We call ourselves public servants but I’ll tell you this: we as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good.
BARBARA JORDANWe must not become the new puritans and reject our society. We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor. It can be done.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.
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If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
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What the people want is very simple – they want an America as good as its promise.
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We must have an economy that does not force the migrant worker’s child to miss school in order to earn…just so the family can eat. That is the moral bankruptcy that trickle-down economics is all about.
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I get from the soil and spirit of Texas the feeling that I, as an individual, can accomplish whatever I want to, and that there are no limits, that you can just keep going, just keep soaring. I like that spirit.
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Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.
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It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
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We can certainly defuse the intensity of the anti-immigrant feeling if we can bring some reality to the discussion by showing that they are not using that many resources.
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There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.
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We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.
BARBARA JORDAN -
Things which matter cost money, and we’ve got to spend the money if we do not want to have generations of parasites rather than generations of productive citizens.
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What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.
BARBARA JORDAN -
One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.
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I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He’s just incapable of it.
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The earth is bread we take and eat.
BARBARA JORDAN -
If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
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The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.
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There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.
BARBARA JORDAN -
I think it no accident that most of those emigrating to America in the 19th century identified with the Democratic Party. We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We must not become the new puritans and reject our society. We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor. It can be done.
BARBARA JORDAN -
Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other …Fairness treats everbody the same.
BARBARA JORDAN -
The stakes … are too high for government to be a spectator sport.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable.
BARBARA JORDAN -
But this is the great danger America faces. That we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual. Each seeking to satisfy private wants.
BARBARA JORDAN -
I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
BARBARA JORDAN