23 美国经典英文演讲100篇Television News Coverage

第一篇：23 美国经典英文演讲100篇Television News Coverage

美国经典英文演讲100篇: “Television News Coverage”

I think it's obvious from the cameras here that I didn't come to discuss the ban on cyclamates or DDT.I have a subject which I think if of great importance to the American people.Tonight I want to discuss the importance of the television news medium to the American people.No nation depends more on the intelligent judgment of its citizens.No medium has a more profound influence over public opinion.Nowhere in our system are there fewer checks on vast power.So, nowhere should there be more conscientious responsibility exercised than by the news media.The question is, “Are we demanding enough of our television news presentations?” “And are the men of this medium demanding enough of themselves?” Monday night a week ago, President Nixon delivered the most important address of his Administration, one of the most important of our decade.His subject was Vietnam.My hope, as his at that time, was to rally the American people to see the conflict through to a lasting and just peace in the Pacific.For 32 minutes, he reasoned with a nation that has suffered almost a third of a million casualties in the longest war in its history.When the President completed his address--an address, incidentally, that he spent weeks in the preparation of--his words and policies were subjected to instant analysis and querulous criticism.The audience of 70 million Americans gathered to hear the President of the United States was inherited by a small band of network commentators and self-appointed analysts, the majority of whom expressed in one way or another their hostility to what he had to say.It was obvious that their minds were made up in advance.Those who recall the fumbling and groping that followed President Johnson’s dramatic disclosure of his intention not to seek another term have seen these men in a genuine state of nonpreparedness.This was not it.One commentator twice contradicted the President’s statement about the exchange of correspondence with Ho Chi Minh.Another challenged the President’s abilities as a politician.A third asserted that the President was following a Pentagon line.Others, by the expressions on their faces, the tone of their questions, and the sarcasm of their responses, made clear their sharp disapproval.To guarantee in advance that the President’s plea for national unity would be challenged, one network trotted out Averell Harriman for the occasion.Throughout the President's address, he waited in the wings.When the President concluded, Mr.Harriman recited perfectly.He attacked the Thieu Government as unrepresentative;he criticized the President’s speech for various deficiencies;he twice issued a call to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to debate Vietnam once again;he stated his belief that the Vietcong or North Vietnamese did not really want military take-over of South Vietnam;and he told a little anecdote about a “very, very responsible” fellow he had met in the North Vietnamese delegation.All in all, Mr.Harrison offered a broad range of gratuitous advice challenging and contradicting the policies outlined by the President of the United States.Where the President had issued a call for unity, Mr.Harriman was encouraging the country not to listen to him.A word about Mr.Harriman.For 10 months he was America’s chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks--a period in which the United States swapped some of the greatest military concessions in the history of warfare for an enemy agreement on the shape of the bargaining table.Like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, Mr.Harriman seems to be under some heavy compulsion to justify his failures to anyone who will listen.And the networks have shown themselves willing to give him all the air time he desires.Now every American has a right to disagree with the President of the United States and to express publicly that disagreement.But the President of the United States has a right to communicate directly with the people who elected him, and the people of this country have the right to make up their own minds and form their own opinions about a Presidential address without having a President’s words and thoughts characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics before they can even be digested.When Winston Churchill rallied public opinion to stay the course against Hitler’s Germany, he didn’t have to contend with a gaggle of commentators raising doubts about whether he was reading public opinion right, or whether Britain had the stamina to see the war through.When President Kennedy rallied the nation in the Cuban missile crisis, his address to the people was not chewed over by a roundtable of critics who disparaged the course of action he’d asked America to follow.The purpose of my remarks tonight is to focus your attention on this little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal to every Presidential address, but, more importantly, wield a free hand in selecting, presenting, and interpreting the great issues in our nation.First, let’s define that power.At least 40 million Americans every night, it’s estimated, watch the network news.Seven million of them view A.B.C., the remainder being divided between N.B.C.and C.B.S.According to Harris polls and other studies, for millions of Americans the networks are the sole source of national and world news.In Will Roger’s observation, what you knew was what you read in the newspaper.Today for growing millions of Americans, it’s what they see and hear on their television sets.Now how is this network news determined? A small group of men, numbering perhaps no more than a dozen anchormen, commentators, and executive producers, settle upon the 20 minutes or so of film and commentary that’s to reach the public.This selection is made from the 90 to 180 minutes that may be available.Their powers of choice are broad.They decide what 40 to 50 million Americans will learn of the day’s events in the nation and in the world.We cannot measure this power and influence by the traditional democratic standards, for these men can create national issues overnight.They can make or break by their coverage and commentary a moratorium on the war.They can elevate men from obscurity to national prominence within a week.They can reward some politicians with national exposure and ignore others.For millions of Americans the network reporter who covers a continuing issue--like the ABM or civil rights--becomes, in effect, the presiding judge in a national trial by jury.It must be recognized that the networks have made important contributions to the national knowledge--through news, documentaries, and specials.They have often used their power constructively and creatively to awaken the public conscience to critical problems.The networks made hunger and black lung disease national issues overnight.The TV networks have done what no other medium could have done in terms of dramatizing the horrors of war.The networks have tackled our most difficult social problems with a directness and an immediacy that’s the gift of their medium.They focus the nation’s attention on its environmental abuses--on pollution in the Great Lakes and the threatened ecology of the Everglades.But it was also the networks that elevated Stokely Carmichael and George Lincoln Rockwell from obscurity to national prominence.Nor is their power confined to the substantive.A raised eyebrow, an inflection of the voice, a caustic remark dropped in the middle of a broadcast can raise doubts in a million minds about the veracity of a public official or the wisdom of a Government policy.One Federal Communications Commissioner considers the powers of the networks equal to that of local, state, and Federal Governments all combined.Certainly it represents a concentration of power over American public opinion unknown in history.Now what do Americans know of the men who wield this power? Of the men who produce and direct the network news, the nation knows practically nothing.Of the commentators, most Americans know little other than that they reflect an urbane and assured presence seemingly well-informed on every important matter.We do know that to a man these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City, the latter of which James Reston terms the most unrepresentative community in the entire United States.Both communities bask in their own provincialism, their own parochialism.We can deduce that these men read the same newspapers.They draw their political and social views from the same sources.Worse, they talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared viewpoints.Do they allow their biases to influence the selection and presentation of the news? David Brinkley states objectivity is impossible to normal human behavior.Rather, he says, we should strive for fairness.Another anchorman on a network news show contends, and I quote: “You can’t expunge all your private convictions just because you sit in a seat like this and a camera starts to stare at you.I think your program has to reflect what your basic feelings are.I’ll plead guilty to that.”

