Remarks As Prepared For Delivery By Al
Gore
Democratic National Conversation
Thursday, August 17, 2000
I speak tonight of gratitude, achievement,
and high hopes for our country.
Tonight, I think first of those who helped
get me here - starting with the people of Tennessee. Then, those who
braved the first snows of Iowa and New Hampshire -- and all of you here,
from all over this country, who have come with me into the warm sunlight
of this great city.
While I can't thank each of you
individually in words, I do so in my heart.
And I know you won't mind if I single out
someone who has just spoken so eloquently, someone I've loved with my
whole heart since the night of my high school senior prom -- my wife,
Tipper. We've been lucky enough to find each other all over again at each
new stage of our lives - and we just celebrated our 30th wedding
anniversary.
I want to acknowledge with great pride our
four children: Kristin, Sarah, and Albert;
Our oldest daughter Karenna and her husband
Drew;
And the youngest member of our family, who
a little over a year ago was born on the Fourth of July -- our grandson
Wyatt.
I'm honored tonight by the support of a
leader of high ideals and fundamental decency, who will be an important
part of our country's future -- Senator Bill Bradley.
There's someone else who will shape that
future -- a leader of character and courage. A defender of the
environment, and working families --
The next Vice President of the United
States, Joe Lieberman.
I picked him for one simple reason: he's
the best person for the job.
For almost eight years now, I've been the
partner of a leader who moved us out of the valley of recession and into
the longest period of prosperity in American history. I say to you
tonight: millions of Americans will live better lives for a long time to
come because of the job that's been done by President Bill Clinton.
Instead of the biggest deficits in history,
we now have the biggest surpluses. The highest home ownership ever. The
lowest inflation in a generation.
Instead of losing jobs, we have 22 million
new jobs.
Above all, our success comes from you, the
people who have worked hard for your families.
Let's not forget that a few years ago, you
were also working hard. But your hard work was undone by a government that
didn't work, didn't put people first, and wasn't on your side.
Together, we changed things, to help
unleash your potential, and innovation and investment in the private
sector, the engine that drives our economic growth.
And our progress on the economy is a good
chapter in our history.
But now we turn the page and write a new
chapter. And that's what I want to speak about tonight.
This election is not an award for past
performance.
I'm not asking you to vote for me on the
basis of the economy we have.
Tonight, I ask for your support on the
basis of the better, fairer, more prosperous America we can build
together.
Together, let's make sure that our
prosperity enriches not just the few, but all working families. Let's
invest in health care, education, a secure retirement, and middle class
tax cuts.
I'm happy that the stock market has boomed
and so many businesses and new enterprises have done well. This country is
richer and stronger.
But my focus is on working families -
people trying to make house payments and car payments, working overtime to
save for college and do right by their kids… Whether you're in a suburb,
or an inner-city… Whether you raise crops or drive hogs and cattle on a
farm, drive a big rig on the Interstate, or drive e-commerce on the
Internet… Whether you're starting out to raise your own family, or getting
ready to retire after a lifetime of hard work.
So often, powerful forces and powerful
interests stand in your way, and the odds seemed stacked against you --
even as you do what's right for you and your family.
How and what we do for all of you - the
people who pay the taxes, bear the burdens, and live the American dream --
that is the standard by which we should be judged.
And for all of our good times, I am not
satisfied.
To all the families in America who have to
struggle to afford the right education and the skyrocketing cost of
prescription drugs -
I want you to know this: I've taken on the
powerful forces. And as President, I'll stand up to them, and I'll stand
up for you.
To all the families who are struggling with
things that money can't measure - like trying to find a little more time
to spend with your children, or protecting your children from
entertainment that you think glorifies violence and indecency -
I want you to know: I believe we must
challenge a culture with too much meanness, and not enough meaning. And as
President, I will stand with you for a goal that we share: to give more
power back to the parents, to choose what your own children are exposed
to, so you can pass on your family's basic lessons of responsibility and
decency.
