Click here to read Washington Post's Reliable Sources re: Senator McGovern's 90th birthday party in July 2012http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/george-mcgoverns-90th-birthday-party-celebrates-old-fashioned-liberal-thank-you-for-being-born/2012/07/22/gJQACtp02W_blog.html
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Letter in today's Sioux Falls, South Dakota Argus-Leader re: Our Neighbor, George McGovern, In Hospice Today
Former presidential candidate true statesman
Written byEd A. Slavin
St. Augustine, Fla.
Sen. George McGovern was the first presidential candidate I ever campaigned for. When I was 15, my mother drove me to the county seat on successive Saturdays to campaign.
After McGovern lost 49 states in 1972, I resolved to my parents that I would go to college and vacation only in the places McGovern carried (D.C. and Massachusetts) until Nixon left. Our family kept my promise (college at Georgetown in D.C., vacations on Cape Cod).
In 1989, I greeted George and Eleanor McGovern at a “Nader’s Raiders” dinner in D.C. — twice within a few weeks, he remembered me when Brian and I dined at City Lights of China, greeting us.
Two decades later, McGovern picked our historic community as his winter home. George and Eleanor McGovern helped South Dakotans become Democratic, through hard work and organizing. He inspires us.
I boldly brought the St. Johns County Democratic Party banner to McGovern’s first speech at conservative Flagler College (undeterred by a brief nose-wrinkling-interrogation). Annette Capella, Jamin Rubenstein and I proudly held up our Democratic banner. Passing by, McGovern twinkled, smiled, shook our hands and thanked us. McGovern spoke at fundraisers and nurtured party-building.
He encouraged independent thought and a political system free of the taint of big money. He is humble yet critical, smart and courteous.
In his eloquent, 1972 presidential nomination speech, McGovern said: “And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, ‘America — love it or leave it. ‘ We reply, ‘Let us change it so we may love it the more.’ ”
We are privileged to break bread with McGovern and hear him speak at our libraries, churches, schools, civil rights events and dinners and to greet him in restaurants and farmer’s markets. He is a kind, gentle, witty soul who forgives his enemies (even Nixon), once saying publicly that he couldn’t “hold grudges for very long” (three months, tops and he was done). This trait no doubt contributes to his longevity.
McGovern is a scintillating, intelligent statesman who enlivened parties/dinners. I remember George McGovern at Robin Nadeau’s Twelfth Night Party. Robin, resplendent in a red dress she herself made decades ago, was seated by the door, talking with McGovern — engaged in spirited discussion about how to protect our people from corporate greed. I remember McGovern at Bob & Andrea Samuels’ Passover seder, talking about the world; exiting, he kissed my friend Amy, stating “you’re beautiful,” as her future husband beamed.
A history Ph.D./author, McGovern worked for new South Dakota national parks; he told me he likes our St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore proposal. McGovern is a beautiful man, working for real Americans, not greedy one-percenters and his St. Augustine neighbors and friends are all praying for him today.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
7-ELEVEN Emerged From Bankruptcy Stronger, But Controlled By Japan!
WILLARD MITT ROMNEY wanted Detroit to go bankrupt, without any way of saving jobs. It would have destroyed our auto industry and allowed a takeover by Japan. In last night's debate, ROMNEY admitted that fact, de facto, by naming 7-ELEVEN, which emerged from bankruptcy a Japanese company.
And one thing that the — the president said which I want to make sure that we understand — he — he said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt, and — and that's right. My plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-Eleven did and Macy's and — and — and Continental Airlines and come out stronger.
And one thing that the — the president said which I want to make sure that we understand — he — he said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt, and — and that's right. My plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-Eleven did and Macy's and — and — and Continental Airlines and come out stronger.
MONEY-HUNGRY MITT ROMNEY CAN"T STOP LYING AND ASKING FOR MONEY -- EVEN DEAD DOG ON HATE GROUPS' MAILING LIST
Weird WILLARD MITT ROMNEY sends me E-mails -- he asks me for money every day. See below. His rich friends are tapped out, and he's belatedly trying to raise money from the grass roots. George McGovern pioneered grass roots political fundraising in 1972, but the Republicans will never get it right -- their support is like the River Platte -- a mile wide and an inch deep. Real Americans see right through them, from sea to sea.
