Excerpts From Jackson’s Speeches

Here are some excerpts from Jesse Jackson’s recent campaign speeches:

PHILOSOPHY:

When we turn to each other, and not on each other, that’s victory. When we build each other, and not destroy each other, that’s victory.

Red, yellow, brown, black and white--we’re all precious in God’s sight. Everybody is somebody.

Where do we find common ground? It’s at the plant gate that locks workers out . . . . It’s at the farm auction, when farmers are driven from their land with no place to go. When someone is sick and dying in the admitting office because they don’t have a green or yellow card.

We the people must come together, demand health insurance. We the people must demand better pay for our teachers, demand jobs and security. We the people must say: drive drugs out, drive jobs in.

No one has earned the right to do less than your best.

Our children need strong men and strong women. But you’re not a man just because you make a baby.

It’s just not right to bring a child in this world and abandon that child. It’s just not right . . . . We must rebuild people--that’s a first step to rebuilding the cities.

THE UNDERCLASS:

When you look at Jesse Jackson, you look at the American dream of hope and possibility unfolding before your very eyes. In a real sense, I was born in the underclass . . . born to a teen-age mother who was born to a teen-age mother.

I went to school where teachers received less pay than their white counterparts, by law . . . .

We lived in a three-room house, bathroom on the back porch, slop jar by the bed for the family. Wallpaper used not for decoration, but for a wind breaker.

As your President, I will open up the door of opportunity, but you must walk through those doors . . . . I have faith in you. I want you to have faith in yourself . . . . If you rise above your circumstances, you can make it.

POVERTY:

People aren’t fighting for welfare. They’re fighting for fair-share.

Most poor people are not black or brown. Most poor people are white, female and young. Color it pain, color it hurt.

Most poor people aren’t on welfare. They work every day. They change the beds in hotels. They raise other people’s children.

They work every day. They drive cabs. They’re orderlies in hospitals. They’re not lazy. They work every day. They bathe the bodies sick with fever. They empty their bedpans. They clean out the commodes. No job is beneath them.

And yet, when they get sick, they cannot afford health insurance, and they cannot lie in the beds they’ve made up every day.

We can do better than that. There are 38 million people in America without health insurance. We need to sit down and devise a national health insurance plan. Because it’s right.

I choose to invest in Headstart, and day care, and prenatal care on the front side of life, rather than jail care and welfare on the backside of life.

THE ECONOMY:

Every generation has a challenge. Our challenge today is to end economic violence.

You know something has gone awry when profits go up and wages go down, and 600,000 farms are foreclosed, and plants are closed and workers are abandoned.

It’s called reverse Robin Hood. It’s taking from the poor and giving to the rich. And that is not fair.

Now the top 1% of wage earners 10 years later pay 20% less in taxes, instead of paying 20% more. Government (has been) used as a lever to take from working people and the poor and to give to the rich.

DRUGS:

The No. 1 threat to this nation is drugs--cocaine, crack, heroin, PCP. We’re consuming $150-billion worth of drugs a year. The No. 1 tax-free industry in America is drugs.

Drugs are corrupting leaders, killing our children. But don’t just focus on children and ballplayers. Children do not buy $150-billion worth of drugs a year. And ballplayers do not launder $150 billion in drug money through banks.

We must get serious about ending the war of drugs in this country. Stop the cocaine, the crack, the heroin. Ban the drugs. Ban the handguns. Make our streets secure and safe again.

In 1986 the Coast Guard interdicted 10,000 pounds of cocaine. In 1987, the Coast Guard interdicted 26,000 pounds of cocaine. Then, the Administration cut the Coast Guard budget by $100 million. They busted the Coast Guard and gave the drug smugglers the green light.

I want to cut the supply of drugs. I want you to join me and cut the demand.

TRADE:

The No. 1 exporter from Taiwan is not Taiwan. It’s General Electric. Which owns RCA. Which owns NBC. Which says, “Buy American,” while NBC workers are forced to strike and make concessions.

The first four years of the Reagan Administration, GE made $10 billion. That’s all right. But as profits went up, wages and jobs went down. They paid zero taxes. That’s not all. They got a $100-million tax rebate, while workers on unemployment compensation had to pay taxes. That is economic violence.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The Russian bear is in check because we have the mental preparedness and the military preparedness. But the drug war is hitting us where we have no defense, in our character, in our lives, in our dreams.

In Latin America, our fight is not with 3 million Sandinistas. They do not threaten us. If they did, 15,000 Contras could not save us from them.