Speech for campaign rally at Oakland, CA, October 24, 1984.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_speeches_1984/1060/thumbnail.jp

Ferraro, Geraldine

English

Fordham University School of Law

Fordham Law SchoolFLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and HistorySpeeches 1984 Vice-Presidential Campaign10-24-1984Oakland Rally SpeechGeraldine FerraroFollow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_speeches_1984Part of the Law CommonsThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the 1984 Vice-Presidential Campaign at FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship andHistory. It has been accepted for inclusion in Speeches by an authorized administrator of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship andHistory. For more information, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu.Recommended CitationFerraro, Geraldine, "Oakland Rally Speech" (1984). Speeches. 61.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_speeches_1984/61QAK~ANP.1 ..... [A41YQRN.10. WBJ.l.!Jf. .. ~.3.P.r:\X.!! ..... UJ~.T.P.);l.Pt. ... ?.~~--'·····J<LD_::l. Thank you, Mayor Wilson, for that terrific introduction" Lionel Wilson has been a real friend to Fritz Mondale from the very start of this campaign. And that's because when Fritz Mondale was Vice President, he was a real friend to Oakland when Mayor Wilson was looking for federal help to get your convention ccnt<-::-r bu:i.lt .. Well, I can guarantee you that when Fritz and I are electedv Oakland will once again have a vice president, and a president who hears your calls. And wh2n you put California in the Mondale-Ferraro victory column on November G, this city will have a real friend in the White House. Let me also recognize Oakland's two outstandin9 members of the House of Representavies. There is no one more committed to ending the insanity of the nuclear arms race than Ron Dellums. And Pete Stark is a prinicpled fighter for equity in the tax code and fairness in American life. I've really been looking forward to coming to Oakland. city and the Mondale-Ferraro ticket have something in common. People counted us out, but we're bath coming back. we're through, we going to show them what real winners look like .. D.:ik. l ::,ind r:_:':l .. '.J:''! .... ?. Another reason I wanted to come here is a personal one. I'm trying to make it to every city Billy Martin's ever managed or played baseball in. I haven't done it yet, but today brin9s me a ~:; t (:~ p C ::. D <:; E~ r • Th is is my fifth trip to California, and I'll be back. I come back to this state so often for two reasons. first, I love 1 t .. And second, we want to win. I want ta tell you honestly~ we need California to win. And we're going to do it with C :,~ l :i. f o r r1 i .:,1 • While I'm here, and while I've got this great nonparti s an crowd here, I'd like to take my own scientific, objective survey .. Are we going to win the election in November? Are we 9oin9 to send Walter Mondale to the White Hou s e and Ronald Rea9an back here ta the ranch? Did Walter Mondale win that debate on Sunday? You bet he did. You know, in that debate, President Reagan made several serious mistakes. He said there's no connection betweeen deficits and illegal immigration -- when there is. He denied sayin9 that submarine launched missiles could ever be rec:::illed. When, in fact~ he did say it. And he said the only alternative the Philippines have to Mar c o s is Communism - - when D:,:1k 1 ::=.ind I:"::::i.3.~~ .... ~i. it'·s not .. Ronald Rea9an's statement on Philippine politics comple t es a circle of misunderstanding about that county. ignored decades of oppression, imprisonment and tort ure to toa s t Marcos for leading a wonderful democracy in the Phi li ppines .. He was wrong to toast that dictator~ and Ronald Reagan wa s wron g to ignore the strong non-communist force s working for free elections in that country . In fact, Mr. Reagan wa s so far off base about the Philippines t hat his awn State Department corrected him the next day. Now~ we learn what we had all feared -- the impartial pa ne l inve s tigating Aquino's murder has conclu d ed that the con s pir ~ cy ta kill that great, non-communist opposition leader e x tended far into the ranks of the military. Now that the panel has spoken, I say it's time for our government to stop toasting dictatorship, and start workin9 for democracy in the Philippines .. Ronald Reagan's mistakes in Sunday's debate did not stop with deficits, missiles and the Philippines. astounding thing he did was propose s pending hundred s of billion s of dollars on a Star Wars weapons system that he want s to hand over to the Soviet Union. Now, that ma k e s a lot o f s en s e. won't sell the Russians ordinary commercial computer s , but th i s President wants ta 9ive them our most important, sensitive Oakland fAS~ .... 