Fascist hate groups have even sent their surly, expensive mailings to at least one dead dog.
We pity these fools -- the election will soon be over.
Fascist hate groups have even sent their surly, expensive mailings to at least one dead dog.
We pity these fools -- the election will soon be over.
IN HAEC VERBA: PLUTOCRAT MITT ROMNEY'S E-MAIL WANTS YOU TO "DIG DEEP AND PUSH BACK"
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Bloomberg News on Energumen Right-wing Florida Governor Richard Scott's Likely Effect Upon Our Presidential Election in Florida
Florida Governor Snubbed by Romney After Political Gaffes
By Michael C. Bender - Jun 20, 2012 6:00 AM ET
Florida Governor Rick Scott keeps alienating the people he’s trying to befriend.
The Republican’s effort to win support from Cuban-Americans resulted in threats of a lawsuit. At a lunch to charm black lawmakers, he offended them. He turned a goodwill mission into comedy-show fodder when he greeted Spain’s king by asking about the monarch’s politically sensitive elephant hunt.
The governor’s gaffes, along with an approval rating that hasn’t gone above 41 percent inQuinnipiac University polls, may hurt his party’s presidential contender, Mitt Romney. Florida is one of the most competitive electoral battlegrounds, with the past three presidential races decided by 5 percentage points or less. Romney hasn’t campaigned with Scott.
“Rick Scott doesn’t seem to have any political skills at all,” said Tom Slade, the former co-chairman of Scott’s campaign and ex-chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. “I’d give him a B for governing. I’d give him an A for strangeness.”
Adding to Scott’s misery: His office is facing a criminal investigation over missing e-mail; the federal government is suing the state over purging voters from the rolls; and the governor recently hired his third chief of staff in 18 months.
Scott, 59, moved to Florida about a decade ago while he was running his own private-equity firm. A former chief executive officer of HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA), a Nashville, Tennessee-based hospital operator, he was forced out amid a Medicare fraud investigation that resulted in criminal charges against the company. Scott, who wasn’t charged, said he did nothing wrong.
Transition to Office
Scott has struggled with the transition from the boardroom to the governorship of the nation’s fourth-most-populous state, said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
“Public relations is very important to your success,” MacManus said. “He’s had a serious problem and has had to have a major repair job.”
The governor’s approval rating is 39 percent, according to a poll today from Quinnipiac University. That’s down from 41 percent on May 24, his best in any 12 surveys from the Hamden, Connecticut school, and up from 29 percent a year earlier.
The state Republican party has tried to improve his ratings with nine weeks of television ads that started running in March in four cities, highlighting Scott’s record. The state party also has paid for recorded calls to voters, websites and Facebook ads promoting Scott since he’s been in office.
Helping Obama
Scott’s unpopularity may help President Barack Obama’s re- election effort, said Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Obama’s more competitive in Florida right now than I would have expected,” Jensen said in an e-mail. “The damage Scott has done to the Republican brand is part of that.”
Romney’s staff has concluded there’s no benefit in appearing with Scott, said two campaign advisers who asked for anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.
“The safe thing is for he and Romney to go their separate ways,” said Slade, the former Republican official.
Alberto Martinez, a Romney spokesman, declined to comment on the two appearing together. Scott is “implementing a pro- growth agenda despite the challenges placed in his way by President Obama’s failed economic policies,” Martinez said.
Scott declined to be interviewed for this story. His spokesman Brian Burgess, defended the governor’s record.
“Reasonable people can debate governing style all they want, but when it comes to substance, Governor Scott is turning the state around and is delivering exactly what he promised,” Burgess said.
Keynote Speech
The governor hoped to deliver a keynote speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August, he told the Fort Myers News-Press last month. So far, Scott is being offered only a talk at a welcoming event for media and delegates, said Al Austin, head of the convention’s Host Committee.
