第一篇：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
时间:2008-6-12 10:19:08 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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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A Crisis of Confidence
美国经典英文演讲100篇:“A Crisis of Confidence”
Jimmy Carter
Energy and the National Goals-A Crisis of Confidence
delivered 15 July, 1979
[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.] Good Evening: This a special night for me.Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States.I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.During the past three years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation’s economy, and issues of war and especially peace.But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important.Gradually, you’ve heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation’s hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.Ten days ago, I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject--energy.For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress.But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you: Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem? It’s clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper--deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession.And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help.So, I decided to reach out and to listen to the voices of America.I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society--business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens.And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I’ve heard.First of all, I got a lot of personal advice.Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.This from a southern governor: “Mr.President, you are not leading this nation--you’re just managing the government.” “You don’t see the people enough anymore.”
“Some of your Cabinet members don’t seem loyal.There is not enough discipline among your disciples.”
“Don’t talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good.”
“Mr.President, we’re in trouble.Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears.”
“If you lead, Mr.President, we will follow.”
Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: “I feel so far from government.I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power.”
And this from a young Chicano: “Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives.”
“Some people have wasted energy, but others haven’t had anything to waste.”
And this from a religious leader: “No material shortage can touch the important things like God’s love for us or our love for one another.” And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: “The big shots are not the only ones who are important.Remember, you can’t sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first.”
This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: “Mr.President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.”
Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice.I’ll read just a few.“We can’t go on consuming forty percent more energy then we produce.When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment.”
“We’ve got to use what we have.The Middle East has only five percent of the world’s energy, but the United States has twenty-four percent.” And this is one of the most vivid statements: “Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife.”
“There will be other cartels and other shortages.American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future.” This was a good one: “Be bold, Mr.President.We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.”
And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: “The real issue is freedom.We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing.” And the last that I’ll read: “When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr.President, don’t issue us BB guns.”
These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns about our nation’s underlying problems.I know, of course, being President, that government actions and legislation can be very important.That’s why I’ve worked hard to put my campaign promises into law, and I have to admit, with just mixed success.But after listening to the American people, I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America.So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation.I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.I do not mean our political and civil liberties.They will endure.And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.It is a crisis of confidence.It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.Confidence in the future has supported everything else--public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.We’ve always believed in something called progress.We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy.As a people we know our past and we are proud of it.Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom;and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose.But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us.For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.Two-thirds of our people do not even vote.The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.These changes did not happen overnight.They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.[NextPage] We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings.We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.These wounds are still very deep.They have never been healed.Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation’s life.Washington, D.C., has become an island.The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide.The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers;clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action.You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests.You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another.You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift.You don’t like it, and neither do I.What can we do? First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course.We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation.Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face.It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: “We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying.The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.”
We know the strength of America.We are strong.We can regain our unity.We can regain our confidence.We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now.Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the moon.We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality.And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process, rebuild the unity and confidence of America.We are at a turning point in our history.There are two paths to choose.One is a path I’ve warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest.Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others.That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility.It is a certain route to failure.6 All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path--the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values.That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves.We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally.On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.In little more than two decades we’ve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof.Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people.This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline.It’s a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face.This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.The energy crisis is real.It is worldwide.It is a clear and present danger to our nation.These are facts and we simply must face them.What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States.Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977--never.From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation.The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade--a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas.I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow.These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel--from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace two and a half million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990.The corporation will issue up to five billion dollars in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so average Americans can invest directly in America’s energy security.Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war.Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation’s first solar bank which will help us achieve the crucial goal of twenty percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay.It will be money well spent.Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans, to Americans.These will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.Point four: I’m asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation’s utility companies cut their massive use of oil by fifty percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.We will protect our environment.But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.Point six: I’m proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle.This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing.To further conserve energy, I’m proposing tonight an extra ten billion dollars over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems.And I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel.Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense, I tell you it is an act of patriotism.Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices.We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice.In fact, it is the most painless and immediate ways of rebuilding our nation’s strength.Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production.It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country.It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.You know we can do it.We have the natural resources.We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias.We have more coal than any nation on earth.We have the world’s highest level of technology.We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy.I do not promise a quick way out of our nation’s problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort.What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty.And above all, I will act.We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively, and we will;but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems.There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program.Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our nation’s deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America.You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980s.I will listen;and I will act.We will act together.These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence.We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science.But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources--America’s people, America’s values, and America’s confidence.I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people.In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation.In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone.Let your voice be heard.Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country.With God’s help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America.Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit.Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.Thank you and good night.
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.
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