The majority of the American people still believe that every single individual in this country is entitled to just as much respect, just as much dignity, as every other individual.
BARBARA JORDANWe must exchange the philosophy of excuse – what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.
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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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If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
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We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
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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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We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
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Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.
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Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.
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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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Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.
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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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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.
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“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.”
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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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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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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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It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
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Even as I stand here and admit that we have made mistakes I still believe that as the people of America sit in judgment on each party, they will recognize that our mistakes were mistakes of the heart. They’ll recognize that.
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What the people want is very simple – they want an America as good as its promise.
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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.
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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.
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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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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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When do any of us ever do enough?
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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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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.
BARBARA JORDAN