The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy - Bill Adler [18]
There are few better ways to show children you care than to take the time each day to read with them. When children have books and adults who read to them an early age, they acquire better language skills and learn to love and appreciate books.
—White House Summit on
Early Childhood Cognitive Development,
July 26, 2001
We want every child to be welcomed into a loving home, and to be part of the American Dream. This fundamental vision is at the heart of who we are as Democrats, and we must do everything in our power to make it a reality.
—Address at the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005
ISSUES OF GLOBAL IMPACT:
THE ENVIRONMENT, WAR, NATIONAL
SECURITY, AND PUBLIC SAFETY
TAKE ANY ISSUE OF GLOBAL IMPACT AND RESEARCH TED Kennedy’s position on it. It doesn’t matter what it is—whether it’s something that’s long been on the public radar, like the environment, or some obscure trade issue, like changing tariffs on imported shoes—and somewhere in the vast body of the Senator’s speeches and writings, you will find he took a stand on it. And not just a pro forma stand, a nod to the conventional wisdom on the subject, but much more: He put his topnotch staff to work and thoroughly researched the issue. His positions never seemed hastily thrown together or done as a “You support my issue and I’ll support yours” favor to a fellow politician. When you read a policy statement, you find that the facts are right, the implications are thought through, and the position based on logic—although it may well be argued with passion.
What kinds of issues merit this attention? Here’s a very abridged list: energy conservation, environmental protection, combating the spread of terrorism, nuclear arms control, gun control, equity in global trade, charting a path to peace in the Middle East, dealing with Iran, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, ethnic slaughter in Darfur, human rights in China, the push for democracy in the former Soviet republics, and the global fight against AIDS.
We know we have shortchanged the Senator by the brevity of this list but we know that to do him full justice would use up a lot more paper—and that brings up yet another cause dear to his heart: saving trees.
People are beginning to realize that we are a part of nature, not outside it. We are beginning to understand that instead of conquering nature, we must live in harmony with it.
—Speech, January 3, 1970
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.
—Address at the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005
It’s better to send in the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps.
—Quoted in “Famous Sayings”
compiled by Wordpress.com
National security begins at home. It begins on the streets and sidewalks of our cities. It begins in the small towns and villages of our country. It begins on the farms in our rural areas. These are the places where the first two hundred years of our nation were decided. And these are the places where the fate of America is going to be decided in the third century of our history.
—Speech, March 1, 1976
There is no priority for this nation higher than guaranteeing our national security and safety. Without an effective military force, and without a worldwide understanding that we have the unwavering will to use this force when our national interests are in danger, we unnecessarily place our way of life in peril.
—Speech, June 3, 1969
As we seek to improve the world in which we live and to secure its people against the scourge of war and want, we must understand that peace is not a final victory but a continual effort.
—Speech, December 2, 1975
For half a century, our