Scott and Romney have distinctly different messages on the economy. Scott travels around the state talking about improvements, while Romney’s supporters run television ads in Florida saying unemployment remains high.
“Florida is turning around under Governor Scott,” Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry said.
Since Scott took office on January 4, 2011, shares of Florida-based companies rose about 10.5 percent through yesterday, according to the Bloomberg State Index of Florida. Companies in the index include NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE) and CSX Corp. (CSX) During the same period, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index increased 6.9 percent.
Unemployment Rate
Florida’s 8.6 percent unemployment rate is down from 11.1 percent in December 2010, before Scott took office. The current rate is ninth highest among U.S. states and remains above the 8.2 percent national average. The state’s percentage of troubled mortgages leads the nation, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Scott pledged to create 700,000 jobs in seven years -- in addition to those that economists projected would be added by normal employment growth. Scott backed away from that promise in October, telling reporters he would count expected growth.
In March, he sent letters to 100 New York City chief executives asking them to relocate or expand in Florida. Another round went out to France last month. No company has moved because of the letters, said Stuart Doyle, a spokesman for Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic-development arm.
Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown, a Democrat, credits the governor for helping preserve jobs when an out-of-state company purchased a local grocery chain.
Tea Party
“I’ve been able to work with Governor Scott,” Brown said. “He’s focused on jobs.”
Scott is a former Tea Party activist who has pushed the Republican-controlled Legislature to cut spending, threatening to veto any spending plan that increased revenue.
The governor’s priorities appear out of sync with voters, said state Senator Paula Dockery, a Lakeland Republican. She cited a measure the governor persuaded the Legislature to approve that forced state workers to contribute to their pensions, his veto of money for rape-crisis centers and support for spending $5 million on a Sarasota rowing facility.
“He doesn’t seem to understand what the average Floridian is going through,” Dockery said.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Florida this month over a policy backed by Scott that removes noncitizens from voter rolls. The lawsuit says the state violated election law and relied on inaccurate information. Scott said the state is fighting voter fraud.
Cuba Controversy
In a separate matter, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating e-mail that went missing from Scott’s transition, a potential violation of public records law.
Then, there are Scott’s personal missteps.
Last month, he visited Miami to woo Cuban-American residents, the state’s largest Hispanic voting bloc. He was there to sign legislation blocking governments in Florida from hiring companies that do business in Cuba or Syria.
Among those joining him was U.S. Representative Mario Diaz- Balart, who rode in an elevator with Scott and reviewed what the governor planned to say.
Scott’s talking points said the federal government would have to enforce the measure. Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, said in an interview that he told the governor he strongly objected to that. Scott stood silent, he said.
Scott signed the bill -- and dropped the remarks that prompted Diaz-Balart’s complaint. The governor won his applause.
Elephant Question
Then, after leaving Miami, Scott sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner saying the law couldn’t be enforced.
U.S. Representative David Rivera, a Cuban-American, threatened Scott with a lawsuit and, two days later, Scott promised to enforce the law.
“His equivocating will plant a seed that maybe this guy can’t be as trusted,” said Paul George, a Miami Dade College professor who teaches Cuban-American history. “It’s in the back of the minds of a lot of people here.”
On May 22, Scott met with King Juan Carlos to invite him to Florida’s 500th anniversary celebration next year of the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who led the first European expedition to the state. Scott entered the king’s office and immediately asked about his hunting expedition in Botswana.
“I’ve ridden elephants,” Scott said. “I’ve never tried to shoot one.”
The king earlier had to apologize for taking the jaunt as high unemployment and bad loans depressed Spain’s economy. A video of the exchange was played on Spanish comedy shows.
Scott apologized.
‘Public Housing’
Six weeks into office, Scott offended another group: black lawmakers. The setting was a governor’s mansion lunch. The black legislative caucus had complained Scott’s appointments lacked diversity. Scott, whose stepfather was a truck driver and mother was a store clerk, told members that he “grew up probably in the same situation as you guys.”
“I started school in public housing,” he said. “My dad had a sixth-grade education.”
Lawmakers said Scott made unfair assumptions about their backgrounds because of their skin color.