The power should be in your hands. The
future should belong to everyone in this land.
We could squander this moment - but our
country would be the poorer for it. Instead, let's lift our eyes, and see
how wide the American horizon has become.
We're entering a new time -
We're electing a new President -
And I stand here tonight as my own man, and
I want you to know me for who I truly am.
I grew up in a wonderful family. I have a
lot to be thankful for. And the greatest gift my parents gave me was love.
When I was a child, it never once occurred to me that the foundation upon
which my security depended would ever shake.
And of all the lessons my parents taught
me, the most powerful one was unspoken -- the way they loved one another.
My father respected my mother as an equal,
if not more. She was his best friend, and in many ways, his conscience.
And I learned from them the value of a true, loving partnership that lasts
for life.
They simply couldn't imagine being without
each other. And for 61 years, they were by each other's side.
My parents taught me that the real values
in life aren't material but spiritual. They include faith and family, duty
and honor, and trying to make the world a better place.
I finished college at a time when all that
seemed to be in doubt, and our nation's spirit was being depleted. We saw
the assassination of our best leaders. Appeals to racial backlash. And the
first warning signs of Watergate.
I remember the conversations I had with
Tipper back then - and the doubts we had about the Vietnam War.
But I enlisted in the Army because I knew
if I didn't go, someone else in the small town of Carthage, Tennessee
would have to go in my place.
I was an Army reporter in Vietnam. When I
was there, I didn't do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was
proud to wear my country's uniform.
When I came home, running for office was
the very last thing I ever thought I would do. I studied religion at
Vanderbilt, and worked nights as a police reporter at the Nashville
Tennessean. And I saw more of what could go wrong in America - not only on
the police beat, but as an investigative reporter covering local
government.
I also saw so much of what could go right -
citizens lifting up local communities, family by family, block by block,
neighborhood by neighborhood, in churches and charities, on school boards
and City Councils.
And then, Tipper and I started our own
family. And when our first daughter Karenna was born, I began to see the
future through a fresh set of eyes. I know a lot of you have had that
feeling, too.
And I decided that I could not turn away
from service at home - any more than I could have turned away from service
in Vietnam.
That's why I ran for Congress. In my first
term, a family in Hardeman County, Tennessee wrote a letter and told how
worried they were about toxic waste that had been dumped near their home.
I held some of the first hearings on the issue. And ever since, I've been
there in the fight against the big polluters.
Our children should not have to draw the
breath of life in cities awash in pollution. When they come in from
playing on a hot summer afternoon, every child in America, anywhere in
America, ought to be able to turn on the faucet and get a glass of safe,
clean drinking water.
On the issue of the environment, I've never
given up, I've never backed down, and I never will.
And I say it again tonight: we must reverse
the silent, rising tide of global warming.
In the Senate and as Vice President, I
fought for welfare reform. Over and over again, I talked to folks who told
me how they were trapped in the old welfare system. I saw what it did to
families. So I fought to end welfare as we then knew it - to help those in
trouble, but to insist on work and responsibility.
Others talked about welfare reform. We
actually reformed welfare and set time limits. Instead of hand-outs, we
gave people training to go from welfare to work. And we have cut the
welfare rolls in half and moved millions into good jobs.
For almost 25 years now, I've been fighting
for people. And for all that time, I've been listening to people - holding
open meetings, in the places where they live and work.
And you know what? I've learned a lot. And
if I'm your President, I'm going to keep on having open meetings all over
this country. I'm going to go out to you, the people, because I want to
stay in touch with your hopes; with the quiet, every-day heroism of
hard-working Americans.
And because I've learned that the issues
before us, the problems and the policies, all have names. And I don't mean
the big fancy names that we put on programs and legislation. I'm talking
about family names like Nystel, Johnson, Gutierrez, and Malone - people
and families I've met in the last year, all across this country. And
here's what they've told me:
I met Mildred Nystel in Waterloo, Iowa.
Because of our welfare reform, she's left welfare and found a good job
training electricians - and she's become a proud member of IBEW Local 288.
