"Celebrating the Spirit of America": Remarks of John Kerry

You know, while running for president, I've had the privilege to travel all over our great country – from big cities to small towns, from coast to coast. And I can't tell you how excited I am to kick off our celebration of America right here in the heartland.

We've come to this American birthday party two hundred and twenty-eight times. And it's a party we never get tired of. Each one is better than the last.

It's hard to believe that in 1776, when we declared our independence and embarked on this bold experiment, we were only thirteen colonies standing up to a mighty empire. Our greatest weapon was founding promise and driving purpose – that "all men are created equal ... with certain unalienable rights," including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And because of that promise, we won our independence, secured our freedom, and launched the greatest democracy in the world.

It's because of that promise that today we commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act – a bill rooted in our founding ideal, that all people are created equal, no matter what their race, sex, religion, or national origin. We are all deserving of an equal shot at the American dream -- at a good job, a good education, and the right to drink from the same fountain of opportunity.

Today, we are embarking on a journey to celebrate that promise – the spirit of America. It begins here in Cloquet, where, for a hundred years, you've lived that spirit – in the way you rebuilt the town after it burned ... in the men and women you've sent to war, and honored when they returned ... and in the mill that's helped your economy and fed your families.

Over the next few days, in that bus right over there, we'll continue our trip across the heart of America, from Independence, Wisconsin to Independence, Iowa. We'll visit towns, farms, march in a parade, eat barbecue, play a little baseball and celebrate who we are.

And we'll honor the values that built our country and strengthened our communities. Family. Responsibility. Service. These are values that are rooted in the heartland, and they are harvested in all you do. One of the best things I've witnessed throughout this campaign is that you can hear the beat of patriotism and see the promise of our country leaping out of you every day in every community in our country.

You can hear it on family farms, when the sun first rises, and from the factory floor, where the churning of machines are the sounds of America's strength.

And you can hear it on Main Street, where family businesses open onto friendly sidewalks, and neighbors never lock their doors. You can smell it at barbecues and hear it at baseball games, where the crack of the bat echoes across town.

And you'll see it Sunday, on July 4th, with the ripple of flags and the dazzling display of fireworks.

It's the sound and the spirit of America. It's the promise of the American dream. And it's the reason we're gathered here today. Because on November 2nd, that sound and spirit, that promise from the heartland, will renew our country again. Together, we'll build an America stronger at home and once again respected in the world. Together we will bring an end to the Bush Administration.

Because I believe we can – and we will – do better than we're doing today.

This Administration says this is the best economy of our lifetime. They say this is the best we can do. They've even called us pessimists. Well, I say, the most pessimistic thing you can say is that America can't do better.

Don't tell us a million and a half lost jobs is the best we can do, when we can create millions of new jobs. We can do better and we will.

Don't tell us losing 1300 dairy farms in Minnesota is the best we can do. We have the best family farmers in America, but we're denying you the fair chance to compete in the global marketplace. We can do better and we will.

Don't tell us crumbling schools and underpaid teachers are the best we can do. We have the means to give all our children a first-rate education. We can do better. And we will.

Don't tell us $2 a gallon at the tank is the best we can do. We have the technology in the fields of Minnesota to make us energy independent of Mideast oil. We can do better. And we will.

I believe we can fight for good-paying jobs that let American families actually get ahead – and in an America where the middle class is doing better, not being squeezed.

I believe that, once and for all, we can protect the family farm.

I believe we can make health care a right for all of our people, especially those in rural America.

I believe we can make this nation energy independent.

I believe we can build a strong military, and lead strong alliances, so young Americans are never put in harm's way because we insisted on going it alone.

Men like the three marines Carlton County lost this year, including Private Langhorst, Private Milczark and Lance Corporal Angell who lived in Cloquet, just around the corner from here.

As you know, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has hit small town America particularly hard; so many sons and daughters have left home and gone half a world away to serve and sacrifice for our country. You've lost friends, family members, firefighters and police, and many others who mean so much -- so many have been lost. On this Independence weekend, we honor their lives, and we pray for their families and for all the men and women still in harms ways.

I believe they should come home to an America we can all be proud of – with good paying jobs, good education, and good health care.

It's time to remember a basic truth: a stronger America begins right here at home.

More than a million Americans who were working three years ago have lost their jobs – including those on the iron range in Minnesota. And the new jobs finally being created pay an average of $9,000 less a year. But, as wages are going down, your health care costs are going up; your tuitions are going up; your bills are going up.

And to add insult to injury, your hard-earned tax dollars are actually paying corporations to export your jobs. So, more and more of you are working weekends; some of you are working two jobs, three jobs – and you're still not getting ahead. I have a plan to keep good paying jobs at the heart of our economy.

Did you know that right now your tax dollars are being used to reward companies that ship Minnesota jobs overseas? That's inexcusable. When I'm president, American taxpayers will never again subsidize the loss of their own jobs.

Let me tell you: America needs a president who fights for your job as hard as he fights for his own.