“I was offended,” said Representative Betty Reed. “It was disrespectful and assuming every black person grew up in the projects.”
Scott’s unpopularity has Democrats, who haven’t won a governor’s race in Florida since 1994, optimistic about 2014.
“If you’re a Democrat thinking you ever want to be governor, the next go-round is probably a good time to run,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Democrat.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael C. Bender in Tallahassee atmbender10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman atsmerelman@bloomberg.net
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Praying Today for George McGovern, Our Heroic Neighbor in St. Augustine Beach, Florida
Senator George McGovern, our courageous 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee, was an heroic World War II bomber pilot over Nazi Germany, winner of the Air Medal. McGovern stood up to corrupt, vindictive, criminal Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon, denouncing his Vietnam War and Watergate scandals (attempts to subvert and destroy our democracy). History proved McGovern right.
McGovern has entered a South Dakota hospice.
McGovern has entered a South Dakota hospice.
World peace and ending hunger are the twin global causes of McGovern's life, for which he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the International Food Prize. A bipartisan consensus-builder, McGovern headed JFK's Food for Peace Program and worked with Senate Republicans, including Robert Dole and Howard Baker, on vital issues, including solving the problems of hunger in our Nation and World.
McGovern was the first presidential candidate I ever campaigned for, when I was fifteen, my mother driving me to the county seat on successive Saturdays to campaign. After McGovern lost 49 states in 1972, I resolved to my parents that I would go to college and vacation only in the places McGovern carried (D.C. and Massachusetts) until Nixon left: our family kept my promise (college at Georgetown in D.C., vacations on Cape Cod).
In 1989, I greeted George & Eleanor McGovern at a “Nader's Raiders” dinner in D.C. – twice within a few weeks, he remembered me, when Brian and I dined at City Lights of China, greeting us.
Two decades later, McGovern picked our historic community as his winter home.
George & Eleanor McGovern helped South Dakotans become Democratic, through hard work and organizing. He inspires us.
I boldly brought the St. Johns County Democratic Party banner to McGovern's first speech at conservative Flagler College, (undeterred by a brief nose-wrinkling-interrogation). Annette Capella, Jamin Rubenstein and I proudly held up our Democratic banner: passing by, McGovern twinkled, smiled, shook our hands and thanked us. McGovern spoke at fundraisers and nurtured party-building. He encourages independent thought and a political system free of the taint of big money. He is humble yet critical, smart and courteous. In his eloquent, 1972 Presidential nominating speech, McGovern said: "And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, 'America -- love it or leave it. ' We reply, 'Let us change it so we may love it the more.'”
We are privileged to break bread with him and hear him speak at our libraries, churches, schools, civil rights events and dinners, and to greet him in restaurants and farmer's markets.
McGovern is a kind, gentle, witty soul who forgives his enemies (even Nixon), once saying publicly that he couldn't “hold grudges for very long” (three months, tops and he was done). This trait no doubt contributes to his longevity.
McGovern is a scintillating, intelligent statesman who enlivened parties/dinners. I remember George McGovern at Robin Nadeau's Twelfth Night Party. Robin, resplendent in a red dress she herself made decades ago, was seated by the door, talking with McGovern – engaged in spirited discussion about how to protect our people from corporate greed. I remember McGovern at Bob & Andrea Samuels' Passover seder, talking about the world; exiting, he kissed my friend Amy, stating “you're beautiful,” as her future husband beamed.
A History Ph.D./author, McGovern worked for new South Dakota National Parks; he told me he likes our St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore proposal, www.staugustgreen.com
McGovern is a beautiful man, working for real Americans, not greedy one-percenters.
Your St. Augustine neighbors and friends are all praying for you today, George.
-30-
Ed Slavin (B.S., Foreign Service, Georgetown University, J.D., Memphis State University), is a community activist in St. Augustine, Florida.
"Come Home, America": Senator George S. McGovern's 1972 Democratic Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech
George McGovern was a war hero in World War II in the Army Air Corps
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
OF
SENATOR GEORGE MCGOVERN
Democratic National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida
July 14, 1972
Chairman O’Brien, Chairwoman Burke, Senator Kennedy, Senator Eagleton and my fellow citizens, I’m happy to join us for this benediction of our Friday sunrise service.
