The stakes … are too high for government to be a spectator sport.
BARBARA JORDANA government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
BARBARA JORDAN -
When do any of us ever do enough?
BARBARA JORDAN -
We must exchange the philosophy of excuse – what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
BARBARA JORDAN -
Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other …Fairness treats everbody the same.
BARBARA JORDAN -
If youre going to play the game properly, youd better know every rule.
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 -
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 JORDAN -
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.
BARBARA JORDAN -
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.
BARBARA JORDAN -
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.
BARBARA JORDAN -
It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We are a party of innovation. We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future.
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 -
Our 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.
BARBARA JORDAN -
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