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OUR VOICES                              JACKSON

Foreign policy is a domestic policy concern. As for the so-called boat people, we must remain humane and sensitive. After all, we Afro-Americans were the original boat people. We didn't come here on an airlift. We did not come as immigrants looking for a thrill, but rather as slaves against our will, and we were on boats. We cannot allow racism to weaken our credibility as we wrestle with the growing crisis of U.S. immigration policy. We must affirm the humanity of the Haitian refugees. They shouldn't be locked out on some false distinction between economic and political refugees. The Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. . . ." We will no longer grant the State Department immunity from major protest and accountability.

We must have a new vision. We must gain the inner strength to rise above our circumstances. We must focus on conditions, not merely candidates. Ultimately our struggle is a struggle to change the character of our nation and, thus, enable us to be both leaders and servants to the world. We can render service without being servile. We must categorically reject racism. If hatred and tyranny merely change colors, nothing essential has changed. We must fight for a new charcter with ethical content.

Racism is unproductive economically. Racism is unhealthy and sick psychologically. Racism is immoral theologically; it has distorted the image of God and has split religion. Racism has made white Americans less credible as people.

Sexism is intellectually unreasonable. It is psychologically painful to the oppressed. It will be the basis of political obituaries for those who don't understand its destructiveness.

We want doctors who are more concerned about public health than about personal health. We want lawyers who are more concerned about justice than about a judgeship. We want teachers who teach for life, not just for a living. We want preachers who prophesy, not merely profiteer. We must be possessed of a strength that jail cells cannot lock up, bullets cannot kill, water cannot drown, and the status quo cannot discourage.

When the storms of life rage, and our enemies mount against us, we must use will power and cope, not pill power and cop-out. We must put hope in our brains, not dope in our veins, and know that the proposition of human rights for human beings everywhere will triumph because it is right. We will win.

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