Speech for campaign rally at Stockton, CA, October 25, 1984.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_speeches_1984/1064/thumbnail.jp

Ferraro, Geraldine

English

Fordham University School of Law

Fordham Law SchoolFLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and HistorySpeeches 1984 Vice-Presidential Campaign10-25-1984Stockton 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, "Stockton Rally Speech" (1984). Speeches. 65.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_speeches_1984/65STOCKTON CALIFORNIA ······························'·········································· DCTDBEf~ ~;:~.':i. 1')04 ..................................... ~ ................... . Thank you, Senator Cranston, for that fine introduction. You knowr Fritz Mondale was nere a few weeks aga at Delta College and he told me I'd like Stockton. But he didn't tell me how much I/d l:i.ke it .. Stockton 15 Special [town motto]. And you have some very special public servants: my collea9ue Rick Lehman, who come January is 9oin9 to help the Mondale-Ferraro Administration in Congress; State Senator John Garamendi, State Assemblyman Pat Johnston .. I also understand that Stockton is the 9atew~y to ti""l!·? motherlod~?. But I don't have to 90 up into those hills far tr0~.-:i~:;ur1:::· .. I think I've struck gold riqht here. It's great to be back in the home state of the next ex-President of the United States And :i.t's great to be here at San Jose State. But I didn't just come here ta drive up and dawn your magnificent coastline in a time capsule. I'm here for a much more serious purpcse. Since I've got this great non-partisan crowd here, I want to take a scientific, obvject1ve survey .. STOCl<TON ~~:::X'J..~ ... .. ~~-Are we 9oin9 to win in November? Are we going to send Walter Mondale ta the White House and Ronald Reagan back to hi s ranch? You bet WE~ .::1r·E·! .. This ye~r, we're in a fight for equal opportunity. When Fritz Mondale offered me the nomination he did more f or equal opportunity in a single day than Ronald Ragan has done in On that d~y, I felt a special surge of pride as an immigrant's daughter. But it wasn't Just a personal victory It was a vict o ry for every wo man, and today I know if we can do this, we can do anything. This election is not a duel between personalities. You c.:1n like Ronald Reagan, but you don't have t o vote far him .. And above all~ this election is about de f ending four great American principles .. First, education. Americans have always known that education unlocks the doors to opportunity. We know that ta get ahead, you h a ve to get an educ a tion. STOCKTON But where we see a ~eed to invest in the promise of our youth, Ronald Rea9an has dramatically cut school aid and slashed public school funding. Ronald Reagan wants to send a teacher into space, but I s~y we have to help our students and teachers here on earth. Second, Americans have always beleived that personal freedom is essential. But the extremists who control the Republican narty would impose a religious test on Federal Judges. And put the government between you and your most personal choices. Walter Mondale and I will keep the federal government in public buildings and out of our homes, our churches and our synagogues. I want the Supreme Court chosen by Walter Mondale, not Jerry falwell. Third, we won't have any kind of future without this planet. We must keep our land, our children, and our lives free from toxic wastes. Too many Americans already must worry about the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the land they own. STOCKTON f ~S§ .... ! This Administration has turned its back on them. They left toxic waste dumps uncleaned, and failed to help local school districts remove asbestos from some 33~000 public schools. Remember, this is the Administration that gave us James Watt once and Anne Burford twice. Thin9s will be different under President Mondale. He will enforce our environmental laws. He will rebuild the EPA. He will use a reauthorized and expanded Superfund to clean up the most dangerous toxic dumps. And he'll make the polluters pay for the clean up. I say we need an Administration that takes polluters ta court, and not to lunch. And fourth, there's no greater American principle t'.1an peace with other countries, and that requires ending the arms race. President Reagan is the first President since Hoover not to meet with the Soviet leader. He is the first President since the dawn of the nuclear age not ta s19n an arms control agreement. I say we need a President who will talk wit~ the Soviet leader on his first day in office, not on the first day of hi~ re-election campaign. STOCKTON f?2§ ... ~ And we need a President who will stop the arms race before it spins into space. It's time to say, the sky's the limit. Rather than extending the arms race into