Transcript of Al Gore's Remarks to the Los Angeles Anti-Recall Rally

My friends, distinguished guests, Mayor Hahn, members of Congress, members of the Council, the Legislature, Senate and House, other disguised guests, members of the clergy, leaders of organized labor. This is an extremely important vote that we're asking you to cast, and that we're asking you to persuade others to cast. This is about a very large struggle in our country. It is a struggle over the future of self-government.

This nation was founded on the proposition that we, the people are best able to chart our own destiny. We, the people are the ones who ought to have the right to make decisions about what happens to us and to our families and to our communities. And when we vote and when the majority votes to have a particular set of policies and ideas and individuals to be controlling the course of our future, then nobody ought to overturn the say of the people. The people ought to govern themselves and have a right to make the decisions.

There are those who would make a spectacle out of our democracy. There are those who think that the sacred proposition that we have God-given rights, we are created equal and therefore we decide for ourselves what happens - - there are those who think that process should be transformed into mere entertainment, with each new twist and turn of the plot guaranteed to make jaws drop and eyes open. Just as amusement. As if there's no difference between the ideas advocated by those of us here in this room and the ideas advocated by those who went out and collected signatures, often from people who were not really given a clear idea what they were signing up to set in motion. The people who set this recall process in motion, their ideas are very different from ours. And those who tell you there's no difference between candidates, there's no difference between the kind of governance that you have now and what would happen if this other crowd got in place - - let me tell you, that's what they said to a lot of people in 2000. "There's no real difference. The country will be pretty much the same, regardless of who is in charge, who is in office."

Have you noticed a difference in this country in the last three years since the Clinton/Gore administration ended and since the Bush/Cheney administration came in? Have you noticed a difference?

Nationwide, the surplus is gone to the biggest deficit in history. Nationwide, the unemployment rate has gone up.

I'm concerned. I was the first one laid off. You hear me? You hear me? Assemblyman, you never forget something like that. It happened right just before noon on January 20th. It changes your perspective, you know?

I've thought about some of those other people who've been laid off since then. God bless them, they and their families have been going through some hard times.

The people had made a different decision. The people made a decision here in California to have a set of policies in place that would help this state get through hard times, that would help this state continue to build toward a bright future. It's not about each and every one of those policies. It's not about Governor Gray Davis. It's not about the individuals involved. It is about the right of the people to have their decision in the election afforded the respect that it is due.

The people who want to see this recall take place are disrespecting the majority of Californians who voted in the election last year, disrespecting the right of the majority to engage in self-governance.

Now as the Governor and others have said, in addition to this recall motion there is the Proposition 54. And here again, the forces behind it would have you believe one thing, but actually what would take place if they prevailed would be something else again. They want you to believe that we now have a colorblind society. And that race matters for nothing anymore. We've reached the Promised Land after all, have we not? All the discrimination's gone, all the problems have disappeared. Hallelujah, it's time to celebrate.

The reality is very different. And we, the people, regardless of our ethnicity or race or religion or background know that we, the people are stronger if we have the right to see the world as it is, to understand the challenges for what they really are, and to continue the long struggle to overcome those obstacles that have been laid in the path of too many who have disadvantages and don't have the opportunities to lift themselves up. Vote no on 54. Vote no on 54!

"Colorblind". "Colorblind". They use that "colorblind" phrase the way duck hunters use a duck blind. They hide behind it and hope the ducks won't see what they're really up to.

So this will make a difference. It does matter whether these measures are defeated or whether or not they are tricked into place. Whether the vote goes the right way or not depends on one thing. One thing. And it's not out there. It's not on the television screen. It's not in Washington, D.C. It's not over in Iraq. It depends on what you have right here (points to his own heart). Right here.

Eighty five years ago there was a poet who wrote a poem that included these lines: "The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity. And the centre cannot hold." Sometimes I listen to some of those right wing talk radio people and I think the worst are full of passionate intensity. And then sometimes I hear people who agree with you and me about what's right and what needs to be done and how much work is still undone, and they're laying back. And they think "Ah, I don't think it really makes any difference." And I think: hmmm. The best lack all conviction.

That poem is not an accurate description of Los Angeles. It's not an accurate description of California. But the extent to which you overturn that description depends on what's in here (points to his own heart). The extent to which you stop this effort to nullify the will of the majority depends upon your intensity.

So I'd like to close by saying that now's the time to go out and talk with your family, with your friends, with all that you have some pull with... Hear my words, now. Hear my words. Don't let it wash off like the proverbial water off a duck's back. You've heard words like these before, but I want you to open your ears. And open your hearts. I don't want you to wake up on the morning after the election and see somebody that you know don't even know, somebody who's views are very diff - - somebody who's going to take your state down in the wrong direction, walking in, overturning the will of the people. That will be too late. So hear my words now. And pass them on. Are you ready to listen?

With everything you have, convince people: vote no the recall. No on 54.

No on the recall. No on 54. No on the recall! No on 54! No on the recall! No on 54! Let's do it!