Now she dreams of sending her daughter Irene to college.
Mildred Nystel is here with us tonight. And
I say to her: I will fight for a targeted, affordable tax cut to help
working families save and pay for college.
I met Jacqueline Johnson in St. Louis,
Missouri. She worked for 35 years as a medical assistant, caring for
others. Now she's 72 years old and needs prescription medicines to care
for herself. She spends over half of her Social Security check - her only
source of income - on her pills. So she either skips meals, or shops for
bargains at a wholesale food store and buys macaroni and cheese dinners in
bulk - and then has them at every meal.
I invited her here tonight. And Mrs.
Johnson, I promise you once again: I will fight for a prescription drug
benefit for all seniors under Medicare.
It's just wrong for seniors to have to
choose between food and medicine while the big drug companies run up
record profits.
I met George and Juanita Gutierrez in San
Antonio, Texas. Their daughter Caterina has just started the 4th grade at
Davy Crockett Elementary School. The school building is crumbling and
overcrowded, with cracked walls and peeling plaster. Trailers cover the
playground where the kids used to spend recess.
The Gutierrez family is here tonight. And I
tell them again: I will fight to rebuild and modernize our crumbling
schools, and reduce class size. We need to put safety, discipline, and
character first in every classroom.
You know, education may be a local
responsibility. But I believe it also has to be our number-one national
priority. We can't stop until every school in America is a good place to
get a good education.
And I will never forget a little boy named
Ian Malone - who suffered from a medical mistake during childbirth, and
needs full-time nursing care for several years. I met him and his parents
in Seattle, near their home in Everett, Washington. Their HMO had told the
Malones it would no longer pay for the nurse they needed, and then, told
them they should consider giving Ian up for adoption.
That's when his mom and dad got really mad.
They told their story in public, and the HMO was embarrassed. Because they
fought for their baby , today Ian has the care he needs to stay alive. But
no family in America should have to go on national television to save
their child's life.
Dylan and Christine Malone are here with us
tonight. Ian's here, too. And I say to them, and to all the families of
America: I will fight for a real, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights.
It's just wrong to have life and death
medical decisions made by bean-counters at HMO's who don't have a license
to practice medicine, and don't have a right to play God. It's time to
take the medical decisions away from the HMO's and insurance companies -
and give them back to the doctors, the nurses, and the health care
professionals.
So this is not just an election between my
opponent and me. It's about our people, our families, and our future - and
whether forces standing in your way will keep you from having a better
life.
To me, this election is about Mildred
Nystel, Jacqueline Johnson, Caterina Gutierrez, Ian Malone.
It's about millions of Americans whose
names we may never know - but whose needs and dreams must always be our
calling.
And so here tonight, in the name of all the
working families who are the strength and soul of America -- I accept your
nomination for President of the United States.
I'm here to talk seriously about the
issues. I believe people deserve to know specifically what a candidate
proposes to do. I intend to tell you tonight. You ought to be able to
know, and then judge for yourself.
If you entrust me with the Presidency, I
will put our democracy back in your hands, and get all the
special-interest money - all of it - out of our democracy, by enacting
campaign finance reform. I feel so strongly about this, I promise you that
campaign finance reform will be the very first bill that Joe Lieberman and
I send to Congress.
Let others try to restore the old guard. We
come to this convention as the change we wish to see in America.
And what are those changes?
At a time when most Americans will live to
know even their great-grandchildren, we will save and strengthen Social
Security and Medicare - not only for this generation, but for generations
to come.
At a time of almost unimaginable medical
breakthroughs, we will fight for affordable health care for all - so
patients and ordinary people are not left powerless and broke. We will
move toward universal health coverage, step by step, starting with all
children. Let's get all children covered by the year 2004.
And let's move to the day when we end the
stigma of mental illness, and treat it like every other illness,
everywhere in this nation.
