{"id":562,"date":"2020-08-21T19:24:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T19:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=562"},"modified":"2020-08-21T19:32:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T19:32:13","slug":"harris-masterful-speech-accepting-the-vice-president-democratic-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/harris-masterful-speech-accepting-the-vice-president-democratic-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris Masterful Speech Accepting The Vice President Democratic Nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kamala Harris<\/strong><\/a> on Wednesday night accepted in glorious fashion the Democratic nomination to become the first Black woman<\/strong><\/a> to run for vice president on a major party\u2019s ticket. She used her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention<\/strong><\/a> to credit those who have come before her and urged America to look toward a better tomorrow by electing Joe Biden<\/strong><\/a> to become the next president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while she did discuss the low-hanging fruit that is \u201cDonald Trump<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s failure of leadership,\u201d she also made an effort to tell the American people more about her and her uniquely diverse experience, skillset and qualifications to become a vice president who cares about everybody in the United States and not just a select few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Harris\u2019 full speech from the DNC below, courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greetings America. It is truly an honor to be speaking with you. That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me. Women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty, and justice for all. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we celebrate the women who fought for that right. Yet so many of the Black women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting, long after its ratification. But they were undeterred. Without fanfare or recognition, they organized, testified, rallied, marched, and fought\u2014not just for their vote, but for a seat at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These women and the generations that followed worked to make democracy and opportunity real in the lives of all of us who followed. They paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama<\/a> and Hillary Clinton. And these women inspired us to pick up the torch, and fight on. Women like Mary Church Terrell and Mary McLeod Bethune. Fannie Lou Hamer and Diane Nash. Constance Baker Motley and Shirley Chisholm. We\u2019re not often taught their stories. But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders. There\u2019s another woman, whose name isn\u2019t known, whose story isn\u2019t shared. Another woman whose shoulders I stand on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s my mother\u2014Shyamala Gopalan Harris. She came here from India at age 19 to pursue her dream of curing cancer. At the University of California Berkeley, she met my father, Donald Harris\u2014who had come from Jamaica to study economics. They fell in love in that most American way\u2014while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a stroller\u2019s-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called \u201cgood trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was 5, my parents split and my mother raised us mostly on her own. Like so many mothers, she worked around the clock to make it work\u2014packing lunches before we woke up\u2014 and paying bills after we went to bed. Helping us with homework at the kitchen table\u2014and shuttling us to church for choir practice. She made it look easy, though I know it never was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother instilled in my sister, Maya, and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. She raised us to be proud, strong Black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage. She taught us to put family first\u2014the family you\u2019re born into and the family you choose. Family, is my husband Doug, who I met on a blind date set up by my best friend. Family is our beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who as you just heard, call me Momala. Family is my sister. Family is my best friend, my nieces and my godchildren. Family is my uncles, my aunts\u2014my chitthis. Family is Mrs. Shelton\u2014my second mother who lived two doors down and helped raise me. Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha\u2026our Divine 9\u2026and my HBCU brothers and sisters. Family is the friends I turned to when my mother\u2014the most important person in my life\u2014passed away from cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even as she taught us to keep our family at the center of our world, she also pushed us to see a world beyond ourselves. She taught us to be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people. To believe public service is a noble cause and the fight for justice is a shared responsibility. That led me to become a lawyer, a District Attorney, Attorney General, and a United States Senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at every step of the way, I\u2019ve been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom: Kamala Harris, For the People. I\u2019ve fought for children, and survivors of sexual assault. I\u2019ve fought against transnational gangs. I took on the biggest banks, and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one. My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish she were here tonight but I know she\u2019s looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman\u2014all of five feet tall\u2014who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words: I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America. I do so, committed to the values she taught me. To the Word that teaches me to walk by faith, and not by sight. And to a vision passed on through generations of Americans\u2014one that Joe Biden shares. A vision of our nation as a Beloved Community\u2014where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love. A country where we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite worth, deserving of compassion, dignity and respect. A country where we look out for one another, where we rise and fall as one, where we face our challenges, and celebrate our triumphs\u2014together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2026 that country feels distant. Donald Trump\u2019s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If you\u2019re a parent struggling with your child\u2019s