I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.
BARBARA JORDANHow 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.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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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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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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If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
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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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Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.
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…for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.
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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.
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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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The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.
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I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.
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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.’
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We must exchange the philosophy of excuse – what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
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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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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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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.
BARBARA JORDAN






