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A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

Barbara Jordan

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
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 JORDAN

Future Government Inspirational
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
If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.
BARBARA JORDAN

Politics Produce Promise
I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.
BARBARA JORDAN

Community Form Kind
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

Belief People View
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
Life is too large to hang out a sign: ‘For Men Only.
BARBARA JORDAN

Hanging Life Men Out
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
The earth is bread we take and eat.
BARBARA JORDAN

Bread Earth Eat Take
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.
BARBARA JORDAN

Country Democratic Party Thinking
We must exchange the philosophy of excuse – what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
BARBARA JORDAN

Excuse Philosophy Responsibility
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
It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
BARBARA JORDAN

Decision Emotional Passion
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.
BARBARA JORDAN

Believe Mistake Party
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 the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
BARBARA JORDAN

Majority Peace Ubuntu
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.
BARBARA JORDAN

Credibility Immigration Policy Sentence
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
A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.
BARBARA JORDAN

Common Responsibility Share
Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other …Fairness treats everbody the same.
BARBARA JORDAN

Boards Fairness Requirements
One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.
BARBARA JORDAN

Benefits Illegal Immigration
I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.
BARBARA JORDAN

Mills Persons Running
We must have an economy that does not force the migrant worker’s child to miss school in order to earn…just so the family can eat. That is the moral bankruptcy that trickle-down economics is all about.
BARBARA JORDAN

Children Order School
We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present: unemployment, inflation… but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America.
BARBARA JORDAN

Attempt Country People Promise
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
There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.
BARBARA JORDAN

Adversity Hard People Work

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

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A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

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