A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.
BARBARA JORDANOur concept of governing is derived from our view of people. It is a concept deeply rooted in a set of beliefs firmly etched in the national conscience, of all of us.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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When do any of us ever do enough?
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I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance.
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If you had to work in the environment of Washington, D.C., as I do, and watch those men who are so imprisoned and so confined by their eighteenth-century thought patterns, you would know that if anybody is going to be liberated, it’s men who must be liberated in this country.
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Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
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Life is too large to hang out a sign: ‘For Men Only.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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In other times, I could stand here and give this kind of exposition on the beliefs of the Democratic Party and that would be enough. But today that is not enough. People want more.
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It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.
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We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
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[It is] one of the most complex and emotional issues of out time.
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Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other …Fairness treats everbody the same.
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I never wanted to be run of the mill.
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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.
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If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
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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.
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Let’s all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.
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More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.
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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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I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.
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We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
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We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.
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We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.
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Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.
BARBARA JORDAN