Charles Rangel, (NY-15)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 04:15 PM Today we stand here blessed, on the cusp of a great historic election that will determine for generations the course of this great nation. We do it sadly without one of our dearest friends and a true progressive champion. Stephanie Tubbs Jones never stopped believing in the power of the American dream because she was proof of it. Only in America could a young black woman from Cleveland, the daughter of an airport skycap and a cook, work her way through college and law school to achieve a lifetime of firsts in local government and Congress. She shattered myths and showed us that an America that provided opportunity for all–that did not succumb to the prejudices based on race, religion, color or class or sex–was not just possible, but necessary for our survival. If she were with us today, she would ask that we come together to dare, like Sen. Barack Obama does, to dream of a more perfect union, one that is a better place for working families. A dream that has been derailed too often in eight years by stifling deficits, an immoral war in Iraq and a tax system that rewards the rich and few. A dream that Sen. John McCain wants to further tarnish by extending President Bush’s failed economic policies with even more costly and regressive tax cuts that once again leave behind over 100 million households. We cannot let that pass. We must renew the promise of a land that our Stephanie loved so much. We must change our national priorities, restore fairness and reinvest in the health and education of our country's true strength: its people. We must see to it that Barack Obama and Joe Biden and a strong Democratic Congress are elected this November. We must do it for Stephanie, we must do it for our great country!