I assume that everyone here is impressed with my control of this Convention in that my choice for Vice President was challenged by only 39 other nominees.
And I can tell you that Eleanor is very grateful that the Oregon delegation at least kept her in the race with Martha Mitchell. So I congratulate you on your patience and I pay my respects to those two superb presiding officers of this convention, Larry O’Brien and Yvonne Braithwaite Burke.
So tonight I accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart.
This afternoon I crossed the wide Missouri to recommend a running mate of wide vision and deep compassion, Senator Tom Eagleton.
I’m proud to have him at my side, and I’m proud to have been introduced a moment ago by one of the most eloquent and courageous voices in this land Senator Ted Kennedy.
My nomination is all the more precious and that it is a gift of the most open political process in all of our political history.
It is the sweet harvest of the work of tens of thousands of tireless volunteers, young and old alike, funded by literally hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation.
Those who lingered on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this campaign, heart, hand, head and soul, and I have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country.
It is an organization that gives dramatic proof to the power of love and to a faith that can literally move mountains.
As Yeats put it, “Count where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say: My glory was I had such friends.”
This is the people’s nomination and next January we will restore the government to the people of this country.
I believe that American politics will never be quite the same again.
We are entering a new period of important and hopeful change in America, a period comparable to those eras that unleashed such remarkable ferment in the period of Jefferson and Jackson and Roosevelt.
Let the opposition collect their $10 million in secret money from the privileged few and let us find one million ordinary Americans who will contribute $25 each to this campaign, a Million Member Club with members who will not expect special favors for themselves but a better land for us all.
In the literature and music of our children we are told, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. And for America, the time has come at last.
This is the time for truth, not falsehood. In a Democratic nation, no one likes to say that his inspiration came from secret arrangements by closed doors, but in the sense that is how my candidacy began. I am here as your candidate tonight in large part because during four administrations of both parties, a terrible war has been chartered behind closed doors.
I want those doors opened and I want that war closed. And I make these pledges above all others: the doors of government will be opened, and that war will be closed.
Truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics, and if we nurture the habit of truth in this campaign, we will continue to be truthful once we are in the White House.
Let us say to Americans, as Woodrow Wilson said in his first campaign of 1912, “Let me inside the government and I will tell you what is going on there.”
Wilson believed, and I believe, that the destiny of America is always safer in the hands of the people then in the conference rooms of any elite.
So let us give our – let us give your country the chance to elect a Government that will seek and speak the truth, for this is the time for the truth in the life of this country.
And this is also a time, not for death, but for life. In 1968 many Americans thought they were voting to bring our sons home from Vietnam in peace, and since then 20,000 of our sons have come home in coffins.
I have no secret plan for peace. I have a public plan. And as one whose heart has ached for the past ten years over the agony of Vietnam, I will halt a senseless bombing of Indochina on Inaugural Day.
There will be no more Asian children running ablaze from bombed-out schools. There will be no more talk of bombing the dikes or the cities of the North.
And within 90 days of my inauguration, every American soldier and every American prisoner will be out of the jungle and out of their cells and then home in America where they belong.
And then let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad.
This is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. America must be restored to a proper role in the world. But we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves.
I treasure this nomination, especially because it comes after vigorous competition with the ablest men and women our party has to offer.
-- my old and treasured friend and neighbor, Hubert Humphrey;
-- a gracious and a good man from the state of Maine, Ed Muskie;
-- a tough fighter for his own convictions, Scoop Jackson of Washington;
-- and a brave and spirited woman, Shirley Chisholm;
-- a wise and effective lawmaker from Arkansas, Wilbur Mills;
-- And the man from North Carolina who over the years has opened new vistas in education and public excellence, Terry Sanford;
-- the leader who in 1968 combined both the travail and the hope of the American spirit, Senator Eugene McCarthy;
-- And I was as moved as well by the appearance in the Convention Hall of the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace. His votes in the primaries showed clearly the depth of discontent in this country, and his courage in the face of pain and adversity is the mark of a man of boundless will, despite the senseless act that disrupted his campaign. And, Governor, we pray for your full recovery so you can stand up and speak out for all of those who see you as their champion.