4 military secrets. Walter Mondale knows more about our national security after being out of office for four years, than Ronald Rea9an knows after being in charge of the most impressive security establishment in the world. We need a President in command of the facts. We need a President who knows what he's doing. We need a President like Fritz Mondale who can take charge of this government. In one day, when Fritz Mondale offered me the nomination, he did more for equal opportunity than Ronald Rea9an has don0 in four, long years. On that day, I felt a special surge of pride as an immigrant's daughter. But it wasn't just a personal victory for me. It was a victory for every woman, every black, every hispanic and every other person ever excluded from a job because of bi9otry, discrimination or hate. Today I stand here to tell you, if we can do this we can do anything. This election is not a contest between personalities. It's a fi9ht over what kind of country we are, and the direction we want to 90 in. It's a choice that directly affects the lives of every American citizen far years to come. And it's a particularly stark choice for women, for blacks and for hispanics. Oakland fAS§ ... ~ When I was growing up, black Americans were fighting for this country in Europe, but back at home they were barred from lunch counters, hotels, and voting booths. Over the past thirty years, we changed all that. And other minority 9roups have joined us in the fight for full equalitly. During the 1950s, the Supreme Court outlawed segregated school s . During the 1960s, after marches and demonstrations, minorities won for themselves the right to vote, the right t o non-discrimination in public facilities, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 -- which, incidentally, Walter Mondale helped to write. And we made bigotry socially unacceptable at last. I'm proud of how far we ' ve come as a nation. We're not perfect, but each decade we're getting better. It says something good about America when lawyers and doctors and professors are black and Hispanic and female. It says something good about America when two of the first astronauts to fly in the Space Shuttle were a black and a woman. And it says something goad about America when one of the most exciting and influential Presidential candidates of our time is Reverend Jesse Jackson. Every time this nation lowers another barrier, our society Oakland f3S~----~ is strengthened. Every time we take adva n tage of th e talents we had excluded because of racism or sex1smy our country is rich er . That's why I'm so worried today. Par the first time in my lifey I think we ' re 9ain9 backwards. Ronald Reagan's policies have been bad far the American people. But let's be plain about this: they've been a disa s ter for black and hispanic Americans. No one has a greater stake in this election than the locked-outr the vulnerable, the hungry, those discriminated against, and the unemployed. There are two principal issues at stake this year for the people of Oakland. first is the issue of opportunity. In the last four years, it's become harder for average Americans to 90 on to college because this Administration has cut student assistance. But it's even tougher if you ' re an inner city youngster. This Administration cut Head Start, Title I, and bi-lingual education. In the last four yearsy one out of every five families in this country has been touched by unemployment. But far minorities that ratio has been particularly appalling. for black teenagers, the unemployment rate stands at an unbelieveable ane out of two. In the last four years~ America's children have suffered .• Oakland P~s~ .... Z from deep cuts in nutrition programs. But th2 suffering has been greatest for minority children, one out of every two of whom lives in poverty. In the last four years~ this Administration has been anti-feminist. But it's been especially cruel to the one out of every two poor households headed by women. In the last four years, it's been harder for the average American family to make ends meet. But it's been hardest of all for the additional six million Americans who have fallen into poverty under this Administration. In the last four years, Medicare cuts have taken their toll on all the elderly. But no proposal was meaner than the Reagan proposal to take the minimum Social Security benefit from three million poor Americans, nearly all of whom were women. Don't misunderstand me. Every American has a reason to vote for Walter Mondale. But the awful truth is~ blacks, hispanics, women and disadvantaged Americans have only themselves to blame if they stay home and let Ronald Reagan be President again. The second issue at stake is war and peace. War is a horrible thing for every person. But let's be clear about this: when America 9oes to war, minority men