General Wesley K. Clark
Remarks For Dr. Martin Luther King Day Rally
Columbia, SC
January 19, 2004
(As prepared for delivery)
Thank you Major Williams for that kind introduction - today, I'm proud to salute you for your service, your patriotism and your support.
And I want to thank Secretary Rodney Slater, Representative William Jefferson, and Representative Marion Berry for being with me today. The people of this country have been blessed by their service, and I consider myself blessed by their friendship.
Today, we have come together to honor Dr. Martin Luther King - a great leader of conscience with a vision that changed history. A force of love who taught us that hatred and prejudice have no place in the laws of a great nation or the souls of a great people. A preacher who showed us that the Lord God himself created us equal - no matter what your race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation - and once we opened our eyes and hearts to his will here on earth, we would all feel his glory.
Forty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Americans convened in our Capitol to march with Dr. King and hear his dream for our nation. Together, they stood - halfway between a monument to the man who granted the first measure of freedom, and the Congress of men who had yet to finish the job. And on that hot August day, citizens from across our country who yearned for justice linked arms, and pledged together in song: We Shall Overcome.
But as I stand before you today, forty years later, the sad fact is that we have not overcome.
When black Americans are twice as likely to be out of a job, twice as likely to live in poverty, and a third less likely to have health care - then we have not overcome.
When hundreds of thousands of black men sit behind bars and millions never finish school - then we have not overcome.
When our President has the audacity to visit the grave of Dr. King one day, then dishonor his memory the next by appointing an anti-civil rights, anti-voting rights, anti-justice, anti-American judge - then we have not overcome.
And when a political party can suppress the vote and steal a presidential election - when a man can sit in the White House when the only vote he's won took place in the U.S. Supreme Court - then my friends, we still have not overcome.
Today, 140 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, 40 years after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, one person, one vote is still not a reality in America.
We saw it in the election of 2000, and right here in South Carolina in 2002, when African Americans were turned away from the polls, purged from the rolls, and intimidated when they showed up to vote.
Today, all too often, it's one person one vote if you live in the right county. And if you vote at the right machine. And if your name is on the right list. And if your skin is the right color.
Well, last I checked, there was no "if" in the 15th Amendment. Last I checked, one person one vote wasn't just a slogan - it was the highest law of this land. And I'm not going to rest until every single American can cast their vote and make their voice heard.
Because I grew up in Little Rock Arkansas - and I have a duty to ensure that those nine brave boys and girls from my hometown didn't face down a mob for nothing.
Because I spent 34 years in the United States military fighting for our freedoms, and I'm not going to stop now.
Because in my heart, I'm not a politician, I'm a soldier. I'm a proud product of the most integrated institution in America. That's why I've always believed in equal opportunity and affirmative action.
For three decades, I served side by side with brave men and women of all races, creeds and religions under one flag - the American Flag. We fought for that flag. I gave my blood and buried my men under that flag.
And let me tell you, no Charles Pickering or John Ashcroft or George W. Bush is going to take that flag away from us. No Tom DeLay or Dick Cheney or Trent Lott is going to take us down the sad, hate-filled path back to that other flag over there.
Half a century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King led us in a great struggle to redeem the promise of our Constitution for all our people - to create a nation where all of us are truly judged not "by the color of
skin, but by the content of character."
And today, it's up to us to continue his work.
Scripture tells us to be "confident of this very thing - that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it." My friends, Dr. Martin Luther King began a great work inside each and every one of us - and today, we must commit ourselves anew to completing it.
That's why I'm running for President of the United States - to finish the work Dr. King began, to make his daring dream a daring reality, and to bring a higher standard of leadership back to Washington, DC.
And I hope that all of you will walk with me by my side in this great journey.
Thank you and God bless you.
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