AmericanRhetoric.com

Geraldine Ferraro:
Speech Accepting the Democratic Vice Presidential Nomination

Delivered
19
July
1984 at
the
Democratic
National Convention, San Francisco

AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED:
Text
version below
transcribed
directly
from
audio

Ladies and gentlemen of the convention:

My name is Geraldine Ferraro. I stand before you
to proclaim tonight: America is the land
where dreams can
come true for all of us. As I stand before the American people and think of
the honor this great convention has bestowed upon me, I
recall the words of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., who made America stronger by making America more free.
He said, "Occasionally in
life there are moments which cannot be completely explained by words. Their meaning can
only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."
Tonight
is such a moment for me.

My heart is filled with pride. My fellow citizens, I proudly accept your nomination
for Vice
President of the United States.

And I am proud to run with a man who will be one of the great Presidents of this century,
Walter F. Mondale. Tonight, the daughter of a woman whose highest goal was a future for her
children talks to our nation's oldest party about
a future for us all. Tonight, the daughter of
working Americans tells all
Americans that
the future is within our reach, if we're willing to
reach for it. Tonight, the daughter of an
immigrant from Italy has been chosen to
run
for
[Vice] President
in the new
land my father came to
love.

Our faith that we can shape a better future is what the American dream is all about. The
promise of our country is that
the rules are fair. If you work hard and play by the rules, you
can earn your share of America's blessings. Those are the beliefs I learned from my parents.
And those are the values I
taught my students as a teacher in
the public schools of New York
City.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Page
1

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At
night, I went to
law school. I became an assistant district attorney, and I put my share of
criminals behind bars. I believe if you obey the law, you should be protected. But
if you break
the law, you
must pay for your crime.

When I
first ran for Congress, all the political experts said a Democrat could not win
my home
district in Queens. I put my faith in the people and the values that we shared. Together, we
proved the political experts wrong. In
this campaign, Fritz Mondale and I have put our faith
in
the people. And we are going to prove the experts wrong again. We are going to win. We are
going to win
because Americans across this country believe in the same basic dream.

Last week, I visited Elmore, Minnesota,
the small
town where Fritz Mondale was raised. And
soon Fritz and Joan will
visit our family in Queens. Nine hundred people live in
Elmore. In
Queens, there are 2,000 people on one block. You would think we'd be different, but we're
not. Children walk to school in Elmore past grain elevators. in
Queens, they pass by subway
stops.
But, no matter where they live, their future depends on education, and their parents
are willing to do their part
to
make those schools as good as they can be. In
Elmore, there are
family farms. in Queens, small businesses. But
the men and women who run
them all
take
pride in supporting their families through hard work and initiative. On the 4th of July in
Elmore, they hang flags out on Main Street. in Queens, they fly them over Grand Avenue. But
all of us love our country, and stand ready to defend the freedom that
it represents.

Americans want
to live by the same set of rules. But
under this administration, the rules are
rigged against too
many of our people.
It isn't right that every year the share of taxes paid by
individual
citizens is going up, while the share paid by large corporations is getting smaller
and smaller. The rules say: Everyone in our society should contribute their fair share. It
isn't
right
that this year Ronald Reagan will hand the American people a bill for interest on the
national debt
larger than
the entire cost of the federal government
under John F. Kennedy.
Our parents left us a growing economy. The rules say:
We must
not leave our kids a mountain
of debt.

It
isn't right
that a woman should get paid 59
cents on the dollar for the same work as a man.

If you play by the rules, you deserve a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. It
isn't right that, if
trends continue, by the year 2000 nearly all of the poor people in America will be women and
children. The rules of a decent society say: When you distribute sacrifice in times of austerity,
you don't put women and children first. It
isn't right
that
young people today fear they won't
get the Social Security they paid for, and that older Americans fear that they will lose what
they have already learned [earned].
Social
Security is a contract between
the last generation
and the next, and the rules say: You don't break contracts.