serve in disproportionate numbers. . ,' Oakland f AS~ .... ~ Everyone here would be proud ta serve this country, even die for it if that's what it takes. But like every parent here, I didn't raise my son and daughters to die in an undeclared war, against an unnamed enemy, for an uncertain cause. Right now, the United States is militarizing a conflict in Central America which should be solved by peaceful means. And we are Americanizing a conflict which is primarily local. That's not good for Central America, it's not good for America's national interest, and it's not good for draft-age men, black, hispanic and white. I want to stop the covert war in Nicaragua. Last week, America was stunned to learn that the CIA has written and is circulating in Nicaragua a manual that teaches assassination, terror, blackmail, kidnapping, and mob violence. It 1s written more in the spirit than Stalin than Jefferson. It reads like Mao, not Lincoln. It befits a dictatorship, not a democracy. It's an insult to the American people. Moreover, anyone who believes that refining the murder techniques of Central Americans will advance our national interest is gravely mistaken. We should be building economies, not mining harbors. In our awn self-interest, we should be helping people feed themselves, not kill each other. That manual is alien to our most basic beliefs -- beliefs which across the board, this Administration has failed to Oakland P§S~ .... ~ promote. I remember when John F. Kennedy launched the Peace Corps, when Hubert Humphrey started food for Peace, and when Jimmy Carter stood up for human rights. Today we have an Administration which has befriended dictators in the Philippinesy Chile, and South Africa. And as a result? our prestige and our influence among Third World nations have declined. Listen to what this year's Nobel Prize winner, Bishop Tutu of South Africa, had to say about our government: the name of the United States in the black South African community is "mud" because of our support for a system that has brought •untold misery to so many of God's children.• Walter Mondale and I will change that. We will pr~ss for human rightsy not only not only in the Soviet Uniany but also in the Philippines. We will tell the South African government that their racist system of apartheid offends An1erican values and must finally end. There is a big difference between the candidates this year. But you wouldn't know that from listening to Ronald Reagan. In the debate last Sunday, he pretended to s upport human rights. He pretended to be for negotiations in Central America, and to believe in arms control. Don't let him get away with that. There's a difference between right and wrong, truth and fiction. And there's a difference between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan. And I'm here today to a s k the people of Oakland Cl::,ik l .:,1nd to vote for what's right, for the truth, and far Walter Mondale. He has been on your side for as long as Ronald Reagan has been against you. Walter Mondale helped write the Fair Hausin99 Act of l (.J6B. He helped pass the Voting Rights Act. fighter for Head Start. He led the battle far an independent legal services program for the poor. He investigated the plight of migrant workers. And he's been a friend of civil rights for Name a decent cause, and fritz Mondale has been there, fi9htin9 for social justice. And if you want to continue the fight for social justice, I think it's time to stand up and fight for Walter Mondale. He believes with the Reverend Martin Luther Kin9, Jr., that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." He believes, with Martin Luther Kin9, that we cannot stop "until justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like the mi'.:thty stre.::ir11.• With Dr. King, let's declare finally that people should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of thf:: :i. r ch:::ir :actf~r .. With Dr. King, let's say we face an adversary, but we have ·-· Oak 1::,ind f'..:~1.:J~ .... J.J.. faced adversaries before, and this one too we shall overcome. When Moses led his people across the Red Seav and out of bondage, no one asked who was the first to cross, but whether the last ones were safe. America has always been the Promised Land. It's time for all of us to crass over. It's time for all of us to work for Walter Mondale. The time to begin that work is not later -- it is now. The time far a rebirth of equal opportunity is not later :i. t :i. s now. The time to work for peace is not later -- it is now. And the time to elect Walter Mondale President and Gerry Ferraro Vice President is not later -- it 1s now. THANI< YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. 

Oakland Rally Speech

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Oakland Rally Speech

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