Less than a week before the 1968 election, this same commentator charged that President Nixon’s campaign commitments were no more durable than campaign balloons.He claimed that, were it not for the fear of hostile reaction, Richard Nixon would be giving into, and I quote him exactly, “his natural instinct to smash the enemy with a club or go after him with a meat axe.”

Had this slander been made by one political candidate about another, it would have been dismissed by most commentators as a partisan attack.But this attack emanated from the privileged sanctuary of a network studio and therefore had the apparent dignity of an objective statement.The American people would rightly not tolerate this concentration of power in Government.Is it not fair and relevant to question its concentration in the hands of a tiny, enclosed fraternity of privileged men elected by no one and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by Government? The views of the majority of this fraternity do not--and I repeat, not--represent the views of America.That is why such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the President’s address and how the networks reviewed it.Not only did the country receive the President’s speech more warmly than the networks, but so also did the Congress of the United States.Yesterday, the President was notified that 300 individual Congressmen and 50 Senators of both parties had endorsed his efforts for peace.As with other American institutions, perhaps it is time that the networks were made more responsive to the views of the nation and more responsible to the people they serve.Now I want to make myself perfectly clear.I’m not asking for Government censorship or any other kind of censorship.I am asking whether a form of censorship already exists when the news that 40 million Americans receive each night is determined by a handful of men responsible only to their corporate employers and is filtered through a handful of commentators who admit to their own set of biases.The question I’m raising here tonight should have been raised by others long ago.They should have been raised by those Americans who have traditionally considered the preservation of freedom of speech and freedom of the press their special provinces of responsibility.They should have been raised by those Americans who share the view of the late Justice Learned Hand that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative selection.Advocates for the networks have claimed a First Amendment right to the same unlimited freedoms held by the great newspapers of America.But the situations are not identical.Where The New York Times reaches 800,000 people, N.B.C.reaches 20 times that number on its evening news.[The average weekday circulation of the Times in October was 1,012,367;the average Sunday circulation was 1,523,558.] Nor can the tremendous impact of seeing television film and hearing commentary be compared with reading the printed page.A decade ago, before the network news acquired such dominance over public opinion, Walter Lippman spoke to the issue.He said there’s an essential and radical difference between television and printing.The three or four competing television stations control virtually all that can be received over the air by ordinary television sets.But besides the mass circulation dailies, there are weeklies, monthlies, out-of-town newspapers and books.If a man doesn’t like his newspaper, he can read another from out of town or wait for a weekly news magazine.It’s not ideal, but it’s infinitely better than the situation in television.There, if a man doesn’t like what the networks are showing, all he can do is turn them off and listen to a phonograph.“Networks,” he stated “which are few in number have a virtual monopoly of a whole media of communications.” The newspaper of mass circulation have no monopoly on the medium of print.Now a virtual monopoly of a whole medium of communication is not something that democratic people should blindly ignore.And we are not going to cut off our television sets and listen to the phonograph just because the airways belong to the networks.They don’t.They belong to the people.As Justice Byron wrote in his landmark opinion six months ago, “It’s the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.” Now it’s argued that this power presents no danger in the hands of those who have used it responsibly.But as to whether or not the networks have abused the power they enjoy, let us call as our first witness, former Vice President Humphrey and the city of Chicago.According to Theodore White, television’s intercutting of the film from the streets of Chicago with the “current proceedings on the floor of the convention created the most striking and false political picture of 1968--the nomination of a man for the American Presidency by the brutality and violence of merciless police.” If we are to believe a recent report of the House of Representative Commerce Committee, then television’s presentation of the violence in the streets worked an injustice on the reputation of the Chicago police.According to the committee findings, one network in particular presented, and I quote, “a one-sided picture which in large measure exonerates the demonstrators and protestors.” Film of provocations of police that was available never saw the light of day, while the film of a police response which the protestors provoked was shown to millions.Another network showed virtually the same scene of violence from three separate angles without making clear it was the same scene.And, while the full report is reticent in drawing conclusions, it is not a document to inspire confidence in the fairness of the network news.Our knowledge of the impact of network news on the national mind is far from complete, but some early returns are available.Again, we have enough information to raise serious questions about its effect on a democratic society.Several years ago Fred Friendly, one of the pioneers of network news, wrote that its missing ingredients were conviction, controversy, and a point of view.The networks have compensated with a vengeance.And in the networks' endless pursuit of controversy, we should ask: What is the end value--to enlighten or to profit? What is the end result--to inform or to confuse? How does the ongoing exploration for more action, more excitement, more drama serve our national search for internal peace and stability? Gresham’s Law seems to be operating in the network news.Bad news drives out good news.The irrational is more controversial than the rational.Concurrence can no longer compete with dissent.One minute of Eldrige Cleaver is worth 10 minutes of Roy Wilkins.The labor crisis settled at the negotiating table is nothing compared to the confrontation that results in a strike--or better yet, violence along the picket lines.Normality has become the nemesis of the network news.Now the upshot of all this controversy is that a narrow and distorted picture of America often emerges from the televised news.A single, dramatic piece of the mosaic becomes in the minds of millions the entire picture.The American who relies upon television for his news might conclude that the majority of American students are embittered radicals;that the majority of black Americans feel no regard for their country;that violence and lawlessness are the rule rather than the exception on the American campus.We know that none of these conclusions is true.Perhaps the place to start looking for a credibility gap is not in the offices of the Government in Washington but in the studios of the networks in New York!Television may have destroyed the old stereotypes, but has it not created new ones in their places? What has this “passionate” pursuit of controversy done to the politics of progress through logical compromise essential to the functioning of a democratic society? The members of Congress or the Senate who follow their principles and philosophy quietly in a spirit of compromise are unknown to many Americans, while the loudest and most extreme dissenters on every issue are known to every man in the street.How many marches and demonstrations would we have if the marchers did not know that the ever-faithful TV cameras would be there to record their antics for the next news show? We’ve heard demands that Senators and Congressmen and judges make known all their financial connections so that the public will know who and what influences their decisions and their votes.Strong arguments can be made for that view.But when a single commentator or producer, night after night, determines for millions of people how much of each side of a great issue they are going to see and hear, should he not first disclose his personal views on the issue as well? In this search for excitement and controversy, has more than equal time gone to the minority of Americans who specialize in attacking the United States--its institutions and its citizens? Tonight I’ve raised questions.I’ve made no attempt to suggest the answers.The answers must come from the media men.They are challenged to turn their critical powers on themselves, to direct their energy, their talent, and their conviction toward improving the quality and objectivity of news presentation.They are challenged to structure their own civic ethics to relate to the great responsibilities they hold.And the people of America are challenged, too--challenged to press for responsible news presentation.The people can let the networks know that they want their news straight and objective.The people can register their complaints on bias through mail to the networks and phone calls to local stations.This is one case where the people must defend themselves, where the citizen, not the Government, must be the reformer;where the consumer can be the most effective crusader.By way of conclusion, let me say that every elected leader in the United States depends on these men of the media.Whether what I’ve said to you tonight will be heard and seen at all by the nation is not my decision, it’s not your decision, it’s their decision.In tomorrow’s edition of the Des Moines Register, you’ll be able to read a news story detailing what I’ve said tonight.Editorial comment will be reserved for the editorial page, where it belongs.Should not the same wall of separation exist between news and comment on the nation’s networks?