We are going to keep faith with older Americans. We hammered out a fair compromise in the
Congress to
save Social Security. Every group sacrificed to keep the system sound.
It is time
Ronald Reagan stopped scaring our senior citizens.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Page
2

AmericanRhetoric.com

It
isn't right
that
young couples question whether to bring children into a world of 50,000
nuclear warheads. That
isn't the vision
for which Americans have struggled for more than
two
centuries. And our future doesn't
have to be that way. Change is in the air, just as surely as
when John Kennedy beckoned America to a new frontier. when
Sally Ride rocketed into
space.
and when Reverend Jesse Jackson ran
for the office of President of the United States.

By choosing a woman to
run
for our nation's second highest office, you send a powerful signal
to all
Americans: There are no doors we cannot
unlock. We will place no limits on
achievement. If we can do
this, we can do anything.

Tonight, we reclaim our dream. We're going to
make the rules of American
life work fairly for
all
Americans again. To an Administration that would have us debate all over again whether
the Voting Rights Act
should be renewed and whether segregated schools should be tax
exempt, we say, Mr. President: Those debates are over.
On the issue of civil rights, voting
rights, and affirmative action for minorities, we
must
not go backwards. We must
and
we
will move
forward to open
the doors of opportunity.

To those who understand that our country cannot prosper unless we draw on the talents of all
Americans, we say: We will pass the Equal Rights Amendment.

The issue is not what America can do for women, but what women can do for America.

To the Americans who will
lead our country into
the 21st century, we say: We will
not
have a
Supreme Court
that
turns the clock back to the
19th century.

To those concerned about
the strength of American and family values, as I am, I say: We are
going to restore those values love,
caring, partnership by
including, and not excluding,
those whose beliefs differ from our own. Because our own faith is strong, we will fight
to
preserve the freedom of faith
for others.

To those working Americans who fear that banks, utilities, and large special interests have a
lock on
the
White House, we say: Join
us. let's elect
the people's President. and let's have
government by and for the American people again.

To an
Administration
that would savage student
loans and education at
the dawn of a new
technological age, we say: You fit
the classic definition of a cynic. you know
the price of
everything, but
the value of nothing.

To our students and their parents, we say: We will
insist on
the highest standards of
excellence, because the jobs of the future require skilled minds. To young Americans who may
be called to our country's service, we say:
We know your generation will proudly answer our
country's call, as each generation before you.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Page
3

AmericanRhetoric.com

This past
year, we remembered the bravery and sacrifice of Americans at Normandy. And we
finally paid tribute as
we should have done years ago to
that
unknown soldier who
represents all the brave young Americans who died in Vietnam. Let no one doubt, we will
defend America's security and the cause of freedom around the world. But we want a
President who tells us what America's fighting for, not just what we are fighting against.

We want a President who will defend human rights, not just where it is convenient, but
wherever freedom is at risk from
Chile to
Afghanistan, from Poland to
South Africa. To
those who have watched this administration's confusion
in the Middle East, as it has tilted first
toward one and then another of Israel's longtime
enemies and wonder: "Will America stand
by her friends and sister democracy?" we say: America knows who
her friends are in the
Middle East and around the world. America will stand with Israel always.

Finally, we want a President who will keep America strong, but use that strength to
keep
America and the world at peace. A nuclear freeze is not a slogan: It
is a tool for survival in the
nuclear age.
If we leave our children
nothing else, let
us leave them this Earth as we found it:
whole and green and full of life.

I know in my heart
that Walter Mondale will be that President.

A wise man once said, "Every one of us is given
the gift of life, and what a strange gift
it
is. If
it is preserved jealously and selfishly, it impoverishes and saddens. But
if it is spent for
others, it
enriches and beautifies." My fellow
Americans: We can debate policies and
programs, but in the end what separates the two parties in this election
campaign is whether
we use the gift of life for others or only ourselves.

Tonight, my husband, John, and our three children are in
this hall with
me. To
my daughters,
Donna and Laura, and my son, John Junior, I
say: My mother did not break faith with
me, and
I will not break faith with you.

To all the children of America, I say: The generation before ours kept faith with
us, and like
them, we will
pass on
to you a stronger,
more just America.

Thank you.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Page
4