Senator Kennedy Delivers Unifying Speech for Liberals

Senator Ted Kennedy delivered a superb, much-needed unifying speech yesterday, speaking out as respected longtime lion of the Democratic Party, to the National Press Club. You can find the all-encompassing speech here at Common Dreams. Here is an excerpt from the ending....

"Finally, and by no means least, our actions in the wider world must reflect our values at home as well....

We are a compassionate and caring people, and in times like this, we are never separated by borders or oceans or politics or faith. The people of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other suffering nations are our brothers and sisters.

Sustained action by America and other nations will be essential in the ongoing mission of reconstruction and rehabilitation. The people of South Asia need our help now and they need our long term support - and so do other peoples struggling desperately to deal with overwhelming poverty and disease.

Their nations can be our friends - or be the breeding ground of our enemies....

America is strongest in the world when we use our superpower status to join with other nations to achieve great goals, instead of bullying them to salute us. More than ever, our strength today depends on pursuing our purposes in cooperation with others, not in ways that anger them, or ignore them, or condescend to them.

Our fragile planet is not a Republican or Democratic or American community. It is a world community, and we forget that truth at our very, very great peril....

A new American majority is ready to respond to our call for a revitalized American dream - grounded firmly in our Constitution and in the endless adventure of lifting this nation to ever new heights of discovery, prosperity, progress, and service to all our people and to all humanity.

We as Democrats may be in the minority in Congress, but we speak for the majority of Americans. If we summon the courage and determination to take our stand and state it clearly, I'm convinced the battles that lie ahead will yield our greatest victories. "