Now, my friends, we’d never trust such power, as I’ve described, over public opinion in the hands of an elected Government.It’s time we questioned it in the hands of a small unelected elite.The great networks have dominated America’s airwaves for decades.The people are entitled a full accounting their stewardship.John F.Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation delivered 22 October 1962

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.] Good evening, my fellow citizens: This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba.Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island.The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature last Tuesday morning at 9 A.M., I directed that our surveillance be stepped up.And having now confirmed and completed our evaluation of the evidence and our decision on a course of action, this Government feels obliged to report this new crisis to you in fullest detail.The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types of installations.Several of them include medium range ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for a distance of more than 1,000 nautical miles.Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, D.C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area.Additional sites not yet completed appear to be designed for intermediate range ballistic missiles--capable of traveling more than twice as far--and thus capable of striking most of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere, ranging as far north as Hudson Bay, Canada, and as far south as Lima, Peru.In addition, jet bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are now being uncrated and assembled in Cuba, while the necessary air bases are being prepared.This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important strategic base--by the presence of these large, long-range, and clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass destruction--constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas, in flagrant and deliberate defiance of the Rio Pact of 1947, the traditions of this Nation and hemisphere, the joint resolution of the 87th Congress, the Charter of the United Nations, and my own public warnings to the Soviets on September 4 and 13.This action also contradicts the repeated assurances of Soviet spokesmen, both publicly and privately delivered, that the arms buildup in Cuba would retain its original defensive character, and that the Soviet Union had no need or desire to station strategic missiles.on the territory of any other nation.The size of this undertaking makes clear that it has been planned for some months.Yet, only last month, after I had made clear the distinction between any introduction of ground-to-ground missiles and the existence of defensive antiaircraft missiles, the Soviet Government publicly stated on September 11 that, and I quote, “the armaments and military equipment sent to Cuba are designed exclusively for defensive purposes,” that there is, and I quote the Soviet Government, “there is no need for the Soviet Government to shift its weapons for a retaliatory blow to any other country, for instance Cuba,” and that, and I quote their government, “the Soviet Union has so powerful rockets to carry these nuclear warheads that there is no need to search for sites for them beyond the boundaries of the Soviet Union.” That statement was false.Only last Thursday, as evidence of this rapid offensive buildup was already in my hand, Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko told me in my office that he was instructed to make it clear once again, as he said his government had already done, that Soviet assistance to Cuba, and I quote, “pursued solely the purpose of contributing to the defense capabilities of Cuba,” that, and I quote him, “training by Soviet specialists of Cuban nationals in handling defensive armaments was by no means offensive, and if it were otherwise,” Mr.Gromyko went on, “the Soviet Government would never become involved in rendering such assistance.” That statement also was false.Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small.We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute maximum peril.Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift, that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace.For many years, both the Soviet Union and the United States, recognizing this fact, have deployed strategic nuclear weapons with great care, never upsetting the precarious status quo which insured that these weapons would not be used in the absence of some vital challenge.Our own strategic missiles have never been transferred to the territory of any other nation under a cloak of secrecy and deception;and our history--unlike that of the Soviets since the end of World War II--demonstrates that we have no desire to dominate or conquer any other nation or impose our system upon its people.Nevertheless, American citizens have become adjusted to living daily on the bull's-eye of Soviet missiles located inside the U.S.S.R.or in submarines.In that sense, missiles in Cuba add to an already clear and present danger--although it should be noted the nations of Latin America have never previously been subjected to a potential nuclear threat.But this secret, swift, extraordinary buildup of Communist missiles--in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere, in violation of Soviet assurances, and in defiance of American and hemispheric policy--this sudden, clandestine decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil--is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe.The 1930's taught us a clear lesson: aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war.This nation is opposed to war.We are also true to our word.Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to prevent the use of these missiles against this or any other country, and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western Hemisphere.Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation which leads a worldwide alliance.We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics.But now further action is required, and it is under way;and these actions may only be the beginning.We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth;but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the Resolution of the Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately: First: To halt this offensive buildup a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated.All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back.This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers.We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.Second: I have directed the continued and increased close surveillance of Cuba and its military buildup.The foreign ministers of the OAS [Organization of American States], in their communiqué' of October 6, rejected secrecy on such matters in this hemisphere.Should these offensive military preparations continue, thus increasing the threat to the hemisphere, further action will be justified.I have directed the Armed Forces to prepare for any eventualities;and I trust that in the interest of both the Cuban people and the Soviet technicians at the sites, the hazards to all concerned of continuing this threat will be recognized.Third: It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.Fourth: As a necessary military precaution, I have reinforced our base at Guantanamo, evacuated today the dependents of our personnel there, and ordered additional military units to be on a standby alert basis.Fifth: We are calling tonight for an immediate meeting of the Organ[ization] of Consultation under the Organization of American States, to consider this threat to hemispheric security and to invoke articles 6 and 8 of the Rio Treaty in support of all necessary action.The United Nations Charter allows for regional security arrangements, and the nations of this hemisphere decided long ago against the military presence of outside powers.Our other allies around the world have also been alerted.Sixth: Under the Charter of the United Nations, we are asking tonight that an emergency meeting of the Security Council be convoked without delay to take action against this latest Soviet threat to world peace.Our resolution will call for the prompt dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive weapons in Cuba, under the supervision of U.N.observers, before the quarantine can be lifted.Seventh and finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations.I call upon him further to abandon this course of world domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms race and to transform the history of man.He has an opportunity now to move the world back from the abyss of destruction by returning to his government's own words that it had no need to station missiles outside its own territory, and withdrawing these weapons from Cuba by refraining from any action which will widen or deepen the present crisis, and then by participating in a search for peaceful and permanent solutions.This Nation is prepared to present its case against the Soviet threat to peace, and our own proposals for a peaceful world, at any time and in any forum--in the OAS, in the United Nations, or in any other meeting that could be useful--without limiting our freedom of action.We have in the past made strenuous efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons.We have proposed the elimination of all arms and military bases in a fair and effective disarmament treaty.We are prepared to discuss new proposals for the removal of tensions on both sides, including the possibilities of a genuinely independent Cuba, free to determine its own destiny.We have no wish to war with the Soviet Union--for we are a peaceful people who desire to live in peace with all other peoples.But it is difficult to settle or even discuss these problems in an atmosphere of intimidation.That is why this latest Soviet threat--or any other threat which is made either independently or in response to our actions this week--must and will be met with determination.Any hostile move anywhere in the world against the safety and freedom of peoples to whom we are committed, including in particular the brave people of West Berlin, will be met by whatever action is needed.Finally, I want to say a few words to the captive people of Cuba, to whom this speech is being directly carried by special radio facilities.I speak to you as a friend, as one who knows of your deep attachment to your fatherland, as one who shares your aspirations for liberty and justice for all.And I have watched and the American people have watched with deep sorrow how your nationalist revolution was betrayed--and how your fatherland fell under foreign domination.Now your leaders are no longer Cuban leaders inspired by Cuban ideals.They are puppets and agents of an international conspiracy which has turned Cuba against your friends and neighbors in the Americas, and turned it into the first Latin American country to become a target for nuclear war--the first Latin American country to have these weapons on its soil.These new weapons are not in your interest.They contribute nothing to your peace and well-being.They can only undermine it.But this country has no wish to cause you to suffer or to impose any system upon you.We know that your lives and land are being used as pawns by those who deny your freedom.Many times in the past, the Cuban people have risen to throw out tyrants who destroyed their liberty.And I have no doubt that most Cubans today look forward to the time when they will be truly free--free from foreign domination, free to choose their own leaders, free to select their own system, free to own their own land, free to speak and write and worship without fear or degradation.And then shall Cuba be welcomed back to the society of free nations and to the associations of this hemisphere.My fellow citizens, let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out.No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred.Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead--months in which both our patience and our will be tested, months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our dangers.But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing.The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are;but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world.The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it.And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right;not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world.God willing, that goal will be achieved.Thank you and good night.

