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A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

Barbara Jordan

The stakes … are too high for government to be a spectator sport.
BARBARA JORDAN

Government Sports Stakes
If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
BARBARA JORDAN

Change Dissatisfied Resolve Way
When do any of us ever do enough?
BARBARA JORDAN

Any Effort Enough Hard Work
We must exchange the philosophy of excuse – what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
BARBARA JORDAN

Excuse Philosophy Responsibility
Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other …Fairness treats everbody the same.
BARBARA JORDAN

Boards Fairness Requirements
If youre going to play the game properly, youd better know every rule.
BARBARA JORDAN

Games Play Political
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

Community Done Together
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

Example People Sea
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

Feelings Immigration Reality
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

Future Government Inspirational
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

Country Men Work
It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
BARBARA JORDAN

Decision Emotional Passion
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

Innovation Order Party
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

Erode Men Want
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

Belief People View
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

Balance Government Ideas

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

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A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

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