Read Online The Wit and Wisdom of Ted Kennedy by Bill Adler - Free Book Online
Authors: Bill Adler
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poured virtually unlimited supplies of arms into Iran, in the hope that bombs and tanks and planes could somehow ensure the flow of oil to American homes and factories.
âSpeech, April 2, 1979
There will be discussion in Washington and around the world about whether the ethnic violence in Darfur is, in fact, genocide, but we cannot allow the debate over definitions to obstruct our ability to act as soon as possible. It is a matter of the highest moral responsibility for each of us individually, for Congress, for the United States, and for the global community to do all we can to stop the violence against innocents in Darfur. We must act, because thousands of peopleâs lives will be lost if we donât.
âCall for U.S. action to help stop the
ethnic violence in Darfur, Sudan,
April 29, 2004
I donât think America can just drill itself out of its current energy situation. We donât need to destroy the environment to meet our energy needs. We need smart, comprehensive, common-sense approaches that balance the need to increase domestic energy supplies with the need to maximize energy efficiency.
âStatement on New Long-Term Energy Solutions,
March 22, 2001
We should stop the non-scientific, pseudo-scientific, and anti-scientific nonsense emanating from the right wing, and start demanding immediate action to reduce global warming and prevent catastrophic climate change that may be on our horizon now. We must not let the [Bush] Administration distort science and rewrite and manipulate scientific reports in other areas. We must not let it turn the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Pollution Agency.
âAddress to the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005
In strengthening security at our borders, we must also safeguard the unobstructed entry of the more than 31 million persons who enter the U.S. legally each year as visitors, students, and temporary workers. Many of them cross our borders from Canada and Mexico to conduct daily business or visit close family members.
We also must live up to our history and heritage as a nation of immigrants. Continued immigration is part of our national well-being, our identity as a nation, and our strength in todayâs world. In defending America, we are also defending the fundamental constitutional principles that have made America strong in the past and will make us even stronger in the future.
Our action must strike a careful balance between protecting civil liberties and providing the means for law enforcement to identify, apprehend and detain potential terrorists. It makes no sense to enact reforms that severely limit immigration into the United States. âFortress America,â even if it could be achieved, is an inadequate and ineffective response to the terrorist threat.
âStatement on the Introduction of the
Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry
Reform Act of 2001, November 30, 2001
DEMOCRACY AND
HUMAN RIGHTS
T ED K ENNEDY WAS BOTH A BIG âDâ D EMOCRAT AND A small âdâ democrat. That is to say, he was both a ferocious defender of his party and a deep believer in the virtues of a system in which the people choose their leaders. He was also an astute observer of the way democracies function and how they are sometimes ill-served by overly partisan politics or by majority rule at the expense of minority rights. He critiqued the workings of democracy, both at home and abroad, and was even more vocal when it came to his appraisal of countries like China, which lack democracy, or post-Soviet Russia, where democratic practices have too often been compromised or abridged.
The big risk to democracy at home, as the senator has pointed out, comes when politicians put themselves ahead of the public interest or are not honest with the voters. Democracyâs lifeblood is an educated and informed electorate, able to keep track of politiciansâ deeds, able to call them to account when they say
âSpeech, April 2, 1979
There will be discussion in Washington and around the world about whether the ethnic violence in Darfur is, in fact, genocide, but we cannot allow the debate over definitions to obstruct our ability to act as soon as possible. It is a matter of the highest moral responsibility for each of us individually, for Congress, for the United States, and for the global community to do all we can to stop the violence against innocents in Darfur. We must act, because thousands of peopleâs lives will be lost if we donât.
âCall for U.S. action to help stop the
ethnic violence in Darfur, Sudan,
April 29, 2004
I donât think America can just drill itself out of its current energy situation. We donât need to destroy the environment to meet our energy needs. We need smart, comprehensive, common-sense approaches that balance the need to increase domestic energy supplies with the need to maximize energy efficiency.
âStatement on New Long-Term Energy Solutions,
March 22, 2001
We should stop the non-scientific, pseudo-scientific, and anti-scientific nonsense emanating from the right wing, and start demanding immediate action to reduce global warming and prevent catastrophic climate change that may be on our horizon now. We must not let the [Bush] Administration distort science and rewrite and manipulate scientific reports in other areas. We must not let it turn the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Pollution Agency.
âAddress to the National Press Club,
Washington, DC, January 12, 2005
In strengthening security at our borders, we must also safeguard the unobstructed entry of the more than 31 million persons who enter the U.S. legally each year as visitors, students, and temporary workers. Many of them cross our borders from Canada and Mexico to conduct daily business or visit close family members.
We also must live up to our history and heritage as a nation of immigrants. Continued immigration is part of our national well-being, our identity as a nation, and our strength in todayâs world. In defending America, we are also defending the fundamental constitutional principles that have made America strong in the past and will make us even stronger in the future.
Our action must strike a careful balance between protecting civil liberties and providing the means for law enforcement to identify, apprehend and detain potential terrorists. It makes no sense to enact reforms that severely limit immigration into the United States. âFortress America,â even if it could be achieved, is an inadequate and ineffective response to the terrorist threat.
âStatement on the Introduction of the
Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry
Reform Act of 2001, November 30, 2001
DEMOCRACY AND
HUMAN RIGHTS
T ED K ENNEDY WAS BOTH A BIG âDâ D EMOCRAT AND A small âdâ democrat. That is to say, he was both a ferocious defender of his party and a deep believer in the virtues of a system in which the people choose their leaders. He was also an astute observer of the way democracies function and how they are sometimes ill-served by overly partisan politics or by majority rule at the expense of minority rights. He critiqued the workings of democracy, both at home and abroad, and was even more vocal when it came to his appraisal of countries like China, which lack democracy, or post-Soviet Russia, where democratic practices have too often been compromised or abridged.
The big risk to democracy at home, as the senator has pointed out, comes when politicians put themselves ahead of the public interest or are not honest with the voters. Democracyâs lifeblood is an educated and informed electorate, able to keep track of politiciansâ deeds, able to call them to account when they say
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