第二篇：美国经典英文演讲一百篇

美国20世纪经典英语演讲100篇（MP3+文本）

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第三篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇

美国经典英文演讲100篇:Brandenburg Gate Address

时间:2008-6-12 10:19:20 来源:本站原创

作者:echo

(女宇航员选拔标准 | 招聘英语编辑)

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Ronald Reagan

Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate

delivered 12 June 1987, West Berlin

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.(2)]

Thank you.Thank you, very much.Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty four years ago, President John F.Kennedy visited Berlin, and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall.Well since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn to Berlin.And today, I, myself, make my second visit to your city.We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because it's our duty to speak in this place of freedom.But I must confess, we’re drawn here by other things as well;by the feeling of history in this city--more than 500 years older than our own nation;by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten;most of all, by your courage and determination.Perhaps the composer, Paul Linke, understood something about American Presidents.You see, like so many Presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: “Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin” [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]

Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America.I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East.To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people.To those listening in East Berlin, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me.For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin.[There is only one Berlin.]

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe.From the Baltic South, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers.Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall.But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.Yet, it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly;here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world.Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German separated from his fellow men.Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.President Von Weizsäcker has said, “The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.” Well today--today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind.Yet, I do not come here to lament.For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation.Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to help.And in 1947 Secretary of State--as you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan.Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”

In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.I was struck by a sign--the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt.I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city.The sign read simply: “The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world.” A strong, free world in the West--that dream became real.Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant.Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth;the European Community was founded.In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder.Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty--that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom.The German leaders--the German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes.From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany: busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland.Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums.Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles--the wonderful goods of the Kudamm.¹ From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth.Now the Soviets may have had other plans.But my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't count on: Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze.[Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.²]

In the 1950s--In the 1950s Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.”

But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history.In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food.Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself.After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity.Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace.Freedom is the victor.And now--now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom.We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness.Some political prisoners have been released.Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed.Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness;for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty--the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate.Mr.Gorbachev, open this gate.Mr.Gorbachev--Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent, and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens.To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion.So, we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength.Yet we seek peace;so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.Beginning 10 years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles capable of striking every capital in Europe.The Western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter-deployment(unless the Soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution)--namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides.For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness.As the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there were difficult days, days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city;and the Soviets later walked away from the table.But through it all, the alliance held firm.And I invite those who protested then--I invite those who protest today--to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table.Because we remained strong, today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.As I speak, NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland to review the progress of our proposals for eliminating these weapons.At the talks in Geneva, we have also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons.And the Western allies have likewise made far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might occur.And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative--research to base deterrence not on the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that truly defend;on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them.By these means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and all the world.But we must remember a crucial fact: East and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed;we are armed because we mistrust each other.And our differences are not about weapons but about liberty.When President Kennedy spoke at the City Hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled;Berlin was under siege.And today, despite all the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its liberty.And freedom itself is transforming the globe.In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a rebirth.Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth.In the industrialized nations, a technological revolution is taking place, a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom.Yet in this age of redoubled economic growth, of information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It must make fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete.Today, thus, represents a moment of hope.We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer, freer world.And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start.Free people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States stands for the strict observance and full implementation of all parts of the Four Power Agreement of 1971.Let us use this occasion, the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for the Berlin of the future.Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.And I invite Mr.Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the world.To open Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand the vital air access to this city, finding ways of making commercial air service to Berlin more convenient, more comfortable, and more economical.We look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in all central Europe.With--With our French--With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared to help bring international meetings to Berlin.It would be only fitting for Berlin to serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on human rights and arms control, or other issues that call for international cooperation.There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds, and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges, cultural events, and other programs for young Berliners from the East.Our French and British friends, I'm certain, will do the same.And it's my hope that an authority can be found in East Berlin to sponsor visits from young people of the Western sectors.One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics to take place in the North.International sports competitions of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city.And what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year to hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West.In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city.You've done so in spite of threats--the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade.Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall.What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage.But I believe there's something deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of life--not mere sentiment.No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions.Something, instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says “yes” to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom.In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin--is “love.”