space, let's stop it here on earth. Io do that, we need a President who is informed and energetic, active and involved in world affairs. Name a region of the world, and our influence in the last four years has waned, not grown. Name a foreign policy mi s take, and this President has blamed someone else. So far, he has blamed Congress, President Carter and a local military commander for the tragedies of Beirut. The American people want a President who admits his mistakes and learn s from them. They want a President who cares more about protecting this nation than about protecting his own image. That's the kind of President Walter Mondale will be. He will press for human rights -- not only in the Soviet Union and Poland, but also in El Salvador, the Philippines, and South Africa. STDC~('J.'ON X'..-i:l.'.J~~ .... .<i?. Those are the four basic principles. B 1..1 t. t o b 1.J i 1 d t h i:-:·! future, we must do it to9ether. Dividing us into Haves and Have-Nots is not the way to strengthen this country. Every t:i.m<-:~ we lower a barrier, our nation is stronger. Every time we take advantage of talents that were previously excluded, our nation is X' :i. Ch E·!X' • Walter Mondale and I are committed ta an America which judges people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. We believe that poor and average income families should not have to pay more in taxes, so the rich can pay less. We want an Administration that supports civil rights laws, not segregated academies. We want a society that treasures its diversity, and honors our heritage whether it is Hispanic, African, Asian, or European. And we want a country that keeps faith with women. take the oath of office for my second term as Vice President, I want to swear to uphold a Constitution that includes the Equal Rights Amendment. STOCKTON f~S§ ... 7 The Democratic Party has always beleived in these principles. But recently it seems like we may have another new convert. Ronald Rea9an has been quotin9 John F. Kennedy, and ridin9 Harry Truman's train. Two weeks ago, he took Harry Truman's Pullman car out of a museum to try to recreate Truman's famous whistle-stop tour of 1948. What you didn't hear from Rea9an is what Harry Truman had to say -- and I quote, "Any farmer who votes Republican should have his head examined." That train stunt didn't fool anyone. But think about 1t. What better symbol could Ronald Reagan give us of his Administration: there he was, facing backwards, without a clue about who was at the controls, or in what direction he was going. The fact is, Ronald Reagan has given farmers the worst four years since the depression. Net farm income has dropped by half. Farm exports have collapsed. Foreclosures have tripled, and 300,000 farm-related jobs have been lost. In response to that suffering, Ronald Reagan says, let prosperity "trickle down.• Well, even someone from Queens knows that crops grow from the ground up. STOCKTON f ~S§. __ µ Walter Mondale has been a friend of farmers for as long as Reagan has opposed them. Make no mistake about it: Walter Mondale will be the best President California farmers ever had. Yau know that. But what you may not know is that in 1982, the farmer's Union gave Geraldine Ferraro a 100 perce~t rating on her votin9 record. And in 1983, they gave me 91 percent. That ain't bad for a city kid. He pretends he admires John Kennedy. But in 1960 he was a pen pal for Richard Nixon. During that campaign, 1n a handwriteen note to Mr. Nixon, he compared John Kennedy to Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler. Now that's the real Ronald Reagan: not charming, not funny, not Mr. Personality -- but just plain wrong. Some people say let Reagan be Reagan, but when that happens, take co~er. I say, let Reagan be Retired. The challenges are great today~ but the American people are even greater. Eleanor Roosevelt stoked the ember of defiant hope in all af us when she said, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Let others say we cannot afford equ~l opportunity in America. I say we must pass the Equal Rights Amendment. • STDCl<TON r'..~ .. ~V~ ..... ~. Let others say we cannot clean up toxic waste dumps. we owe it to our children not to poison their world. And let others say there is no way to stop the nuclear arms I say our nation's security and our children's future df.~PE~nds on it. This country has never failed to meet a challenge, and we won't start now. Let others say this election cannot be won. It mu~;;t. And with your help, it will. I.IJ.0.NH .... X.9.lJ ... ! ........ JUt~.!:-1.t~ .... .:Y..Q.lL.VJ:::.r.~.'f. .... Mv.c;.!·:!.!~ . ........ END -···· 

Stockton Rally Speech

https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1064&amp;context=vice_presidential_campaign_speeches_1984

Stockton Rally Speech

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