John Kerry’s Speech at Brown University, Today
John Kerry is delivering a major speech at Brown University in Rhode Island today. We’ve received an advance copy of the speech, which will be emailed to members of the JohnKerry.com community today, as well.
Kerry notes in his speech that although Bush has taken “responsibilty for the lack of response to Katrina, he needs to tkae the next step “by admitting one or two of the countless mistakes in conceiving, “selling”, planning and executing their war of choice in Iraq.”
“Katrina stripped away any image of competence and exposed to all the true heart and nature of this administration,” Kerry says. It’s “our job — to turn this moment from a frenzied expression of guilt into a national reversal of direction,” he reminds us.
Senator John Kerry’s Speech at Brown University
Remarks As Prepared for Delivery
Providence, RI - Thank you for your invitation to be here. It’s rare for me to speak at a university like Brown. Usually I don’t speak at a football factory. I want to personally thank those of you who generously lent your efforts to my campaign last year. No one showed more passion than the thousands of students from across the country who knocked on doors, wore out shoes, endured desert heat and arctic cold and probably damaged their GPA’s to get out the vote. You did everything, except move to Ohio.
I also want to thank you for what the Brown community has done to help and comfort the many victims of Hurricane Katrina. This horrifying disaster has shown Americans at their best — and their government at its worst.
And that’s what I’ve come to talk with you about today. The incompetence of Katrina’s response is not reserved to a hurricane. There’s an enormous gap between Americans’ daily expectations and government’s daily performance. And the gap is growing between the enduring strength of the American people — their values, their spirit, their imagination, their ingenuity, and their willingness to serve and sacrifice — and the shocking weakness of the American government in contending with our country’s urgent challenges. On the Gulf Coast during the last two weeks, the depth and breadth of that gap has been exposed for all to see and we have to address it now before it is obscured again by hurricane force spin and deception.
Katrina stripped away any image of competence and exposed to all the true heart and nature of this administration. The truth is that for four and a half years, real life choices have been replaced by ideological agenda, substance replaced by spin, governance second place always to politics. Yes, they can run a good campaign — I can attest to that — but America needs more than a campaign. If 12 year-old Boy Scouts can be prepared, Americans have a right to expect the same from their 59 year-old President of the United States.
Katrina reminds us that too often the political contests of our time have been described like football games with color commentary: one team of consultants against another, red states against blue states, Democratic money against Republican money; a contest of height versus hair - sometimes. But the truth is democracy is not a game; we are living precious time each day in a different America than the one we can inhabit if we make different choices.
MORE -
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=601
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