Within the next few years, scientists will
identify the genes that cause every type of cancer. We need a national
commitment equal to the promise of this unequalled moment. So we will
double the federal investment in medical research. We will find new
medicines and new cures - not just for cancer, but for everything from
diabetes to HIV/AIDS.
At a time when there is more computer power
in a Palm Pilot than in the spaceship that took Neil Armstrong to the
moon, we will offer all our people lifelong learning and new skills for
the higher-paying jobs of the future.
At a time when the amount of human
knowledge is doubling every five years, we will do bold things to make our
schools the best in the world. I will fight for the single greatest
commitment to education since the G.I. Bill -
For revolutionary improvements in our
schools. For higher standards and more accountability. To put a
fully-qualified teacher in every classroom, test all new teachers, and
give teachers the training and professional development they deserve. It's
time to treat and reward teachers like the professionals they are.
It's not just about more money. It's about
higher standards, accountability -- new ideas. But we can't do it without
new resources. And that's why I will invest far more in our schools - in
the long-run, a second-class education always costs more than a
first-class education.
And I will not go along with any plan that
would drain taxpayer money away from our public schools and give it to
private schools in the form of vouchers.
This nation was a pioneer of universal
public education. Now let's set a specific new goal for the first decade
of the 21st Century: high-quality universal pre-school - available to
every child, in every family, all across this country.
We also have to give middle-class families
help in paying for college with tax-free college savings, and by making
most college tuition tax-deductible. Open the doors of learning to all.
And all of this - all of this -- is the
change we wish to see in America.
Not so long ago, a balanced budget seemed
impossible. Now our budget surpluses make it possible to give a full range
of targeted tax cuts to working families. Not just to help you save for
college, but to pay for health insurance or child care. To reform the
estate tax, so people can pass on a small business or a family farm. And
to end the marriage penalty - the right way, the fair way -- because we
shouldn't force couples to pay more in income taxes just because they're
married.
But let me say it plainly: I will not go
along with a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else
and wreck our good economy in the process.
Under the tax plan the other side has
proposed, for every ten dollars that goes to the wealthiest one percent,
middle class families would get one dime. And lower-income families would
get one penny.
In fact, if you add it up, the average
family would get about enough money to buy one extra Diet Coke a day.
About 62 cents in change. Let me tell you:
that's not the kind of change I'm working for.
I'll fight for tax cuts that go to the
right people - to the working families who have the toughest time paying
taxes and saving for the future.
I'll fight for a new, tax-free way to help
you save and build a bigger nest egg for your retirement. I'm talking
about something extra that you can save and invest for yourself. Something
that will supplement Social Security, not be subtracted from it.
But I will not go along with any proposal
to strip one out of every six dollars from the Social Security trust fund
and privatize the Social Security that you're counting on. That's Social
Security minus. Our plan is Social Security plus.
We will balance the budget every year, and
dedicate the budget surplus first to saving Social Security.
In the next four years, we will pay off all
the national debt this nation accumulated in our first 200 years. This
will put us on the path to completely eliminating the debt by 2012,
keeping America prosperous far into the future.
But there's something at stake in this
election that's even more important than economic progress. Simply put,
it's our values; it's our responsibility to our loved ones, to our
families.
And to me, family values means honoring our
fathers and mothers, teaching our children well, caring for the sick,
respecting one another -- giving people the power to achieve what they
want for their families.
Putting both Social Security and Medicare
in an iron-clad lock box where the politicians can't touch them -- to me,
that kind of common sense is a family value.
Getting cigarettes out of the hands of kids
before they get hooked is a family value. I will crack down on the
marketing of tobacco to our children, no matter how hard the tobacco
companies lobby, no matter how much they spend.
A new prescription drug benefit under
Medicare for all our seniors - that's a family value. And let me tell you:
I will fight for it, and the other side will not. They give in to the big
drug companies. Their plan tells seniors to beg the HMO's and insurance
companies for prescription drug coverage.
And that's the difference in this election.
They're for the powerful, and we're for the people.