Love both profound and abiding.Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West.The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz.Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind.Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross.There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner(quote):

“This wall will fall.Beliefs become reality.”

Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith;it cannot withstand truth.The wall cannot withstand freedom.And I would like, before I close, to say one word.I have read, and I have been questioned since I've been here about certain demonstrations against my coming.And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so.I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they're doing again.Thank you and God bless you all.Thank you.美国经典英文演讲100篇:Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address

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William Jefferson Clinton

Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Prayer Service Address

delivered 23 April 1995 in Oklahoma City, OK

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.(2)]

Thank you very much, Governor Keating and Mrs.Keating, Reverend Graham, to the families of those who have been lost and wounded, to the people of Oklahoma City, who have endured so much, and the people of this wonderful state, to all of you who are here as our fellow Americans.I am honored to be here today to represent the American people.But I have to tell you that Hillary and I also come as parents, as husband and wife, as people who were your neighbors for some of the best years of our lives.Today our nation joins with you in grief.We mourn with you.We share your hope against hope that some may still survive.We thank all those who have worked so heroically to save lives and to solve this crime--those here in Oklahoma and those who are all across this great land, and many who left their own lives to come here to work hand in hand with you.We pledge to do all we can to help you heal the injured, to rebuild this city, and to bring to justice those who did this evil.This terrible sin took the lives of our American family, innocent children in that building, only because their parents were trying to be good parents as well as good workers;citizens in the building going about their daily business;and many there who served the rest of us--who worked to help the elderly and the disabled, who worked to support our farmers and our veterans, who worked to enforce our laws and to protect us.Let us say clearly, they served us well, and we are grateful.But for so many of you they were also neighbors and friends.You saw them at church or the PTA meetings, at the civic clubs, at the ball park.You know them in ways that all the rest of America could not.And to all the members of the families here present who have suffered loss, though we share your grief, your pain is unimaginable, and we know that.We cannot undo it.That is God's work.Our words seem small beside the loss you have endured.But I found a few I wanted to share today.I've received a lot of letters in these last terrible days.One stood out because it came from a young widow and a mother of three whose own husband was murdered with over 200 other Americans when Pan Am 103 was shot down.Here is what that woman said I should say to you today:

The anger you feel is valid, but you must not allow yourselves to be consumed by it.The hurt you feel must not be allowed to turn into hate, but instead into the search for justice.The loss you feel must not paralyze your own lives.Instead, you must try to pay tribute to your loved ones by continuing to do all the things they left undone, thus ensuring they did not die in vain.Wise words from one who also knows.You have lost too much, but you have not lost everything.And you have certainly not lost America, for we will stand with you for as many tomorrows as it takes.If ever we needed evidence of that, I could only recall the words of Governor and Mrs.Keating: “If anybody thinks that Americans are mostly mean and selfish, they ought to come to Oklahoma.If anybody thinks Americans have lost the capacity for love and caring and courage, they ought to come to Oklahoma.”

To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say, one thing we owe those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil.They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life.Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God of righteousness: Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind.¹ Justice will prevail.Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear.When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it.When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.In the face of death, let us honor life.As St.Paul admonished us, Let us “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”²

Yesterday, Hillary and I had the privilege of speaking with some children of other federal employees--children like those who were lost here.And one little girl said something we will never forget.She said, “We should all plant a tree in memory of the children.” So this morning before we got on the plane to come here, at the White House, we planted that tree in honor of the children of Oklahoma.It was a dogwood with its wonderful spring flower and its deep, enduring roots.It embodies the lesson of the Psalms--that the life of a good person is like a tree whose leaf does not wither.³

My fellow Americans, a tree takes a long time to grow, and wounds take a long time to heal.But we must begin.Those who are lost now belong to God.Some day we will be with them.But until that happens, their legacy must be our lives.Thank you all, and God bless you.

第四篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇The_Marshall_Plan

美国经典英文演讲100篇:“The Marshall Plan”George C.Marshall

The Marshall Plan

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]

Mr.President, Dr.Conant, members of the Board of Overseers, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am profoundly grateful, touched by the great distinction and honor and great compliment accorded me by the authorities of Harvard this morning.I am overwhelmed, as a matter of fact, and I am rather fearful of my inability to maintain such a high rating as you've been generous enough to accord to me.In these historic and lovely surroundings, this perfect day, and this very wonderful assembly, it is a tremendously impressive thing to an individual in my position.But to speak more seriously, I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious.That must be apparent to all intelligent people.I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation.Furthermore, the people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth, and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reactions of the long-suffering peoples of Europe and the effect of those

reactions on their governments in connection with our efforts to promote peace in the world.In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe, the physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines, and railroads was correctly estimated, but it has become obvious during recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy.For the past ten years conditions have been highly abnormal.The feverish preparation for war and the more feverish maintenance of the war effort engulfed all aspects of

national economies.Machinery has fallen into disrepair or is entirely obsolete.Under the arbitrary and destructive Nazi rule, virtually every possible enterprise was geared into the German war machine.Long-standing commercial ties, private

institutions, banks, insurance companies, and shipping companies disappeared through loss of capital, absorption through nationalization, or by simple destruction.In many countries, confidence in the local currency has been severely shaken.The breakdown of the business structure of Europe during the war was complete.Recovery has been seriously

retarded by the fact that two years after the close of hostilities a peace settlement with Germany and Austria has not been

agreed upon.But even given a more prompt solution of these difficult problems, the rehabilitation of the economic structure of Europe quite evidently will require a much longer time and greater effort than had been foreseen.There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious.The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life.This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization.At the present time it is threatened with breakdown.The town and city industries are not producing adequate goods to exchange with the food-producing farmer.Raw materials and fuel are in short supply.Machinery, as I have said, is lacking or worn out.The farmer or the peasant cannot find the goods for sale which he desires to purchase.So the sale of his farm produce for money which he cannot use seems to him an unprofitable transaction.He, therefore, has withdrawn many fields from crop cultivation and he's using them for grazing.He feeds more grain to stock and finds for himself and his family an ample supply of food, however short he may be on clothing and the other ordinary gadgets of civilization.Meanwhile, people in the cities are short of food and fuel, and in some places approaching the starvation levels.So, the

