geraldine ferraro: 1984 Vice Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address
ladies and gentlemen of the convention:
my name is geraldine ferraro. i stand before you to proclaim tonight: america is the land where dreams can come true for all of us. as i stand before the american people and think of the honor this great convention has bestowed upon me, i recall the words of dr. martin luther king jr., who made america stronger by making america more free. he said, "occasionally in life there are moments which cannot be completely explained by words. their meaning can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart." tonight is such a moment for me.
my heart is filled with pride. my fellow citizens, i proudly accept your Nomination for Vice president of the united states.
and i am proud to run with a man who will be one of the great presidents of this century, walter f. mondale. tonight, the daughter of a woman whose highest goal was a future for her children talks to our nation's oldest party about a future for us all. tonight, the daughter of working americans tells all americans that the future is within our reach, if we're willing to reach for it. tonight, the daughter of an immigrant from italy has been chosen to run for [Vice] president in the new land my father came to love.
our faith that we can shape a better future is what the american dream is all about. the promise of our country is that the rules are fair. if you work hard and play by the rules, you can earn your share of america's blessings. those are the beliefs i learned from my parents. and those are the values i taught my students as a teacher in the public schools of new york city.
at night, i went to law school. i became an assistant district attorney, and i put my share of criminals behind bars. i believe if you obey the law, you should be protected. but if you break the law, you must pay for your crime.
when i first ran for congress, all the political experts said a democrat could not win my home district in queens. i put my faith in the people and the values that we shared. together, we proved the political experts wrong. in this campaign, fritz mondale and i have put our faith in the people. and we are going to prove the experts wrong again. we are going to win. we are going to win because americans across this country believe in the same basic dream.
last week, i visited elmore, minnesota, the small town where fritz mondale was raised. and soon fritz and joan will visit our family in queens. nine hundred people live in elmore. in queens, there are 2,000 people on one block. you would think we would be different, but we're not. children walk to school in elmore past grain elevators; in queens, they pass by subway stops. but, no matter where they live, their future depends on educat ……此处隐藏14301个字…… your public serVice must be: duty, honor, country.
others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. for a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.
let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. these great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: duty, honor, country.
you are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. from your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. the long gray line has never failed us. were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: duty, honor, country.
this does not mean that you are war mongers.
on the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
but always in our ears ring the ominous words of plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "only the dead have seen the end of war."
the shadows are lengthening for me. the twilight is here. my days of old have vanished, tone and tint. they have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. i listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. in my dreams i hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
but in the evening of my memory, always i come back to west point.
always there echoes and re-echoes: duty, honor, country.
today marks my final roll call with you, but i want you to know that when i cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of the corps, and the corps, and the corps.
i bid you farewell.
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