Here is the speech that has MA Dems abuzz. Deval Patrick, the chief civil rights enforcer in the Clinton adminstation is running for the MA Democratic nomination for governor in 2006. The three contenders gave speeches at the Dem’s Platform Convention last weekend. Patrick’s campaign slogan is “Believe Again.” According to the bloggers who were there — he made believers out of alot of convention delegates.
.08 Acres and a Donkey reports “Deval Patrick… really brought the house down and the standing ovation he got at the end of his speech was made up of more than just his volunteers — not so with the other candidates. Neither Reilly nor Galvin can compete with him when it comes to oratory — he is on a completely different level. Neither my wife nor the other delegates sitting in our area had heard him before and all were extremely impressed.”
Charley at Blue Mass Group observes: “This is straight from my scrawled notes: “BIG APPLAUSE. PARTIAL STANDING O. Enthusiasm!”
Noho-missives declared: “I’m biased, but I think the story of the convention is the emergence of Deval Patrick as a genuine star in the Massachusetts Democratic party. I was helping with floor activities and was visibly a supporter (wearing the neon t-shirt that was visible from any part of the arena) — after he spoke, many fellow delegates came up to tell me how much they liked the speech…. Patrick fit in very well with Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean, both gifted orators.”
Michael Wilcox says, “reading it on the screen won’t evoke (unless you were there) the visceral reaction produced by his delivery to an arena in which thousands of people were screaming, “yes, we can!”
Deval Patrick’s Speech to the Massachusetts Democratic Platform Convention
May 14, 2005
Tsongas Arena Lowell, Massachusetts
Thank you for that warm welcome. Thank you…
Thank you, Phil, for that generous introduction. And thank you fellow delegates for your warm welcome.
As Phil told you, I have been blessed with many opportunities: to serve my community as a lawyer and a volunteer; my country as a senior government official; and the customers and employees of two big companies as an executive.
In so many ways, I have lived the American Dream- because I got a better chance in Massachusetts. And I was taught that success is not what you get, it’s what you give. So, I am running for governor because I want a better chance for you and everyone else in the Commonwealth.
But when I look at Massachusetts today, I see world class hospitals, and half a million fellow souls with no health care and many more just one serious illness away from bankruptcy.
I see Fleet and Gillette and Hancock pull out and take jobs out of state with them, while our Governor travels the country making us the butt of his jokes.
I see a Governor whose income tax cuts are the reason our property taxes and fees keep going up, and our services keep going down.
I see so many people suffering from Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other diseases, while our Governor plays politics with their one chance for hope, stem cell research.
I see young people in over-crowed classrooms, with no after-school programs, and with teachers who spend their own money for materials, while our Governor bashes those very teachers, and acts as if the MCAS is all we need to measure the progress of our kids.
I see a Governor who calls for the death penalty and in the same instant cuts local aid so that we can’t pay for cops we need on the street.
I see time and energy devoted to debating whether to discriminate against gays who want to marry, while the pressing business of building our economy, building our public schools, and rebuilding our shattered public health system goes unaddressed.
We can do better. We need a different kind of problem-solver.
I’ve help lead two Fortune 500 companies, but I’ve also worked the lathe in a machine shop.
I have been a lawyer for major corporations, but also for working families.
I have sat in the Oval Office and counseled a President of the United States, and then had trouble hailing a cab when the meeting was over.
I’ve made some money in the last few years, but I remember what it’s like to need two incomes to pay the mortgage.
I’ve learned how to build bridges across different worlds; how to take the time to listen, as I have to people all over this state; and how not to put people in an ideological box, just as I insist that you not put me in one. And I’ve learned one other thing: I’ve learned about the power of hope, the power of saying, “yes, we can.”
So, when somebody tells you that we can’t afford excellence in public education when our kids’ future depends on it, say, “yes, we can.”
When somebody tells you we can’t have both a strong economy and social justice, or both quality health care and universal health care, say, “yes, we can.”
When somebody tells you that we can’t have decent jobs at decent wages, so that working families see a way up, say, “yes, we can.”
When somebody tells you that we can’t have a fast train to Fall River or New Bedford, or the Green Line to Somerville or the Blue Line to Lynn, say, “yes, we can.”
When somebody tells you we can’t revive Worcester and Lawrence and Pittsfield and North Adams with light industry and biotech, or put Springfield back on its feet, or build housing that working families can afford in every community, say, “yes, we can.”
And when somebody tells you we can’t win back the corner office with a candidate who hasn’t paid his political dues and stored up his political chits on Beacon Hill, what do we say? “Yes, we can.”
My grandmother used to say, “hope for the best, and work for it.” She lived that lesson.
When I was growing up, my grandmother grew roses- on the South Side of Chicago, no less, a place not generally known as a garden spot. Early in a spring morning, she would go out into the little back yard behind our tenement. She would pick up trash, clear away broken glass and work that soil- and I want to tell you that that soil had things in it that God would never put in dirt.
But she grew her roses. From one cutting I remember she grew a climber that reached nearly two stories up the side of our tenement. It was magnificent. And it was improbable. Especially in that soil. In that place. But she tended her garden.
Well, a soil like our ancient Massachusetts soil, sown with the seeds of division and mistrust, cultivated too often by cynics, and choking in places with the weeds of old politics, may not seem like fertile ground to some of you. But it is ours. We must tend our garden.
So, I ask you to join me – in this campaign and in this cause – for your sake and your neighbors’, too. Let’s tend our garden, let’s grow our roses again, let’s revive our politics, Democratic politics, the politics of hope.
Thank you very much.
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Deval Patrick will be making a campaign swing through Western, MA on Saturday, May 21. He will be making appearances in North Adams, Pittsfield, Northampton, and Greenfield.
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