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Barbara Jordan Quotes


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Barbara Jordan
February 21, 1936 - January 17, 1996
Nationality: American
Category: Lawyer
Subcategory: American Lawyer

But this is the great danger America faces. That we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual. Each seeking to satisfy private wants.

   

We have made mistakes. In our haste to do all things for all people, we did not foresee the full consequences of our actions. And when the people raised their voices, we didn't hear. But our deafness was only a temporary condition, and not an irreversible condition.

   

What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise.

   

If you're going to play the game properly, you'd better know every rule.

   

We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.

   

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse - what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.

   

I never intended to become a run-of-the-mill person.

   

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.

   

Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

   

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

   

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

   

We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.

   

Let's all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.

   

Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans.

   

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

   

For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future.

   

We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.

   

One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.

   

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

   

Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.

   

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