textfiles/politics/gore-sp

               Text of Gore's Acceptance Speech
    The following is the full text of the acceptance speech
 given by vice presidential nominee Sen Al Gore Thursday at
 the Democratic Natl Convention in New York.

    SEN AL GORE: "I've been dreaming of this moment since I
 was a kid growing up in Tennessee: that one day, I'd have
 the chance to come here to Madison Square Garden and be the
 warm-up act for Elvis.
    My friends, I thank you for your confidence expressed in
 the vote this evening, I pledge to pour my heart and soul
  into this crusade on behalf of the American people, and I
 accept your nomination.
    I did not seek this nomination or expect it. But I am
 here to join this team because I love my country. and I
 believe in my heart that together, we offer the American
 people the best chance we have to move this nation forward
 in the right direction again.
    I am here because the country I love has a government
 that is failing our people: the forgotten majority in your
 hometown and mine who work hard and play by the rules, who 
  scrimp and save to build a better life for their children.
    I am here to renew a journey our Founders began more than
 200 years ago. In my lifetime, I have seen America's ideals
 and dreams change the world, and I believe that now is the
 time to bring those ideals and dreams home again to change
 America.
    Our country is in trouble. And while George Bush and Dan
 Quayle have been making excuses for deadlock and decay,
 people in other nations--inspired by the eternal promise of
 America--have torn down the Berlin Wall, brought communism 
  to its knees, and forced a racist government in South
 Africa to turn away from apartheid. Throughout the world,
 obstacles to liberty that many thought might stand forever
 turned out to be no match for men and women who decided in
 their hearts that their future could be much greater than
 their past would let them dream.
    Their faith in the power of conscience and the force of
 truth required a leap of the human spirit. Can we say
 truthfully that their chance for change was better than
 ours? Yet we face our own crisis of the spirit here and now 
  in America. We're told we can no longer change, we've seen
 our better days, they even say we're history.
    The cynics are having a field day because across this
 country, millions of American families have been betrayed by
 a government out of touch with our values and beholden only
 to the privileged few. Millions of people are losing faith
 in the very idea of democracy, and are even in danger of
 losing heart, because they fear their lives may no longer
 have any deeper meaning or purpose.
    But you can't kill hope that easily, not here, not in 
  America, where a cynic is just a disappointed idealist in
 disguise, a dreamer yearning to dream again. In every
 American, no matter how badly betrayed or poorly led, there
 is always hope. Even now, if you listen, you can hear the
 pulse of America's true spirit.
    No, the American spirit isn't gone. But we vow here
 tonight that in November, George Bush and Dan Quayle will
 be.
    They've had their chance, and they have failed. They have
 taxed the many to enrich the few. It is time for them to go. 
 
    They have given us false choices, bad choices, and no
 choice. It is time for them to go.
    They have ignored the suffering of those who are victims,
 of AIDS, of crime, of poverty, of hatred and harassment. It
 is time for them to go.
    They have nourished and appeased tyrannies, and
 endangered America's deepest interests while betraying our
 cherished ideals. It is time for them to go.
    They have mortgaged our children's future to avoid the 
  decisions they lack the courage to make. It is time for
 them to go.
    They have demeaned our democracy with the politics of
 distraction, denial, and despair. It is time for them to go.
    The American people are disgusted with excuses and tired
 of blame. They know that throughout American history, each
 generation has passed on leadership to the next. That time
 has come again. The time for a new generation of leadership
 for the US of America to take over from George Bush and Dan
 Quayle. And that means it is time for them to go. 
 
    In 1992, our challenge is not to elect the last president
 of the 20th century, but to elect the first president of the
 21st century, Bill Clinton.
    Bill Clinton has a plan that offers real answers for the
 real problems of real people, a bold new Natl Economic
 Strategy to rebuild this country and put our people back to
 work.
    And if you want to know what Bill Clinton can do, take a
 look at what he has already done. For more than a decade, 
  he's been fighting against incredible odds to bring good
 jobs, better skills, and genuine hope to one of the poorest
 states in this country.
    A decade ago, when his state needed dramatic reform to
 shake up one of the worst school systems in America, Bill
 Clinton took on the established interests and made Arkansas
 the first state to require teacher testing. He has cut
 classroom size, raised test scores, and earned the support
 of both teachers and parents. They know Bill Clinton will be
 the real education president. 
 
