The Return: A Book for Frances about Life and Death
             Preface
            Back Cover
      You're in Charge: A Guide to Becoming Your Own Therapist
            Introduction: The Art of Self Observation
             On Dreaming
            Foreign Editions
   Since the New Deal: An Annotated Chronology of the Events That Have Changed the United States
             The C.I.A. (excerpt)
             Origins of the Cold War (excerpt)
             Some Quotations that Demonstrate the Underlying Philosophy Since the New Deal

 
      Afghanistan, "Terrorism," and Blowback   About Anthrax
     Some Thoughts on 9-11-2001

Warren Beatty Speech

1 2 3 4 5 6                            p7

I think by now, if she'd experienced the past 20 years, she might say, "Well, I was beginning to think you'd never ask."

But sadly, only the spirit of Mrs. Roosevelt is alive today. Hubert Humphrey is gone. Walter Reuther is gone. So is Al Lowenstein.

But their spirit is here.

And I can see some hope for that spirit in Al Gore and Bill Bradley.

But if an unexpected person showed that he or she had that spirit and the ability to lead, and said to me there was no liberal running for President, no Wellstone, no Jackson, no Kennedy, no Mario Cuomo, and that serious people of good judgment were talking to that person about running, if I didn't think they were nuts, it would make no difference to me whether that person had become well-known as a basketball player, or a businessman, an actor, a wrestler, a grocery clerk or a drum majorette.

I'd say to that person:

"Look, Drum Majorette, there's no harm in thinking about it, however unlikely it might be. But whatever you do, go ahead and speak up. Speak up for the people nobody speaks for.

And if you speak up well, maybe you'll influence some people and the party and the candidates that are running. And who knows what else?

And remember, Drum Majorette, don't delude yourself into thinking it's got an awful lot to do with you. It doesn't. It's the time you're living in. And a temporary vacuum that allows you the privilege of being heard.

And one more thing, Drum Majorette:

When those plutocrats start with you; when you start hearing those moneyed honeyed voices of ridicule and reaction;

Let them call you coy.

Let them call you flirtatious.

But keep talking. Keep that spirit.

Keep talking.

You've got to keep the spirit."

Thank you, A.D.A., for keeping the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Keep the spirit.

Posted Originally on the Website of the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action

Previous Page

© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004

All rights reserved.