. Together, we can make the right choices. We can
come together. We can fulfill the promise of a better America.
There are those who want to divide us into red states and
blue states. Not me. I want to unite us as one America – red,
white and blue. With your help, we will set a new direction
for America.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States
of America.
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