Transcript of RealAudio Excerpt
As I leave you now, we vote in
this convention and get ready to go back across this nation in a couple of
days, in this campaign I tried to be faithful to my promise. I lived in old
barrios, ghettos and in reservations and housing projects.
I have a message for our youth. I challenge them to put hope in their brains
and not dope in their veins. (Applause) I told them that like Jesus, I, too,
was born in the slum, and just because you're born in a slum does not mean the
slum is born in you and you can rise above it if your mind is made up.
(Applause) I told them in every slum there are two sides. When I see a broken
window that's the slummy side. Train some youth to become a glazier; that is
the sunny side. When I see a missing brick, that is the slummy side. Let that
child in a union and become a brick mason and build; that is the sunny side.
When I see a
missing door, that is the slummy side. Train some youth to become a carpenter,
that is the sunny side. When I see the vulgar words and hieroglyphics of
destitution on the walls, that is the slummy side. Train some youth to be a
painter and artist, that is the sunny side.
We leave this place looking for the sunny side because there's a brighter
side somewhere.
I am more convinced than ever that we can win. We will vault up the rough side
of the mountain. We can win. I just want young America to do me one favor, just
one favor.
Exercise the right to dream. You must face reality, that which is. But then
dream of a reality that ought to be, that must be. Live beyond the pain of
reality with the dream of a bright tomorrow. Use hope and imagination as
weapons of survival and progress. Use love to motivate you and obligate you to
serve the human family.
Young America, dream. Choose the human race over the nuclear race. Bury the
weapons
and don't burn the people. Dream - dream of a new value system. Teachers who
teach for life and not just for a living; teach because they can't help it.
Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship. Dream of
doctors more concerned about public health than personal wealth. (Applause)
Dream of preachers and priests who will prophesy and not just profiteer. Preach
and dream! Our time has come. Our time has come.
Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith, and in the faith will
not disappoint. Our time has come. Our faith, hope and dreams have prevailed.
Our time has come. Weeping has endured for nights but that joy cometh in the
morning.
Our time has come. No grave can hold our body down. Our time has come. No
lie can
live forever. Our time has come. We must leave the racial battle ground and
come
to the economic common ground and moral higher ground. America, our time has
come.
