In 1988, then Texas Governor Ann Richards gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Buenas noches, mis amigos!
I am delighted to be here with you this evening because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like.
Twelve years ago, [former Rep] Barbara [C.] Jordan, another Texas woman, made the keynote address to this convention—and two women in 160 years is about par for the course.
But, if you give us a chance, we can perform.
After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.
I want to announce to this nation that in a little more than 100 days, the
Reagan-Meese-Deaver-Nofziger-Poindexter-North-Weinberger-Watt-Gorsuch-Lavelle-Stockman-Haig-Bork-Noriega-George Bush era will be over.
You know, tonight I feel a little like I did when I played basketball in the eighth grade. I thought I looked real cute in my uniform and then I heard a boy yell from the bleachers, “Make that basket, bird legs.”
My greatest fear is that same guy is somewhere in the audience tonight and he’s going to cut me down to size.
Where I grew up there really wasn’t much tolerance for self-importance, people who put on airs.
I was born during the Depression in a little community just outside Waco and I grew up listening to Franklin Roosevelt on the radio.
Well, it was back then that I came to understand the small truths and hardships that bind neighbors together.
Those were real people with real problems.
And they had real dreams about getting out of the Depression.
I can remember summer nights when we’d put down what we called a “Baptist pallet” and we listened to the grown-ups talk.
I can still hear the sound of the dominoes clicking on the marble slab my daddy found for a tabletop.
I can still hear the laughter of the men telling jokes you weren’t supposed to hear—telling about how big that old buck deer was, laughing about mama putting Clorox in the well when the frog fell in.
They talked about war and Washington and what this country needed.
They talked straight talk.
And it came from people living their lives as best they could.
We’re going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.
A Letter From Forgotten People
I got a letter last week from a young mother in Lorena, Texas, and I want to read a part of it to you.
She writes, “Our worries go from pay day to pay day . . . just like millions of others, and we have two fairly decent incomes. But I worry about how I’m going to pay the rising car insurance and food.”
“I pray my kids don’t have a growth spurt from August to December so I don’t have to buy new jeans. We buy clothes at the budget stores and we have them fray, and fade, and stretch in the first wash.”
“We ponder and try to figure out how we’re going to pay for college, and braces, and tennis shoes. We don’t take vacations and we don’t go out to eat.”
“Please don’t think me ungrateful. We have jobs, and a nice place to live, and we’re healthy.”
“We’re the people you see every day in the grocery store. We obey the laws, we pay our taxes, we fly our flags on holidays.”
“And we plod along, trying to make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. We aren’t vocal anymore. I think maybe we’re too tired.”
“I believe that people like us are forgotten in America.”
Well, of course you believe you’re forgotten. Because you have been.
‘Divide and Conquer’ Republicans
This Republican administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that can’t fit together.