Now, in the months ahead I deeply covet the help of every Democrat, of every Republican, of every Independent who wants this country to be a great and good land that it can be.
This is going to be a national campaign, carried to every part of the nation -- North, South, East and West. We’re not conceding a single state to Richard Nixon.
I should like to say to my friend, Frank King, that Ohio may have passed a few times in this convention, but Tom Eagleton and I are not going to pass Ohio.
I shall say to Governor Gilligan, Ohio is sometimes a little slow in counting the votes, but when those votes are counted next November, Ohio will be in the Democratic victory column.
Now, to anyone in this hall or beyond who doubts the ability of Democrats to join together in common cause, I say never underestimate the power of Richard Nixon to bring harmony to Democratic ranks. He is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign and all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge made ten years ago -- that next year you won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore.
We have had our fury and our frustrations in these past months and at this Convention, but frankly, I welcome the contrast with the smug and dull and empty event which will doubtless take place here in Miami next month.
We chose this struggle, we reformed our Party, and we let the people in. So we stand today not as a collection of backroom strategies, not as a tool of ITT or any other special interest. So let our opponents stand on the status quo while we seek to refresh the American spirit.
I believe that the greatest contribution America can now make to our fellow mortals is to heal our own great but very deeply troubled land. We must respond -- we must respond to that ancient command: “Physician, heal thyself.”
Now, it is necessary in an age of nuclear power and hostile forces that we’ll be militarily strong. America must never become a second-rate nation. As one who has tasted the bitter fruits of our weakness before Pearl Harbor in 1941, I give you my pledge that if I become the President of the United States, America will keep its defenses alert and fully sufficient to meet any danger.
We will do that not only for ourselves, but for those who deserve and need the shield of our strength -- our old allies in Europe and elsewhere, including the people of Israel who will always have our help to hold their Promised Land.
Yet I believe that every man and woman in this Convention Hall knows that for 30 years we have been so absorbed with fear and danger from abroad that we have permitted our own house to fall into disarray.
We must now show that peace and prosperity can exist side by side. Indeed, each now depends on the existence of the other. National strength includes the credibility of our system in the eyes of our own people as well as the credibility of our deterrent in the eyes of others abroad.
National security includes schools for our children as well as silos for our missiles.
It includes the health of our families as much as the size of our bombs, the safety of our streets, and the condition of our cities, and not just the engines of war.
If we some day choke on the pollution of our own air, there will be little consolation in leaving behind a dying continent ringed with steel.
So while protecting ourselves abroad, let us form a more perfect union here at home. And this is the time for that task.
We must also make this a time of justice and jobs for all our people. For more than three and half years we have tolerated stagnation and a rising level of joblessness, with more than five million of our best workers unemployed at this very moment. Surely, this is the most false and wasteful economics of all.
Our deep need is not for idleness but for new housing and hospitals, for facilities to combat pollution and take us home from work, for better products able to compete on vigorous world markets.
The highest single domestic priority of the next administration will be to ensure that every American able to work has a job to.
That job guarantee will and must depend on a reinvigorated private economy, freed at last from the uncertainties and burdens of war, but it is our firm commitment that whatever employment the private sector does not provide, the Federal government will either stimulate or provide itself.
Whatever it takes, this country is going back to work. America cannot exist with most of our people working and paying taxes to support too many others mired in a demeaning and hopeless welfare mess.
Therefore, we intend to begin by putting millions back to work and after that is done, we will assure to those unable to work an income fully adequate to a decent life.
Now beyond this, a program to put America back to work demands that work be properly rewarded. That means the end of a system of economic controls in which labor is depressed, but prices and corporate profit run sky-high.
It means a system of national health insurance so that a worker can afford decent health care for himself and his family.
It means real enforcement of the laws so that the drug racketeers are put behind bars and our streets are once again safe for our families.
