QUOTES
"The
time for this shame is ending. The American people see it and have decided against
it. Our brooms are ballots, and we come a-sweeping."
You
have to ask the right questions. If you ask people if they are in favor of campaign
finance reform, they don't know. But if you ask them if too much money is spent
on elections, they say, Oh, isn't it awful?."
"I'm
not against the corporations. They are our wealth. But they are getting too greedy.
I don't want to do away with corporations. I want them to make our cars, however,
not our laws."
Do
you realize that $150 billion of our tax money is given to the corporations, unions
and wealthy people for tax breaks, special subsidies and special regulations?
That money would be available for health and education and building bridges.
"The
men and women who would be our public servants need mentors who have been grayed
and wrinkled by long experience -- a kind of Big Brother, Big Sister program for
politicians at risk."
Think
of the millions of young men who died fighting for democracy. We spit on their
graves when we let democracy slip away into the sewer of illegal money."
"I
didn't anticipate as much of a wave as I have created and I'm very happy for it.
It just shows what one person can do."
Our
grievance is that we no longer have proper representation. Our elected leaders
are consumed by the need to raise election funds from special interests, and they
no longer are able to represent the needs of the people or of our ravaged earth.
We must
declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election
campaigns by reforming or campaign finance system. We must alter our government.
As a people, we know how to declare our independence and authorize alterations
of our government.
Dear
friends, we would never seek to abolish now what has become our dear United States.
But it is our constant intention that it should be a government of, by and for
the people, not the special interests. Our right to alter our government must
be used to sweep these halls clean of greedy interests so that people may use
this government in service to each other's needs and to protect the condition
of our earth.
We
have a duty to look after each other. If we lose control of our government, then
we lose our ability to dispense justice and human kindness. Our first priority
today, then, is to defeat utterly those forces of greed and corruption that have
come between us and our self-governance.
There
are two kinds of politics in the world: the politics of love and the politics
of fear.
Love
is about cooperation, sharing and inclusion. It is about the elevation of each
individual to a life neither suppressed nor exploited, but instead nourished to
rise to its full potential--a life for its own sake and so that we may all benefit
by the gift of that life.
Let
us choose life and love, and happily use our selves up in loving service to one
another.