Thank you very much.  First I would like us all to join the nation as we mourn today the deaths of 96 people in Rhode Island and 21 in Chicago in senseless violence.  I'm sure our party reaches out to all those families as we have a national day of mourning today.

I want to begin by saying on Tuesday of this week I visited the city of Birmingham, Alabama.  I went to the 16th Street Baptist Church which was the site of where four young girls lost their lives during [doing] a voting rights campaign led by Martin Luther King in that city.  They were 14 years old, not much younger than my two daughters.

And as I stood there I thought about how right after 9-1-1 President Bush said to the country that we shall overcome.

It was interesting to me that Mr. Bush used the words of the song that rang through Birmingham.  He didn't use the songs of Richard Nixon.  He didn't use the songs of Gerald Ford.  He didn't use the songs of even his daddy.  He used the songs of those that had to march, and face dogs and firehoses and murder to get the right to vote because he even understood--[applause].  He even understood that it took that kind of moral strength, that kind of determined and unrelenting drive to achieve what we need to achieve to protect freedom around the world.

That is why we cannot in the next year election in any way minimize or trivialize what was won in Birmingham, and that is the right to vote for everyone that was trampled on in the state of Florida in the year 2000.  [applause].

I remember we were told just get over it.  Well it's easy for those to get over it that didn't have to fight to have the right to vote in the first place, but there was too much bloodshed and too much pain, too many nights in jail to get over it.  And there are too many in this room, yes too many in America, that we cannot concede our right to vote.  And one of the things that we must deal with in 2004 is to make sure that the protection of America's right to vote is paramount.  We cannot preach democracy around the world and play with democracy at home and act like it's something that can be dismissed.  [applause].

I've opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning.  I've said that clearly Saddam Hussein is not a man that any of us would support and clearly has done grave atrocities, but I do not believe that we have seen the case that the only way to deal with Hussein is military action.  What is strange to me is the administration's case has been that they possess in Iraq weapons of mass destruction and they [are] an imminent danger, yet there are weapons in North Korea and they lied about the weapons.  But we're not going there; we're going to talk in Korea, we're going to invade in Iraq, and as I listened to the President's State of the Union address, what was missing in all of that jumpin' up and down and clapping [laughter]--every line they were jumping out of their seats; they almost didn't need chairs that night.  [laughter, applause]  But what was missing is not one time did the President mention the name bin Laden.

Now how do we go beyond and past the fact that Mr. Bush told us the night of September 11th, we have to go after bin Laden
and has not given us a report on why he has not delivered bin Laden.  [applause].

Secretary of State Powell made a great delivery, great case to the U.N, showing tapes and video tapes and audio tapes, showing how our intelligence worked.  But I don't understand why our intelligence can tape conversations in Baghdad but can't find a man hiding in a cave in Afghanistan.  [cheers, applause].  A man who comes out every two months with a new video.  [laughter].  Bin Laden has out more videos than any rock star in Hollywood.  [laughter].

But not only do I oppose the war on strategic grounds, I oppose it because we are not dealing with the problems right here at home.  [applause].

This administration needs to explain how we went from a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion when President Clinton left office
to now we're dealing with a projected deficit of 2.3 trillion.

We need to have this administration explain to the American people how unemployment is hovering around 6 percent and how state deficits are high and their answer is we're going to give a tax cut to those that have dividend holdings and not address the state deficits, some multi-billion dollar deficits which force the states to raise their property taxes and sales taxes which cuts back on services like education.

It's the whole economic theory of trickle down.  Ronald Reagan used it in 1980.  We're 23 years later.  We never got the trickle, we got the down.  [laughter, applause].

In fact President Bush's own father called it in 1980 voodoo economics.  Now he comes back with hoodoo voodoo economics.  [laughter].

We lost two million jobs while he tells us that we're doing better and he tells us we've got to get tough and he tells us in the name of war that we must be proud to give our lives to defend the country, and we should, but how is it an honor for working class young men and women to risk their lives in Iraq, but it's a burden for the rich to pay their share of taxes in America.  [cheers, applause].

They say Reverend, it's about patriotism.  Well it is about patriotism.  We love America, that's why we want to see an economy sound for Americans.

We must next year make it clear that the wealthy and the right wing, you play in America; we live in America.  [cheers, applause].  This is your playground, but this is our house.  This is our school yard.  This is where we raise our children.  This is not fun for us; this is real life.  And we cannot again have an administration that is more concerned with those at the top than those that make America what it is.  [applause].

I would immediately stop Mr. Bush's tax cuts, and I would immediately invest in job creation.  We have a $250 billion plan to rebuild the infrastructure of the country--the roadways, the highways, the tunnels.

