(Draft) Speech about the upcoming presidential election, in [New Orleans, Louisiana?], 1972 October 5 (Doc 2 of 4)

ReadAboutContentsHelp

Pages

1
Complete

1

JULIAN BOND Page 1

The election approaching on November 7th is of crucial importance to all Americans, but particularly those whose condition is poverty and whose skin is Black. For whomever he happens to be, the next president of the United States will affect all of our lives. He will place his men on the Supreme Court, and will turn it back into the activist liberal force it used to be or will continue it's present trend toward facism. He will name the directors and set the budgets and policies for the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Departments of Health, Education and Welfare and for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He will decide whether the American agression against the innocent people of Southwest Asia continues, and will decide whether the American troops there now come home marching upright or lying down in pine boxes. He will decide whether stocks go up or down; whether money is loose or tight, whether our weekly paychecks buy more or less or whether we have any paychecks at all. This election will decide whether we will have the politics of wealth and stealth or the politics of compassion and openess.

But if the recent public opinion polls are true, they demostrate the frightening reality that the comforable, the callous and the smug have closed ranks-- and closed their hearts-- against the claims and call to conscience put forward by the forgotten and unrepresented in our society. For Black Americans, an electoral victory in November for the present occupants of Uncle Strom's cabin will mean consigning nearly all our hopes and dreams

Last edit almost 1 year ago by MBrunsdon
2
Complete

2

2222222222222222

to an oblivion from which they may never emerge. It means re-installing in power those who believe in privilege for the powerul and neglect of the powerless. It means giving a four-year free-hand to men who have demonstrated they have no concern for freedom of the press, for the privacy of the individual, or the fundamental Constitutionally guaranteed personal liberties we shouldall like to believe are taken for granted by those who govern us. It, additionally, means an end for the moment to any political chances we may have to improve our condition.

Earlier last yearA short while ago, the National Urban Coalition tried to spell out what was wrong in this country, and how it could be set right.

"America's malaise" they said, --"which all of us feel in a way or another--has its roots in the distance between national ideal and national reality."

"Our ideal is a country where every American gets an equal chance to perform, where jobs exist for everyone who wants one, where health care and personal safety are assured, where we live in harmony with each other and have a decent place to live."

"Our reality needs no full recital here. We know that cities are in trouble, that proverty continues in the midst of wealth, that unemployment is high, that malnutrition is widespread, that injustice exists, that tensions endure. In sum, we know that our society is not functioning the way it is supposed to."

"But is we solve the grestest of our ills" the coalition said, "our paralysis of spirit and will, we can narrow the distance between what we have and what we want. Indeed, we must marshal our good sense and our good

Last edit 10 months ago by kimberleym
3
Complete

3

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

will. There is no sensible anlternative."

In the coalition view "America must pursue several major goals between now and the future. It must try to:

"Achieve full employment with a high level of economic growth - all of our other policy goals depend upon it.

"Provide all citizens with an equal opportunity to participate in American society and in the shaping of governmental decisions affecting their lives.

"Guarantee that no American will go without basic necessities: food, shelter, health care, a healthy environment, personal safety, and an adequate income.

"Meet our obligations to assist in the ecomonic development of the world's lesser developed nations.

"These are the gaols. We can move a long way toward them by 1976."*

But in addition to the Coalition's major goals, and their definition of "Paralysis of Will" as the greatest of our ills, there is another goal much more desirable and another ill much more horrible. One That ill is racism and the goal its containment and eradication.

Everyone knows, our ought to know, that there is one consuming problem that makes life in New York's Harlem, Cleveland's Hough, Los Angeles'Watts or Atlanta's Vine City or any of America's other urban Atticas - where some

________________

*Unpublished draft - Statement on National Priorities, The National Urban Coalition, January 18, 1971

Last edit 10 months ago by kimberleym
4
Complete

4

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

men are held in bondage by some other men - both intolerable and insufferable.

That problem is race. It is race that elected our present President in 1968; race that makes some Americans serve and die more readily than others in Vietnam; race that makes some children more educated than others; race that colors all of our lives.

For the past several years abundant solutions to the problem of race, and this therefore to the pathologies of society that spring from it, have been more than abundant.

There are several solutions that, if implemented, would begin to make this country a proper place for men and women to live and work and a healthy place for our children to play and grow and learn.

The nation can could adopt, and strive for, a policy of full employment.

Equal opportunity, both racially and sexually, can stop being the rhetoric of campaigns and platforms and become the reality of the present.

Through public service employment, increased economic growth increase increases in wage minimums and in minimum wage coverage, and in guaranteeing social insurance by radically altering public assistance, every American can be guaranteed an income.

The institution of a national health insurance program and a radical alteration of federal housing programs will additionally aid in making both urban and rural America more attractive places to live.

None of these things will be done, however, unless there is increased

Last edit 10 months ago by kimberleym
5
Complete

5

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

interest among the people who desire them in politics: unless there is a growth in political activism, coalition and organization between now and November, 1972.

This a drive that must spring from a careful calculation of what is at stake and what the issues are: happen to be:

For too many Americans, an exchange of Presidents is nothing more than an exchange of photographs on the post office wall or a dormitory dart board; for Black Americans, the issue is whether we progress, run in place, or continue to slide backward as we have been doing since 1968.

Since Richard Nixon took office in 1968, we have spent billions more on war; over 2 million more Americans have been added to the ranks of the unemployed; 2 1/2 million more are on ever mounting relief rolls, inflation have has reduced our standard of living, and elitist, sexist and racist practices run rampant unchecked through public and private American life.

We will select a new Congress in 1972 as well. These for the most part must be new men and women, not the tired old faces of the past. It should be a Congress that would reject Nixon's family destruction plan, that would say "no" to more war, "no" to freezes on wages with nor freezes on profits, "no" to secret government, and "no" to preventive detention and no-knock justice.

Such a transformation can be achieved.

To do so, you must be prepared to confront some serious enemies.

These are not limited to the hooded midnight rider or bigoted Southern sheriff of

Last edit 10 months ago by kimberleym
Displaying pages 1 - 5 of 12 in total