Big tobacco, big oil, the big polluters,
the pharmaceutical companies, the HMO's. Sometimes you have to be willing
to stand up and say no - so families can have a better life.
I know one thing about the job of the
President. It is the only job in the Constitution that is charged with the
responsibility of fighting for all the people. Not just the people of one
state, or one district; not just the wealthy or the powerful -- all the
people. Especially those who need a voice; those who need a champion;
those who need to be lifted up, so they are never left behind.
So I say to you tonight: if you entrust me
with the Presidency, I will fight for you.
There's one other word we've heard a lot of
in this campaign, and that word is honor.
To me, honor is not just a word, but an
obligation.
And you have my word: we will honor hard
work by raising the minimum wage so that work always pays more than
welfare.
We will honor families by expanding child
care, and after-school care, and family and medical leave - so working
parents have the help they need to care for their children -- because one
of the most important jobs of all is raising our children.
And we'll support the right of parents to
decide that one of them will stay home longer with their babies if that's
what they believe is best for their families.
We will honor the ideal of equality by
standing up for civil rights and defending affirmative action.
We will honor equal rights and fight for an
equal day's pay for an equal day's work.
And let there be no doubt: I will protect
and defend a woman's right to choose. The last thing this country needs is
a Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade.
We will remove all the old barriers -- so
that those who are called disabled can develop all their abilities.
And we will also widen the circle of
opportunity for all Americans, and enforce all our civil rights laws.
We will pass the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act.
And we will honor the memory of Matthew
Shepard, Joseph Ileto, and James Byrd, whose families all joined us this
week -- by passing a law against hate crimes.
We will honor the hard work of raising a
family - by doing all we can to help parents protect their children.
Parents deserve the simple security of knowing that their children are
safe whether they're walking down the street, surfing the World Wide Web,
or sitting behind a desk in school.
To make families safer, we passed the
toughest crime bill in history, and we're putting 100,000 new community
police on our streets. Crime has fallen in every major category for seven
years in a row. But there's still too much danger and there's still too
much fear.
So tonight I want to set another new,
specific goal: to cut the crime rate year after year -- every single year
throughout this decade.
That's why I'll fight to add another 50,000
new police - community police who help prevent crime by establishing real
relationships between law enforcement and neighborhood residents - which,
incidentally, is the opposite of racial profiling, which must be brought
to an end.
I will fight for a crime victims' bill of
rights, including a Constitutional amendment to make sure that victims,
and not just criminals, are guaranteed rights in our justice system.
I'll fight to toughen penalties on those
who misuse the Internet to prey on our children and violate our privacy.
And I'll fight to make every school in this nation drug-free and gun-free.
I believe in the right of sportsmen and
hunters and law-abiding citizens to own firearms. But I want mandatory
background checks to keep guns away from criminals, and mandatory child
safety locks to protect our children.
Tipper and I went out to Columbine High
School after the tragedy there, and we embraced the families of the
children who were lost. And I will never forget the words of the father
who whispered into my ear, "Promise me that these children will not have
died in vain."
All of us must join together to make that
promise come true. Laws and programs by themselves will never be enough.
All of us, and especially all parents need to take more responsibility. We
need to change our hearts -- and make a commitment to our children and to
one another.
I'm excited about America's prospects and
full of hope for America's future. Our country has come a long way, and
I've come a long way since that long ago time when I went to Vietnam.
I've never forgotten what I saw there --
and the bravery of so many young Americans.
The price of freedom is sometimes high, but
I never believed that America should turn inward.
As a Senator, I broke with many in our
party and voted to support the Gulf War when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait
-- because I believed America's vital interests were at stake.
Early in my public service, I took up the
issue of nuclear arms control and nuclear weapons -- because nothing is
more fundamental than protecting our national security.
Now I want to lead America because I love
America. I will keep America's defenses strong. I will make sure our armed
forces continue to be the best-equipped, best-trained, and best-led in the
entire world.
