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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

The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.
BARBARA JORDAN

America Citizens Want
For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it.
BARBARA JORDAN

Distinction Immigration Law
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

Law Order People
I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in ‘We, the people.’
BARBARA JORDAN

Mistake People Years
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
How do we create a harmonious society out of so many kinds of people? The key is tolerance — the one value that is indispensable in creating community.
BARBARA JORDAN

Creating Equality Keys Tolerance
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 spirit of harmony can only survive if each of us remembers, when bitterness and self-interest seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny.
BARBARA JORDAN

Destiny Equality Peace
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
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

America Cities Groups
Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans.
BARBARA JORDAN

People Ties Voice
Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
BARBARA JORDAN

Constitution Democracy Today
We believe that the people are the source of all governmental power; that the authority of the people is to be extended, not restricted.
BARBARA JORDAN

Authority Believe People
The earth is bread we take and eat.
BARBARA JORDAN

Bread Earth Eat Take
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.
BARBARA JORDAN

Country Guiding Principles Ideas
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.
BARBARA JORDAN

Citizens Cost Generations
We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
BARBARA JORDAN

Backgrounds Made Party
“We, the people.” It is a very elegant beginning. But when that document was completed on the 17th of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.”
BARBARA JORDAN

Documents People September
The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.
BARBARA JORDAN

Court Lasts Protection
When do any of us ever do enough?
BARBARA JORDAN

Any Effort Enough Hard Work
Throughout out history, when people have looked for new ways to solve their problems, and to uphold the principles of this nation, many times they have turned to political parties. They have often turned to the Democratic Party.
BARBARA JORDAN

Party People Political
If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
BARBARA JORDAN

Games Knows Play
The imperative is to define what is right and do it.
BARBARA JORDAN

Character Inspirational
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
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.
BARBARA JORDAN

Believe Compassion Women
It is a privilege to serve people, a privilege that must be earned, and once earned, there is an obligation to do something good with it.
BARBARA JORDAN

People Philanthropy Privilege
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

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.

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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.

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Popular Authors

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