governments are forced to use their foreign money and credits to procure these necessities abroad.This process exhausts funds which are urgently needed for reconstruction.Thus, a very serious situation is rapidly developing which bodes no good

for the world.The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down.The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products--principally from America--are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political

deterioration of a very grave character.The remedy seems to lie in breaking the vicious circle and

restoring the confidence of the people of Europe in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.The manufacturer and the farmer throughout wide areas must be able and willing to exchange their product for currencies, the continuing value of which is not open to question.Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all.It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.Any assistance that this Government may render in the future should provide a cure rather than a mere palliative.Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation, I am sure, on the part of the United States Government.Any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us.Furthermore, governments, political parties, or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit there from politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.It is already evident that before the United States Government can proceed much further in its efforts to alleviate the situation and help start the European world on its way to recovery, there must be some agreement among the countries of Europe as to the requirements of the situation and the part those countries themselves will take in order to give a proper effect to whatever actions might be undertaken by this Government.It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for our Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically.This is the business of the Europeans.The initiative, I think, must come from Europe.The role of this country should consist of friendly aid in the drafting of a

European program and of later support of such a program so far as it may be practical for us to do so.The program should be a joint one, agreed to by a number, if not all, European nations.An essential part of any successful action on the part of the United States is an understanding on the part of the people of America of the character of the problem and the remedies to be applied.Political passion and prejudice should have no part.With foresight, and a willingness on the part of our people to face up to the vast responsibility which history has clearly

placed upon our country, the difficulties I have outlined can and will be overcome.I am sorry that on each occasion I have said something publicly in regard to our international situation, I have been forced by the necessities of the case to enter into rather technical

discussions.But, to my mind, it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the

complications really are, rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment.As I said more formally a moment ago, we are remote from the scene of these troubles.It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs and motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation.And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment.It hangs, I think, to a large extent on the realization of the American people, of just what are the various

dominant factors.What are the reactions of the people? What are the justifications of those reactions? What are the sufferings? What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done? Thank you very much.

第五篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇1988_DNC_Address

美国经典英文演讲100篇:1988 DNC Address

Take New York, the dynamic metropolis.What makes New York so special? It's the invitation at the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free.” Not restricted to English only.Many people, many cultures, many languages with one thing in common: They yearn to breathe free.Common ground.Tonight in Atlanta, for the first time in this century, we convene in the South;a state where Governors once stood in school house doors;where Julian Bond was denied a seat in the State Legislature because of his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War;a city that, through its five Black Universities, has graduated more black students than any city in the world.Atlanta, now a modern intersection of the New South.Common ground.That's the challenge of our party tonight--left wing, right wing.Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival--not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival.It takes two wings to fly.Whether you're a hawk or a dove, you're just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world.The Bible teaches that when lions and lambs lie down together, none will be afraid, and there will be peace in the valley.It sounds impossible.Lions eat lambs.Lambs sensibly flee from lions.Yet even lions and lambs find common ground.Why? Because neither lions nor lambs want the forest to catch on fire.Neither lions nor lambs want acid rain to fall.Neither lions nor lambs can survive nuclear war.If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we can as well--as civilized people.The only time that we win is when we come together.In 1960, John Kennedy, the late John Kennedy, beat Richard Nixon by only 112,000 votes--less than one vote per precinct.He won by the margin of our hope.He brought us together.He reached out.He had the courage to defy his advisors and inquire about Dr.King's jailing in Albany, Georgia.We won by the margin of our hope, inspired by courageous leadership.In 1964, Lyndon Johnson brought both wings together--the thesis, the antithesis, and the creative synthesis--and together we won.In 1976, Jimmy Carter unified us again, and we won.When do we not come together, we never win.In 1968, the division and despair in July led to our defeat in November.In 1980, rancor in the spring and the summer led to Reagan in the fall.When we divide, we cannot win.We must find common ground as the basis for survival and development and change and growth.Today when we debated, differed, deliberated, agreed to agree, agreed to disagree, when we had the good judgment to argue a case and then not self-destruct, George Bush was just a little further away from the White House and a little closer to private life.Tonight, I salute Governor Michael Dukakis.He has run--He has run a well-managed and a dignified campaign.No matter how tired or how tried, he always resisted the temptation to stoop to demagoguery.I've watched a good mind fast at work, with steel nerves, guiding his campaign out of the crowded field without appeal to the worst in us.I've watched his perspective grow as his environment has expanded.I've seen his toughness and tenacity close up.I know his commitment to public service.Mike Dukakis' parents were a doctor and a teacher;my parents a maid, a beautician, and a janitor.There's a great gap between Brookline, Massachusetts and Haney Street in the Fieldcrest Village housing projects in Greenville, South Carolina.He studied law;I studied theology.There are differences of religion, region, and race;differences in experiences and perspectives.But the genius of America is that out of the many we become one.Providence has enabled our paths to intersect.His foreparents came to America on immigrant ships;my foreparents came to

America on slave ships.But whatever the original ships, we're in the same boat tonight.Our ships could pass in the night--if we have a false sense of independence--or they could collide and crash.We would lose our passengers.We can seek a high reality and a greater good.Apart, we can drift on the broken pieces of Reagonomics, satisfy our baser instincts, and exploit the fears of our people.At our highest, we can call upon noble instincts and navigate this vessel to safety.The greater good is the common good.As Jesus said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” It was his way of saying there's a higher good beyond personal comfort or position.The good of our Nation is at stake.It's commitment to working men and women, to the poor and the vulnerable, to the many in the world.With so many guided missiles, and so much misguided leadership, the stakes are exceedingly high.Our choice? Full participation in a democratic government, or more abandonment and neglect.And so this night, we choose not a false sense of independence, not our capacity to survive and endure.Tonight we choose interdependency, and our capacity to act and unite for the greater good.Common good is finding commitment to new priorities to expansion and inclusion.A commitment to expanded participation in the Democratic Party at every level.A commitment to a shared national campaign strategy and involvement at every level.A commitment to new priorities that insure that hope will be kept alive.A common ground commitment to a legislative agenda for empowerment, for the John Conyers bill--universal, on-site, same-day registration everywhere.A commitment to D.C.statehood and empowerment--D.C.deserves statehood.A commitment to economic set-asides, commitment to the

