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CAROLINE KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG DELIVERS REMARKS AT DEMOCRATIC
CAMPAIGN 2000: CAROLINE KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG DELIVERS REMARKS
AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
AUGUST 15, 2000
SPEAKERS: CAROLINE KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG
KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG: It's an honor to be here with you. I feel
a special sense of kinship here tonight. You see, in more ways than
one, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the Gore family. For nearly
half a century ago, when my father and mother were first getting to
know each other, two of the helpful matchmakers were Al Gore's
parents, Albert and Pauline.
(APPLAUSE)
Al Gore and I share something more than that happy circumstance.
Both of us were raised to believe that we can make the world new again
if only we try.
(APPLAUSE)
That is what my father sought to do 40 years ago in this city
when he stood before you and declared the opening of the new frontier.
It was not a set of promises, he said, but a set of challenges --
challenges of the mind and heart and spirit, the challenge of giving
of ourselves, of giving to our country.
And I know that when my brother, John, and I were growing up,
hardly a day went by when someone didn't come up to us and say, your
father changed my life. I went...
(APPLAUSE)
I went into public service...
(APPLAUSE)
I went into public service because he asked me. I take great
pride in knowing that one of those that he inspired to enter public
service is the next vice president of the United States, Joe
Lieberman.
(APPLAUSE)
So as I look out across this hall and across this country, I know
that my father's spirit lives on.
KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG: And I thank all of you.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, it is our turn to prove that the New Frontier was not a
place in time, but a timeless call.
Now, we are the New Frontier. And now when many of us are doing
so well, it is time once again, to ask more of ourselves. As much as
we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness
and decency.
(APPLAUSE)
We need a president who will work to create an America where our
parents and grandparents feel secure, our children are cared for, and
Americans grow up believing that each one of us is necessary to make
our democracy work.
(APPLAUSE)
We need a president who is not afraid of complexity, who believes
in an open and tolerant society, and who knows that the world can be
made new again. And that president is Al Gore.
(APPLAUSE)
When I was writing a book on the Bill of Rights, I spoke with a
woman who has spent 15 years fighting for the First Amendment. When I
asked her how she had given up so much of her life to do this, she
said, "It is up to each of us to create a government that is close to
our heart's desire, because if we don't do it, somebody else will."
(APPLAUSE)
It is up to each and every single one of us to leave this
convention and work as hard we can to help Al Gore create the America
of our ideals.
(APPLAUSE)
KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG: Because let me tell you, that somebody
else's government is not what we want.
(APPLAUSE)
If we believe in civil rights and human rights and closing the
racial divide, then it is up to us. If we believe in clean air and
clean water, then it is up to us.
(APPLAUSE)
If we want a Supreme Court that will protect the freedoms in the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the right to privacy,
that will keep our personal, financial and medical information from
being up for grabs and will guarantee the right to make our own
reproductive decisions, then it is up to us.
(APPLAUSE)
And if we believe -- if we believe that we have seen enough gun
violence in our land and in our lifetimes, that guns should no longer
take the lives of those we love, then it is up to us.
(APPLAUSE)
If we believe in these things, then it is up to us to elect Al
Gore and Joe Lieberman.
(APPLAUSE)
I was lucky enough to grow up in a world where adults taught by
example. They dreamed impossible dreams, yet they fought hard each
day to make those dreams come true. They taught us the importance of
faith and family and how those values must be woven together into
lives of purpose and meaning.
That is what my husband Ed and I want for our three children.
That is what Al and Tipper Gore want for their children.
KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG: And that is what we all want for America's
children.
(APPLAUSE)
Now I believe -- I believe that is what my father wanted for us
as he stood here four decades ago; not only to make better the world
that surrounds us but to dream of something more.
I thank all Americans for making me and John and all our family a
part of your families...
(APPLAUSE)
... for reaching out -- for reaching out and sustaining us
through the good times and the difficult ones, and for helping us
dream my father's dream.
"Our call is to the young at heart regardless of age," he said.
"The whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their
trust. We cannot fail to try."
Now it gives me great pride to introduce to you a man who has
never stopped trying, who has worked harder than anyone for the world
my father envisioned, whose public service is an inspiration.
The nation knows him as a courageous fighter for working
families, a voice for the elderly, a champion of all who have been
left out or locked out of America's promise. For his mother, his
brothers and sisters, his children, for me and my cousins, he has
always been there when we needed him.
My father was his godfather and he's godfather now to my
daughter, Rose. To my children, he's like a godfather and a
grandfather rolled into one, so much so that the stuffed bear my
daughter sleeps with at night is not called Teddy, his name is Uncle
Teddy.
(LAUGHTER)
No uncle could be better. No senator has ever achieved more.
Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
END
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