We're going to close tax loopholes that pay companies to move our jobs overseas – and we're going to reward companies that create good jobs here in America.

My plan calls for tough enforcement of our trade agreements. We're gonna stop other countries from violating those agreements and walking away with the store. And we're gonna fight for labor and environment protections in every single trade agreement.

Because I'll tell you what I've seen traveling across this country, if you give American workers a level playing field, with free and fair trade, there's no one in the world that the American worker can't compete against.

And we're going to level the playing field by investing in broadband in rural America, so our small business can compete against any other in the world. We can't expect America to grow in the digital age if pockets of our country are still living in the dark.

And nothing threatens our future growth and priorities more than a federal budget that's out of balance because federal priorities are out of whack.

I believe it's wrong for middle-class Americans to be saddled with endless debt and deficits, while the most fortunate among us walk away with billions in tax cuts. As president, I will fight to put America's tax code in line with our moral code.

You know, our tax code has gone from 14 pages to 17,000 pages. Do any of you have your own page? Enron got its own a page. Exxon got its own page. And it looks like Halliburton got a whole chapter. That's wrong.

We're going to cut taxes for the middle class. That's why to build a strong economy, I'll cut middle-class taxes, so middle-class incomes go up.

And we're going to cut the deficit in half by closing corporate loopholes, rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those who make over $200,000 a year, so we can invest in education and health care, and cut the deficit in half.

You know, we restored fiscal responsibility in the 1990s. We cut the deficit, we protected Social Security, and we created 23 million new jobs – the longest period of prosperity in our nation's history. And together we can do it again.

Families who work hard and do the right thing deserve a country that does right by them. Being strong at home means health care that is affordable and accessible to all Americans.

On the campaign trail, I met John and Mary Ann Knowles. John lost his job a year and a half ago, and Mary Ann has breast cancer. And even while she underwent chemotherapy, she still had to go to work every day – just to hang onto their health insurance.

That's the story of millions of Americans. And it's the story of Minnesotans, and nearly 25 percent of rural America. Not only do they lack health insurance, but so many of you have to drive an hour and half just to see a doctor. But you know, it's not the story of senators and congressmen. Because they give themselves great health care coverage and they give you the bill.

I'm running for President because I believe your family's health care is just as important as any politician's in Washington, DC.

Let me just ask you:

Have your health insurance premiums gone up in the last few years?

Have your co-payments gone up?

Have your deductibles gone up?

Then you need to tell this Administration we're fed up and their time is up.

For almost four years, they've had no plan, while rising health care costs are hurting families and making it harder and harder for businesses to compete. My plan will take on the waste in the health care system. It will reduce the average premium by up to $1,000 a year. It will crack down on skyrocketing drug prices. And it will improve access for rural communities, with funding for more health care clinics and services.

And let me tell you: it's time to give seniors a real prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

And in a Kerry Administration, we will stop being the only advanced nation in the world which fails to understand that health care is not a privilege for the elected and the connected or the wealthy – it is a right for every American.

And a stronger America is an America free and independent of Mideast oil.

We're going to renew our freedom, and control our own destiny. We're going to invest in new technologies and alternative fuels, like ethanol, create tax incentives for more fuel efficient cars – and we're going to reward the consumers who buy them. And we're going to issue a declaration of energy independence from Mideast oil. My friends, we can invent and grow our way to energy independence – we just need to put our minds to work.

Above all, we're going to do this because no young American in uniform should ever be held hostage to our dependence on oil from the Mideast.

Now there are those who question our patriotism when we offer a better course for our country. So here is our answer when they exploit fear and the flag for their political purposes: That flag doesn't belong to any President or any ideology or any party.

I fought under that flag. That flag has been draped across the caskets of men I fought with, and friends I grew up with. That flag stands for the best hopes of all Americans and it belongs to all of the American people.

When I was in Vietnam, I served on a small boat on the Mekong Delta with men who came from places as diverse as South Carolina and Iowa ... Arkansas and California. We were literally all in the same boat – and we came together as one. No one asked us our politics. No one cared where we went to school or what our race or backgrounds were.

We were just a band of brothers who all fought under the same flag, and all prayed to the same God. Today, we're a little bit older, we're a little bit greyer. But we still know how to fight for our country. And what we're fighting for is an America where all of us are truly in the same boat.

So, I ask for your help. Talk to your neighbors; talk to your friends. Enlist in our cause.

In great movements for civil rights and equal rights, the environment and economic justice for all, we have come together as one America to give life to our mighty dream.

So come together again and stand up for a great purpose – to make America stronger at home and respected in the world. We're a country of the future; we're a country of optimists. We're the can-do people. And we just need to believe in ourselves.

The poet Langston Hughes put it this way: "Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be" – for those "whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain must bring back our mighty dream again."

In 2004, we have to bring back our mighty dream again. We have to make America all that it can become.

Let America be America again! Thank you, happy Fourth of July, and God bless America.