Remarks By Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) at the Democratic National Convention

Federal News Service July 29, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: REMARKS BY REPRESENTATIVE STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA) AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

BODY:

(Applause.)

REP. LYNCH: Fellow Democrats, my name is Stephen Lynch, and I have the wonderful honor of representing the 9th Congressional District here in Massachusetts. (Cheers, applause.) And together with Congressman Mike Capuano, I also represent this beautiful city of Boston.

You and I came here this week for the very same reason. We came here seeking a president who respects the primacy of the United States Constitution and its bedrock principles of liberty, justice and equality. We came here seeking a president who believes in rewarding hard work, not merely the accumulation of wealth, and who understands the human cost of shipping American jobs overseas.

As one who has served on the Veterans Affairs Committee in Washington, I came here seeking a president who will actually begin to honor the obligation that this country owes to every single man and woman who puts on the uniform of the United States.

My fellow Democrats, America has found its leader, and he is my colleague from the Massachusetts delegation, distinguished Senator John Kerry. (Cheers, applause.)

Despite these uncertain times, America remains, in her heart, a land of optimism and opportunity. The endurance and accomplishment of America's "Greatest Generation" continues to stand as a shining example of what America can do and what America can be. When that generation faced challenges, they banded together in the spirit of shared sacrifice, and together they survived some of the darkest hours in American history. Through the Great Depression and World War II, Americans rallied behind their president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and they locked arms with their international neighbors, and they emerged as a stronger nation.

These are core democratic values. They are the values that the American government should aspire to every single day. They are the values that John Kerry was raised with and the values that John Kerry will lead with.

Tonight we call upon a new generation of Americans to rise to meet the highest expectations and the greatest hopes of our nation. We have been bequeathed by our Constitution the right from time to time to choose a new direction, to choose a new leader. Now is that time, and John Kerry is that leader.

And he will choose a course that will allow us not only to show the world the extent of America's power, but will demonstrate to the world the capacity of America's power to do good.

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)