Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.
BARBARA JORDANWe 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.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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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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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 must exchange the philosophy of excuse – what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
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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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It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
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Life is too large to hang out a sign: ‘For Men Only.
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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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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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If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.
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When do any of us ever do enough?
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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.
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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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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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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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If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
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We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
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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 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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If youre going to play the game properly, youd better know every rule.
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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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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.
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I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.
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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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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 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