In the last century, this nation more than
any other freed the world from fascism and communism. But a newly free
world still has dangers and challenges, both old and new. We must always
have the will to defend our enduring interests -- from Europe, to the
Middle East, to Japan and Korea. We must strengthen our partnerships with
Africa, Latin America, and the rest of the developing world.
We must welcome and promote truly free
trade. But I say to you: it must be fair trade. We must set standards to
end child labor, to prevent the exploitation of workers and the poisoning
of the environment. Free trade can and must be -- and if I'm President,
will be -- a way to lift everyone up, not bring anyone down to the lowest
common denominator.
So those are the issues, and that's where I
stand. But I also want to tell you just a little more about two of my
greatest heroes, my father and my mother.
They did give me a good life. But like so
many in America, they started out with almost nothing.
My father grew up in a small community
named Possum Hollow in Middle Tennessee. When he was just eighteen, he
went to work as a teacher in a one-room school.
Then the Great Depression came along and
taught him a lesson that couldn't be found in any classroom. He told me
and my sister often how he watched grown men, with wives and children they
could neither feed nor clothe, on farms they could no longer pay for.
My father didn't know whether he could help
those families -- but he believed he had to try. And never in the years to
come - in Congress, and in the United States Senate -- did he lose sight
of the reason he entered public service: to fight for the people, not the
powerful.
My mother grew up in a poor farming
community in northwest Tennessee. Her family ran a small country store in
Cold Corner. A store that went bust during the Great Depression.
She worked her way through college, then
got a room in Nashville at the YWCA and waited tables at an all-night
coffee shop for 25-cent tips. She then went on to become one of the first
women in history to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School.
As Tipper told you tonight, we lost my dad
a year and a half ago. But we're so lucky that my mother Pauline continues
to be part of our lives, every single day. She's here tonight.
Sometimes in this campaign, when I visit a
school and see a hard-working teacher trying to change the world one child
at a time -- I see the face of my father.
And I know that teaching our children well
is not just the teacher's job; it's everyone's job. And it has to be our
national mission.
I've shaken hands in diners and coffee
shops all across this country. And sometimes, when I see a waitress
working hard and thanking someone for a tip, I see the face of my mother.
And I know: for that waitress carrying trays, or a construction worker in
the winter cold, I will never agree to raise the retirement age to 70, or
threaten the promise of Social Security.
I say to you tonight: we've got to win this
election - because every hard-working American family deserves to open the
door to their dream.
In our democracy, the future is not
something that just happens to us; it is something we make for ourselves
-- together.
So to the young people watching tonight, I
say: this is your time to make new the life of our world. We need your
help to rekindle the spirit of America.
And I ask all of you, my fellow citizens:
from this city that marked both the end of America's journey westward and
the beginning of the New Frontier, let us set out on a new journey to the
best America.
A new journey on which we advance not by
the turning of wheels, but by the turning of our minds; the reach of our
vision; the daring grace of the human spirit.
Yes, we have our problems. But the United
States of America is the best country ever created -- and still, as ever,
the hope of humankind.
Yes, we're all imperfect. But as Americans
we all share in the privilege and challenge of building a more perfect
union.
I know my own imperfections. I know that
sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and
policy. Maybe I've done that tonight.
But the Presidency is more than a
popularity contest. It's a day-by-day fight for people. Sometimes, you
have to choose to do what's difficult or unpopular. Sometimes, you have to
be willing to spend your popularity in order to pick the hard right over
the easy wrong.
There are big choices ahead, and our whole
future is at stake. And I do have strong beliefs about it.
If you entrust me with the Presidency, I
know I won't always be the most exciting politician.
But I pledge to you tonight: I will work
for you every day and I will never let you down.
If we allow ourselves to believe, without
reservation, that we can do what's right and be the better for it -- then
the best America will become our America.
In this City of Angels, we can summon the
better angels of our nature.
Do not rest where we are, or retreat. Do
all we can to make America all it can become.
Thank you - God bless you - and God bless
America
Source: Al Gore for President 2000 Web Site