Speech concerning Ronald Reagan, 1982

-21Here is a first test of the acceptablity of the arrogance of power, the review and rejection of the radicalism of the rabid right.

Retention of the democratic majority in the house, and a reversal of republican control of the Senate cannot be ends of their own, if their pursuit means only rewarding boll weevils and re-electing the weak-hearted.

While each of us must take responsibility for re-ordering the congress, there are other jobs to be done as well.

The scattered and fractured constituency of progress -- racial and language minorities, labor, the sexually oppressed, those for whom the American dream has become a nightmare -- must mobilize their troops and lead them once again into the streets, against the barricades of apathy and indifference.

Less than 20 years ago, a sitting president, secure in his power, was forced to abandon plans for re-election as an angry nation shouted "no" to his plans for war financed at the expense of America's poor.

That shout should be heard again thoughout America, at every ballot box and every forum where people gather and meet.

To accoummodation with apartheid, we must say no.

To the reversal of racial equality, we must say no.

To the elimination of those programs that sustain life, we must say no.

To those who foul our air and water, we must say no.

To the planners of nuclear Holocaust, we must say no.

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TO THE FORWARD MARCH OF MILITARISM, WE MUST SAY NO, TO TAX ADVANTAGE FOR THE WEALTHY, WE MUST SAY NO, TO ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR CHINA PLATES, AND KETCHUP ON THE SCHOOL LUNCH MENU, WE MUST SAY NO, WE MUST SAY NO, TO OUR SELF-IMPOSED POLITCAL IMPOTENCE, TO OUR SEEMING INABILITY TO FINANCE OUR OWN LIBERATION. WE MUST SAY YES TO LIFE, TO LIBERTY, TO THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS___ TO THE FUTURE, NOT THE PAST. WE CAN PREVAIL, AND WE SHALL ENDURE, AND WE WILL OVERCOME !!! THREE QUARTERS OF A CENTURY AGO, W.E.B. DUBOIS HAD A PRESCRIPTION FOR THE POLITICAL VIOLENCE WE SEE ABOUT US. HE SAID THEN:

" I BELIEVE IN GOD WHO MADE OF ONE BLOOD ALL RACES THAT DWELL ON EARTH. I BELIEVE THAT ALL MEN, BLACK AND BROWN, AND WHITE, ARE BROTHERS, VARYING, THROUGH TIME AND OPPORTUNITY, IN FORM AND GIFT AND FEATURES, BUT DIFFERING N NO ESSENTIAL PARTICULAR, AND ALIKE IN SOUL AND IN THE POSSIBLITY OF INFINITE DEVELOPEMENT.

ESPECIALLY DO I BELIEVE IN THE NEGRO RACE; IN THE BEAUTY OF ITS GENIUS, THE SWEETNESS OF ITS SOUL, AND ITS STRENGTH IN THAT MEEKNESS WHICH SHALL INHERIT THIS TURBULENT EARTH.

I BELIEVE IN PRIDE OF RACE AND LINEAGE ITSELF; IN PRIDE OF SELF SO DEEP AS TO SCORN INJUSTICE TO OTHER SELVES; IN PRIDE OF LINEAGE SO GREAT AS TO DESPISDE NO MAN'S FATHER; IN PRIDE OF RACE SO CHIVALROUS AS NEITHER T OFFER BASTARDY

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to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong, knowing that mean may be brothers in Christ, even though they be not brothers-in-law.

I believe in service -- humble, reverent service, from the blackening of boots to the whitening of souls; for work is heaven, idleness hell, and wages is the "well done!" of the master who summoned all them that labor and are heavy laden, making no distinction between the black sweating cotton-hands of Georgia and the first families of Virginia, since all distinction not based on deed is devilish and not divine.

I believe in the devil and his angels, who wantonly work to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image which their maker stamped on a brother's soul.

I believe in the prince of peace. I believe that war is murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadacio of oppression and wrong; and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations white and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.

I believe in liberty for all men; the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends; enjoy

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the sunshine and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of God and love.

I believe in the training of children black even as white; the leading out of little souls and the green pastures and beside the still waters, not for pelf or peace, but for life lit by some large vision of beauty and goodness and truth; lest we forget, and the sons of the fathers, like Esau, for mere meat barter their birth-right in a mighty nation.

Finally, I believe in patience -- patience with the weakness of the weak and the strength of the strong, the prejudice of the ignorant and the ignorance of the blind; patience with the tardy triumph of joy and the mad chastening of sorrow -- patience with God."

------------------------- W.E.B. DuBois, The Independent (N.Y.) October 6, 1904.

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