remote learning, or you\u2019re a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know that what we\u2019re doing right now isn\u2019t working. And we are a nation that\u2019s grieving. Grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy. And yes, the loss of certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while this virus touches us all, let\u2019s be honest, it is not an equal opportunity offender. Black, Latino and Indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately. This is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism. Of inequities in education and technology, health care and housing, job security and transportation. The injustice in reproductive and maternal health care. In the excessive use of force by police. And in our broader criminal justice system. This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other\u2014and how we treat each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s be clear\u2014there is no vaccine for racism. We\u2019ve gotta do the work. For George Floyd. For Breonna Taylor. For the lives of too many others to name. For our children. For all of us. We\u2019ve gotta do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because, none of us are free\u2026until all of us are free\u2026 We\u2019re at an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It\u2019s a lot. And here\u2019s the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more. We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together\u2014Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous\u2014to achieve the future we collectively want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must elect Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew Joe as Vice President. I knew Joe on the campaign trail. But I first got to know Joe as the father of my friend. Joe\u2019s son, Beau, and I served as Attorneys General of our states, Delaware and California. During the Great Recession, we spoke on the phone nearly every day, working together to win back billions of dollars for homeowners from the big banks that foreclosed on people\u2019s homes. And Beau and I would talk about his family. How, as a single father, Joe would spend 4 hours every day riding the train back and forth from Wilmington to Washington. Beau and Hunter got to have breakfast every morning with their dad. They went to sleep every night with the sound of his voice reading bedtime stories. And while they endured an unspeakable loss, these two little boys Always knew that they were deeply, unconditionally loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what also moved me about Joe is the work he did, as he went back and forth. This is the leader who wrote the Violence Against Women Act\u2014and enacted the Assault Weapons Ban. Who, as Vice President, implemented The Recovery Act, which brought our country back from The Great Recession. He championed The Affordable Care Act, protecting millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. Who spent decades promoting American values and interests around the world, standing up with our allies and standing up to our adversaries. Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. Joe will bring us together to build an economy that doesn\u2019t leave anyone behind. Where a good-paying job is the floor, not the ceiling. Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure that we are prepared for the next one. Joe will bring us together to squarely face and dismantle racial injustice, furthering the work of generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe and I believe that we can build that Beloved Community, one that is strong and decent, just and kind. One in which we all can see ourselves. That\u2019s the vision that our parents and grandparents fought for. The vision that made my own life possible. The vision that makes the American promise\u2014for all its complexities and imperfections\u2014a promise worth fighting for. Make no mistake, the road ahead will not be not easy. We will stumble. We may fall short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths. And we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. We believe that our country\u2014all of us, will stand together for a better future. We already are. We see it in the doctors, the nurses, the home health care workers and the frontline workers who are risking their lives to save people they\u2019ve never met. We see it in the teachers and truck drivers, the factory workers and farmers, the postal workers and the Poll workers, all putting their own safety on the line to help us get through this pandemic. And we see it in so many of you who are working, not just to get us through our current crises, but to somewhere better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something happening, all across the country. It\u2019s not about Joe or me. It\u2019s about you. It\u2019s about us. People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taking to the streets, and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote. And we\u2019ve shown that, when we vote, we expand access to health care, expand access to the ballot box, and ensure that more working families can make a decent living. I\u2019m inspired by a new generation of leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation, pushing us to live the values we share: decency and fairness, justice and love. You are the patriots who remind us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country. In this election, we have a chance to change the course of history. We\u2019re all in this fight. You, me, and Joe\u2014together. What an awesome responsibility. What an awesome privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let\u2019s fight with conviction. Let\u2019s fight with hope. Let\u2019s fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other. To the America we know is possible. The America, we love. Years from now, this moment will have passed. And our children and our grandchildren will look in our eyes and ask us: Where were you when the stakes were so high? They will ask us, what was it like? And we will tell them. We will tell them, not just how we felt. We will tell them what we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kamala Harris on Wednesday night accepted in glorious fashion the Democratic nomination to become the first Black woman to run for vice president on a major party\u2019s ticket. She used her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention to credit those who have come before her and urged America to look toward a better tomorrow Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,6,1],"tags":[91,89,90],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}