Dellums bill for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa.A shared commitment to a common direction.Common ground.Easier said than done.Where do you find common ground? At the point of challenge.This campaign has shown that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits.Politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common ground.We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice.We find common ground at the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets.Common ground at the school yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can't make a loan.Common ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to a bed that's empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick.We are a better nation than that.We must do better.Common ground.What is leadership if not present help in a time of crisis? And so I met you at the point of challenge.In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages;in Greenville, Iowa, where family farmers struggle for a fair price;in Cleveland, Ohio, where working women seek comparable worth;in McFarland, California, where the children of Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with cancer;in an AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by their own parents and friends.Common ground.America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a blanket, she didn't complain and we did not freeze.Instead she took pieces of old cloth--patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack--only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with.But they didn't stay that way very long.With

sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture.Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt.Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right--but you cannot stand alone.Your patch is not big enough.Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right--but your patch labor is not big enough.Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Students, you seek scholarships, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right--but our patch is not big enough.Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing, hawk, dove, you are right from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.But don't despair.Be as wise as my grandmamma.Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread.When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation.We, the people, can win.We stand at the end of a long dark night of reaction.We stand tonight united in the commitment to a new direction.For almost eight years we've been led by those who view social good

coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth.They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few.We believe in a government that's a tool of our democracy in service to the public, not an instrument of the aristocracy in search of private wealth.We believe in government with the consent of the governed, “of, for and by the people.” We must now emerge into a new day with a new direction.Reaganomics: Based on the belief that the rich had too much money [sic]--too little money and the poor had too much.That's classic Reaganomics.They believe that the poor had too much money and the rich had too little money,-so they engaged in reverse Robin Hood-took from the poor, gave to the rich, paid for by the middle class.We cannot stand four more years of Reaganomics in any version, in any disguise.How do I document that case? Seven years later, the richest 1 percent of our society pays 20 percent less in taxes.The poorest 10 percent pay 20 percent more: Reaganomics.Reagan gave the rich and the powerful a multibillion-dollar party.Now the party is over.He expects the people to pay for the damage.I take this principal position, convention, let us not raise taxes on the poor and the middle-class, but those who had the party, the rich and the powerful, must pay for the party.I just want to take common sense to high places.We're spending one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year defending Europe and Japan 43 years after the war is over.We have more troops in Europe tonight than we had seven years ago.Yet the threat of war is ever more remote.Germany and Japan are now creditor nations;that means they've got a surplus.We are a debtor nation--means we are in debt.Let them share more of the burden of their own defense.Use some of that money to build decent housing.Use some of that money to educate our children.Use some of that money for

long-term health care.Use some of that money to wipe out these slums and put America back to work!I just want to take common sense to high places.If we can bail out Europe and Japan;if we can bail out Continental Bank and Chrysler--and Mr.Iacocca, make [sic] 8,000 dollars an hour--we can bail out the family farmer.I just want to make common sense.It does not make sense to close down six hundred and fifty thousand family farms in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S.Government.Let's make sense.It does not make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying $2.50 for every one dollar worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.I just want to make sense.Leadership must meet the moral challenge of its day.What's the moral challenge of our day? We have public accommodations.We have the right to vote.We have open housing.What's the fundamental challenge of our day? It is to end economic violence.Plant closings without notice--economic violence.Even the greedy do not profit long from greed--economic violence.Most poor people are not lazy.They are not black.They are not brown.They are mostly White and female and young.But whether White, Black or Brown, a hungry baby's belly turned inside out is the same color--color it pain;color it hurt;color it agony.Most poor people are not on welfare.Some of them are illiterate and can't read the want-ad sections.And when they can, they can't find a job that matches the address.They work hard everyday.I know.I live amongst them.I'm one of them.I know they work.I'm a witness.They catch the early bus.They work every day.They raise other people's children.They work everyday.They clean the streets.They work everyday.They drive dangerous cabs.They work everyday.They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract.They work everyday.No, no, they are not lazy!Someone must defend them because it's right, and they cannot speak for themselves.They work in hospitals.I know they do.They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain.They empty their bedpans.They clean out their commodes.No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day.America, that is not right.We are a better Nation than that.We are a better Nation than that.We need a real war on drugs.You can't “just say no.” It's deeper than that.You can't just get a palm reader or an astrologer.It's more profound than that.We are spending a hundred and fifty billion dollars on drugs a year.We've gone from ignoring it to focusing on the children.Children cannot buy a hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of drugs a year;a few high-profile athletes--athletes are not laundering a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year--bankers are.I met the children in Watts, who, unfortunately, in their despair, their grapes of hope have become raisins of despair, and they're turning on each other and they're self-destructing.But I stayed with them all night long.I wanted to hear their case.They said, “Jesse Jackson, as you challenge us to say no to drugs, you're right;and to not sell them, you're right;and not use these guns, you're right.”(And by the way, the promise of CETA [Comprehensive Employment and Training Act];they displaced CETA--they did not replace CETA.)“We have neither jobs nor houses nor services nor training--no way out.Some of us take drugs as anesthesia for our pain.Some take drugs as a way of pleasure, good short-term pleasure and long-term pain.Some sell drugs to make money.It's wrong, we know, but you need to know that we know.We can go and buy the drugs by the boxes at the port.If we can buy the drugs at the port, don't you believe the Federal government can stop it if they want to?” They say, “We don't have Saturday night specials anymore.” They say, “We buy AK47's and Uzi's, the latest make of weapons.We buy them across the along these boulevards.” You cannot fight a war on drugs unless and until you're going to challenge the bankers and the gun sellers and those who grow them.Don't just focus on the children;let's stop drugs at the level of supply and demand.We must end the scourge on the American Culture.Leadership.What difference will we make? Leadership.Cannot just go along to get along.We must do more than change Presidents.We must change direction.Leadership must face the moral challenge of our day.The nuclear war build-up is irrational.Strong leadership cannot desire to look tough and let that stand in the way of the pursuit of peace.Leadership must reverse the arms race.At least we should pledge no first use.Why? Because first use begets first retaliation.And that's mutual annihilation.That's not a rational way out.No use at all.Let's think it out and not fight it our because it's an unwinnable fight.Why hold a card that you can never drop? Let's give peace a chance.Leadership.We now have this marvelous opportunity to have a breakthrough with the Soviets.Last year 200,000 Americans visited the Soviet Union.There's a chance for joint ventures into space--not Star Wars and war arms escalation but a space defense initiative.Let's build in the space together and demilitarize the heavens.There's a way out.America, let us expand.When Mr.Reagan and Mr.Gorbachev met there was a big meeting.They represented together one-eighth of the human race.Seven-eighths of the human race

