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 JORDANIf the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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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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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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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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We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
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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.
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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 live a day at a time. Each day I look for a kernel of excitement. In the morning, I say: ‘What is my exciting thing for today?’ Then, I do the day. Don’t ask me about tomorrow.
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If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
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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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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.
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If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
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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.
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Justice of right is always to take precedence over might.
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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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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 have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.
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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.
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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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The earth is bread we take and eat.
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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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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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Life is too large to hang out a sign: ‘For Men Only.
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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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The stakes … are too high for government to be a spectator sport.
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I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.
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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.’
BARBARA JORDAN