We need to rebuild the ports as part of homeland security.  Many of our ports are not even manned properly in terms of personnel.
There are about 8,000 workers where we need 14,000 in one area alone of homeland security, which are ports that have been ignored.  We need to raise the minimum wage, and we need to have federal laws that protect and undergird workers' rights to organize.  That's loving America.  [cheers, applause].

In the area of criminal justice I am unequivocally opposed to the death penalty.  It has not been used as a deterrent [applause]--it has not proven effective as a deterrent, and clearly even when we see outgoing Republican Governor Ryan there are clear cases that this country must come to terms with and we must deal with this issue in 2004.

We must also challenge the selection of judges that have used their seats on the judiciary to try and roll back the clock on civil rights and women's right to choose and gay and lesbian rights and civil rights.  [applause].

I told the reception at NARAL last night we cannot be tricked with using diversity to cover up reactionary judges.  The nomination of Estrada is just as wrong as the nomination of Pickering.  [cheers, applause].  They say well Reverend we're using--we're giving people a chance, minorities; that's what you fought for.  But we've also fought for people that would be right.  During the abolitionist movement we didn't fight to have more diversified slavemasters, we fought to get free.  [cheers, applause].

We must also look at the actual framework of the country.  I've said and I repeat I agree with Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., we need to tell America, we need the constitutional right to vote.  Most of us don't know that's not there.  The right to health care, the right to education.  I will campaign around this country talking about how all Americans assume we have constitutional rights that are not there.  We must change the framework under which we govern.  [applause]

I think it is also imperative that we understand that this party coming together and standing for Americans is the party that must succeed next year, 'cause this is not about another election, this is about America's way of life in the 21st century.  There's too much at stake.  This is not party politics.  This is about the soul and direction of America and the world in the 21st century.  [applause]

Let me say in closing two personal notes.

One, they say well Reverend, candidates like you have baggage.  Well everybody in politics has baggage.  Just some folk have enough money when they check in a hotel to get others to carry their bags.  [laughter, applause].

Secondly, they say well people like Sharpton is the nightmare of the Democrats.  Let me say this, Mr. Chairman.  I was on a plane the other day, and I was asleep.  The person working for the airline kind of nudged me, because she wanted to know if I wanted to eat on the plane.  I thought I was having a nightmare, because I was in a deep sleep when she nudged me, and it made me realize that sometimes when you are sleeping what you think is a nightmare may be a wake-up call.  [laughter, cheers, applause].

I want this party that I'm a member of, that my mother's a member of, to wake up and stand up for all Americans.

We need to wake up and tell America that while this administration can't find money for prescription drugs, they can offer $26 billion to Turkey for a toll fee.  [applause].

We need to wake up and tell America that while this administration can say they don't believe in preferences, and stand up on Dr. King's actual birthday and distort and then oppose affirmative action, that the most preferential president in history has been George Bush.  He went to undergraduate school under preferences, he went to graduate school under preferences -- he's the ultimate recipient of a set-aside program.  The Supreme Court set aside a whole election to make him the President of the United States.  [cheers, applause].

So don't mistake my nudge for a nightmare.  [laughter].  It was FDR that nudged us with the New Deal in the '30s.  It was John Kennedy that nudged us with the New Frontier in the '60s.  It was Lyndon Johnson that nudged us with the Great Society; it was Martin Luther King and Fannie Lou Hamer that nudged us; it was Rev. Jesse Jackson and Paul Wellstone that nudged us.  Every time we've been nudged we got bigger, we got stronger, we got victorious; we expanded the party.  [applause].

They tell us it's time to be with them, acting like being a patriot is to be a right wing Republican.  Being a patriot is to love your country and to protect your country.  It's easy for those wealthy and born to privilege to love America, but the real lovers of America are we that loved America when it wasn't always fair.  That fought for America when we fought enemies that had more rights here than us.  We really love America.  We love America because we helped make America what it is.

And when they sing in a self-righteous way God bless America, God already has blessed America.  What land is more beautiful that ours?  What land has more wealth than us?  What land has more technology than us?  The challenge Mr. Bush is not to keep asking God to bless America.  He has and he will.  The challenge is when is America going to bless God.  And how do you bless God?  By giving education to his children, by taking care of his elderly.  This is the party that wants to sing America must bless God by how we treat American citizens.

And we may have a lot of candidates, that's because we have a lot to say.  But we're going to bring millions to the polls and bring this country on the right course in the 21st century because not only must we build a nation that God will bless, we will build a nation that will bless God.  That's the real patriots.  That's the real America.  That's the Democratic party.
 

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Transcript Copyright © 2003  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.