was locked out of that room.Most people in the world tonight--half are Asian, one-half of them are Chinese.There are 22 nations in the Middle East.There's Europe;40 million Latin Americans next door to us;the Caribbean;Africa--a half-billion people.Most people in the world today are Yellow or Brown or Black, non-Christian, poor, female, young and don't speak English in the real world.This generation must offer leadership to the real world.We're losing ground in Latin America, Middle East, South Africa because we're not focusing on the real world.That's the real world.We must use basic principles--support international law.We stand the most to gain from it.Support human rights--we believe in that.Support self-determination--we're built on that.Support economic development--you know it's right.Be consistent and gain our moral authority in the world.I challenge you tonight, my friends, let's be bigger and better as a Nation and as a Party.We have basic challenges--freedom in South Africa.We've already agreed as Democrats to declare South Africa to be a terrorist state.But don't just stop there.Get South Africa out of Angola;free Namibia;support the front line states.We must have a new humane human rights consistent policy in Africa.I'm often asked, “Jesse, why do you take on these tough issues? They're not very political.We can't win that way.” If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political.It may be political and never be right.Fannie Lou Hamer didn't have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have outlasted every delegate who voted to lock her out.Rosa Parks did not have the most votes, but she was morally right.Dr.King didn't have the most votes about the Vietnam War, but he was morally right.If we are principled first, our politics will fall in place.“Jesse, why do you take these big bold initiatives?” A poem by an unknown author went something like this: “We mastered the

air, we conquered the sea, annihilated distance and prolonged life, but we're not wise enough to live on this earth without war and without hate.” As for Jesse Jackson: “I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar.I want to go out where the big ships float, out on the deep where the great ones are.And should my frail craft prove too slight for waves that sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down in the stirring fight than drowse to death at the sheltered shore.” We've got to go out, my friends, where the big boats are.And then for our children.Young America, hold your head high now.We can win.We must not lose you to drugs and violence, premature pregnancy, suicide, cynicism, pessimism and despair.We can win.Wherever you are tonight, I challenge you to hope and to dream.Don't submerge your dreams.Exercise above all else, even on drugs, dream of the day you are drug free.Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you will be up on your feet again.You must never stop dreaming.Face reality, yes, but don't stop with the way things are.Dream of things as they ought to be.Dream.Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the pain.Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress, but you keep on dreaming, young America.Dream of peace.Peace is rational and reasonable.War is irrationable [sic] in this age, and unwinnable.Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living.Dream of doctors who are concerned more about public health than private wealth.Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship.Dream of preachers who are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering.Dream on the high road with sound values.And then America, as we go forth to September, October, November and then beyond, America must never surrender to a high moral challenge.Do not surrender to drugs.The best drug policy is a “no first use.” Don't surrender with needles and cynicism.Let's have “no first use” on the one hand, or clinics on the other.Never surrender, young America.Go forward.America must never surrender to malnutrition.We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked.We must never surrender.We must go forward.We must never surrender to illiteracy.Invest in our children.Never surrender;and go forward.We must never surrender to inequality.Women cannot compromise ERA or comparable worth.Women are making 60 cents on the dollar to what a man makes.Women cannot buy meat cheaper.Women cannot buy bread cheaper.Women cannot buy milk cheaper.Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do.It's right!And it's fair.Don't surrender, my friends.Those who have AIDS tonight, you deserve our compassion.Even with AIDS you must not surrender.In your wheelchairs.I see you sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs.I've stayed with you.I've reached out to you across our Nation.And don't you give up.I know it's tough sometimes.People look down on you.It took you a little more effort to get here tonight.And no one should look down on you, but sometimes mean people do.The only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up.But even in your wheelchairs, don't you give up.We cannot forget 50 years ago when our backs were against the wall, Roosevelt was in a wheelchair.I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan and Bush on a horse.Don't you surrender and don't you give up.Don't surrender and don't give up!Why I cannot challenge you this way? “Jesse Jackson, you don't understand my situation.You be on television.You don't

understand.I see you with the big people.You don't understand my situation.” I understand.You see me on TV, but you don't know the me that makes me, me.They wonder, “Why does Jesse run?” because they see me running for the White House.They don't see the house I'm running from.I have a story.I wasn't always on television.Writers were not always outside my door.When I was born late one afternoon, October 8th, in Greenville, South Carolina, no writers asked my mother her name.Nobody chose to write down our address.My mama was not supposed to make it, and I was not supposed to make it.You see, I was born of a teen-age mother, who was born of a teen-age mother.I understand.I know abandonment, and people being mean to you, and saying you're nothing and nobody and can never be anything.I understand.Jesse Jackson is my third name.I'm adopted.When I had no name, my grandmother gave me her name.My name was Jesse Burns 'til I was 12.So I wouldn't have a blank space, she gave me a name to hold me over.I understand when nobody knows your name.I understand when you have no name.I understand.I wasn't born in the hospital.Mama didn't have insurance.I was born in the bed at [the] house.I really do understand.Born in a three-room house, bathroom in the backyard, slop jar by the bed, no hot and cold running water.I understand.Wallpaper used for decoration? No.For a windbreaker.I understand.I'm a working person's person.That's why I understand you whether you're Black or White.I understand work.I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.I had a shovel programmed for my hand.My mother, a working woman.So many of the days she went to work early, with runs in her stockings.She knew better, but she

wore runs in her stockings so that my brother and I could have matching socks and not be laughed at at school.I understand.At 3 o'clock on Thanksgiving Day, we couldn't eat turkey because momma was preparing somebody else's turkey at 3 o'clock.We had to play football to entertain ourselves.And then around 6 o'clock she would get off the Alta Vista bus and we would bring up the leftovers and eat our turkey--leftovers, the carcass, the cranberries--around 8 o'clock at night.I really do understand.Every one of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast tonight in the projects, on the corners, I understand.Call you outcast, low down, you can't make it, you're nothing, you're from nobody, subclass, underclass;when you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination.I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me.And it wasn't born in you, and you can make it.Wherever you are tonight, you can make it.Hold your head high;stick your chest out.You can make it.It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes.Don't you surrender!Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith.In the end faith will not disappoint.You must not surrender!You may or may not get there but just know that you're qualified!And you hold on, and hold out!We must never surrender！America will get better and better.Keep hope alive.Keep hope alive!Keep hope alive!On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive!I love you very much.I love you very much.