    For most of the last decade, while the Republicans have
 been trying to use welfare to divide us, Bill Clinton has
 led the fight to reform the welfare system to move people
 off welfare and into the work force.
    And Bill Clinton did all this while balancing eleven
 budgets in a row, and giving the people of Arkansas one of
 the lowest tax burdens in this country. No wonder Arkansas
 under Bill Clinton has created manufacturing jobs at ten
 times the national rate. And no wonder when all of the 
  nation's governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, were
 asked to vote on who was the most effective governor in
 America, they chose Bill Clinton by an overwhelming margin.
    What we need in America in 1992 is a president who will
 unleash the best in us by putting faith in the decency and
 good judgment of our people. A president who will challenge
 us to be true to our values and examine the ways in which
 our own attitudes are barriers to the progress we seek.
    America is ready to be inspired and lifted again, by
 leaders committed to seeking out the best in our society, 
  developing it and strengthening it. I have spent much of my
 career working to protect the environment, not only because
 it is vital to the future of my state of Tennessee, our
 country, and our earth, but because I believe there is a
 fundamental link between our current relationship to the
 earth and the attitudes that stand in the way of human
 progress.
    For generations, we have believed we could abuse the
 earth because we weren't really connected to it. But now we
 must face the truth. The task of saving the earth's 
  environment must and will become the central organizing
 principle of the post-Cold War world.
    And just as the false assumption that we are not
 connected to the earth has led to the ecological crisis, so
 the equally false assumption that we are not connected to
 each other has led to our social crisis. Even worse, the
 evil and mistaken assumption that we have no connection to
 those generations preceding us or those who will follow us
 has led to the crisis of values we face today.
    Those are the connections that are missing from our 
  politics today. Those are the bridges we must rebuild if we
 are to rebuild our country. And those are the values we must
 honor in order to recapture that faith in the future which
 has always been the heart of the American Dream.
    We have another challenge as well. In the wake of the
 Cold War, with the re-emergence of ancient ethnic and racial
 hatreds throughout the world, the US must once again prove
 that there is a better way. Just as we accepted on behalf of
 humankind the historic mission of proving that political
 freedom is the best form of government and economic freedom 
  is the best engine of prosperity, and must now accept the
 obligation of proving that freedom from prejudice is the
 heart and soul of community, that yes, we can get along,
 yes, people of all backgrounds can not only live together
 peacefully, but enrich one another, celebrate diversity and
 come together as one. Yes, we will be one people, and live
 the dream that will make his world free.
    In the end, this election isn't about politics. It isn't
 even about winning, though that's what we are going to do.
 It's about the responsibilities we owe one another and we 
  owe our children, the calling we hear to serve our country
 and to be part of a community larger than ourselves.
    You've heard a lot in the past week about how much Bill
 Clinton and I have in common. Indeed, we both share the
 values we learned in our hometowns: individual
 responsibility, faith, family, and the belief that hard work
 should be rewarded. We're both fathers with young children,
 children who are part of a generation whose very future is
 at stake in this election. And we're both proud of our
 wives, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, 2 women who have 
  done more for the children of this country in the last 12
 years than the last 2 men who have sat in the Oval Office
 have done in their lifetimes.
    I'm proud my father and mother could be here tonight to
 see me join a ticket that will make good on the best advice
 they ever gave me: to tell the truth and always love my
 country. My sister and I were born to 2 wonderful people who
 worked hard to give us a better life. 1992 is the Year of
 the Woman. It is also the 46th anniversary of the year my
 mother, born in a time when women weren't even allowed to 
  vote, became one of the first women to graduate from
 Vanderbilt Law School.
    My father was a teacher in a 1-room school who worked his
 way to the US Senate. I was 8 years old when my father's
 name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency before
 the Democratic convention of 1956. Growing up, I watched him
 stand courageously for civil rights and economic opportunity
 and a government that worked for ordinary people.
    I don't know what it's like to lose a father, but I know
 what it's like to lose a sister and almost lose a son. I 
  wish my late sister Nancy could be here this evening, but I
 am grateful beyond words for the blessings my family has
 shared. Three years ago, my son Albert was struck by a car
 crossing the street after watching a baseball game in
 Baltimore.
    He was thrown 30 feet in the air on impact and scraped
 along another 20 feet on the pavement after he hit the
  ground. I ran to his side and held him and called his name,
 but he was limp and still, without breath or pulse. His eyes
 were open with the empty stare of death, and we prayed, the 
  2 of us, there in the gutter, with only my voice.
    His injuries, inside and out, were massive, and for
 terrible days he lingered between life and death. Tipper and
 I spent the next 30 days and nights at his bedside. Our
 family was lifted and healed, in no small measure by the
 love, compassion, and prayers of thousands of people, most
 of whom we never even knew.
     Albert is plenty brave and strong, and with the support
 of 3 wonderful sisters--Karenna, Kristin, and Sarah--and 2
 loving parents who helped him with his exercises every 
  morning and prayed for him every night, he pulled through.
 And now, thank God, he has fully recovered, and he runs and
 plays and torments his older sisters like any little boy.
     But that experience changed me forever. When you've seen
 your 6-year-old son fighting for his life, you realize that
 some things matter more than winning, and you lose patience
 with the lazy assumption of so many in politics that we can
 always just muddle through. When you've seen your reflection
 in the empty stare of a boy waiting for a 2d breath of life,
 you realize that we weren't put here on earth to look out 
  for our needs alone; we're part of something much larger
 than ourselves.
    My friends, if you look up for a moment from the rush of
 your daily lives, you will hear the quiet voices of your
 country crying out for help. You will see your reflection in
 the weary eyes of those who are losing hope in America. And
 you will see that our democracy is lying there in the
 gutter, waiting for us to give it a 2d breath of life.
     I don't care what party you're in, whether you are an
 independent, whether your have been tempted to give up on 
  the whole political process or not, or give up on our party
 or not, we want you to join this common effort to unite our
 country behind a higher calling. If you have been supporting
 Ross Perot, I want to make a special plea to you this
 evening: don't give up on your fight for change. The time
 has come for all Americans to be part of the healing. In the
 words of the Bible, "Do not lose heart. This nation will be
 renewed."
     In order to renew our nation, we must renew ourselves.
 Just as America has always transcended the hopes and dreams 
  of every other nation on earth, so must we transcend
 ourselves, and in Gandhi's words, become the change we wish
 to see in the world. Let those of us alive today resolve
 with one another that we will so conduct ourselves--in this
 campaign and in our lives--that 200 years from now,
 Americans will say of our labors that this nation and this
 earth were healed by people they never even knew.
    I'm told that Hope, Ark, is a lot like my hometown of
 Carthage, Tenn: It's a place where people know about it when
 you're born and care about it when you die. That's the 
 America Bill Clinton and I grew up in. That's the kind of
 nation we want our children to grow up in. Just as Hope is a
 community, so is America. When we bring the community of
 America together, we will rekindle the American spirit and
 renew this nation for generations to come. And the way to
 begin is to elect Bill Clinton President of the US of
 America.
    Thank you."