And above all, above all, honest work must be rewarded by a fair and just tax system.
The tax system today does not reward hard work: it’s penalizes it. Inherited or invested wealth frequently multiplies itself while paying no taxes at all. But wages on the assembly line or in farming the land, these hard – earned dollars are taxed to the very last penny.
There is a depletion allowance for oil wells, but no depletion for the farmer who feeds us, or the worker who serves as all.
The administration tells us that we should not discuss tax reform and the election year. They would prefer to keep all discussion of the tax laws in closed rooms where the administration, its powerful friends, and their paid lobbyists, can turn every effort at reform into a new loophole for the rich and powerful.
But an election year is the people’s year to speak, and this year, the people are going to ensure that the tax system is changed so that work is rewarded and so that those who derive the highest benefits will pay their fair share rather than slipping through the loopholes at the expense of the rest of us.
So let us stand for justice and jobs and against special privilege.
And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, “America -- love it or leave it. “ We reply, ”Let us change it so we may love it the more.”
And this is the time. It is the time for this land to become again a witness to the world for what is just and noble in human affairs. It is time to live more with faith and less with fear, with an abiding confidence that can sweep away the strongest barriers between us and teach us that we are truly brothers and sisters.
So join with me in this campaign. Lend Senator Eagleton and me your strength and your support, and together we will call America home to the ideals that nourished us from the beginning.
From secrecy and deception in high places; come home, America
From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation; come home, America.
From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism; from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor; from the prejudice based on race and sex; from the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of the neglected sick -- come home, America.
Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward.
Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world, and let us be joyful in that homecoming, for this “is your land, this land is my land -- from California to New York island, from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters -- this land was made for you and me.”
So let us close on this note: May God grant each one of us the wisdom to cherish this good land and to meet the great challenge that beckons us home.
And now is the time to meet that challenge.
Good night, and Godspeed to you all.
# # #
Remembering George S. McGovern, Our Neighbor Here in St. Augustine, Florida
(Reprinted from January 12, 2009)
Welcome, George McGovern, Our New Neighbor at St. Augustine Beach!
George McGovern ran JFK's Food For Peace Program
George McGovern investigated poverty with RFK
George McGovern mentored Bill Clinton, who ran his Texas campaign
George McGovern supported Barack Obama
Our courageous 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator George S. McGovern, is now a proud resident of St. Augustine Beach. George McGovern had the courage to run against Richard Nixon, one of the most corrupt Presidents in history -- he had the courage as a patriotic American to change and criticize our government
We're proud Senator McGovern has moved to our wonderful town, whose governments the people here have the courage to change and criticize!
I've been a active Democrat since working on McGovern's campaign in Southern N.J. in 1972, at age 15.
George McGovern still inspires us all. As he said in his "Come Home America" acceptance speech in 1972: "And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, 'America -- love it or leave it. ' We reply, 'Let us change it so we may love it the more.'”
Welcome to St. Augustine, Senator McGovern!
George McGovern ran a heroic campaign against corrupt President Richad Milhous Nixon in 1972
Welcome, George McGovern, Our New Neighbor at St. Augustine Beach!
George McGovern ran JFK's Food For Peace Program
George McGovern investigated poverty with RFK
George McGovern mentored Bill Clinton, who ran his Texas campaign
George McGovern supported Barack Obama
Our courageous 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator George S. McGovern, is now a proud resident of St. Augustine Beach. George McGovern had the courage to run against Richard Nixon, one of the most corrupt Presidents in history -- he had the courage as a patriotic American to change and criticize our government
We're proud Senator McGovern has moved to our wonderful town, whose governments the people here have the courage to change and criticize!
I've been a active Democrat since working on McGovern's campaign in Southern N.J. in 1972, at age 15.
George McGovern still inspires us all. As he said in his "Come Home America" acceptance speech in 1972: "And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, 'America -- love it or leave it. ' We reply, 'Let us change it so we may love it the more.'”
Welcome to St. Augustine, Senator McGovern!
George McGovern ran a heroic campaign against corrupt President Richad Milhous Nixon in 1972
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