Lawyers From The United States

"Another example of green colonialism is what happens to a community when you have invested in environmental amenities, like doubling the amount of open space, expanding the median on Fourth Avenue, reducing emissions—doing all the things to make the community more environmentally sound. All of a sudden the community can't afford to live here anymore. The people that benefit are not [from] our community."

"Women's History Month, for me, is like Black History Month in the sense that it's every day. It's not just a month, but it's a life. And it makes me think about my maternal ancestors. It makes me think about all the women who mentored me on my journey to the work that I'm doing and played such a major part in my development, my political understanding, and my cultural grounding. It makes me think about all of them, and I hope that everything that I do honors them."

"We're the descendants of enslavement and colonization, we are people who come from people who've always honored Mother Earth. This climate justice work is just an extension of us honoring those traditions."

"We try really hard to not only make sure that we're centered on the matriarchal, but that we are willing to engage in self-transformation. To be introspective and to challenge each other and ourselves; to be not only accountable to each other but to be tender and kind. That may sound like the soft stuff, but that's hard stuff when you think about how colonized we've been and what our education has prepared us to be."

"Young people come with hope and with a renewed vision of a future that transforms."

"I didn't come to this work with a degree in environmental policy. It happened organically: as a child, my family was displaced so often that I went to eight schools in five years. I remember walking past the burning embers on Simpson Street in the South Bronx. I had no idea then that we were living in the midst of brownfields, contaminated lots with lead, asbestos, PCBs, arsenic, and other toxics and toxicants that seeped through our walls as fugitive dust and landed in our developing lungs. Families like mine all over New York City were the targets of government and developer-driven-planned shrinkage public policies created to deny our communities basic services in order to encourage our departure. The New York City environmental justice movement was born and raised in the midst of this rubble."

"Women have nothing to gain by war, and the laboring man only a soldier's grave, or wasted health, with his sacrifices speedily forgotten or ignored by the Government and the masses."

"The great war of to-day is a war for bread and butter"

"Today, companies in the Climate Leadership Council—BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips—are going into the Global South to provide resources to these communities so that they can engage in sequestration. To me, that's green colonialism. You basically have these companies that are responsible for creating the conditions the Global South is enduring now benefiting from this."

"A lack of appreciation for the value of human life can occur wherever totalitarian government exists. This makes it more than vital for us to oppose such influences within our own country wherever they may occur. The war in Vietnam has lasted for seven years. If Americans believed there was the same worth in the life of an Asian, this war would have ended long ago. If Americans were willing to concede that the Asian mind was no different than his, a peace would have been forged in Paris long ago. I am convinced that racism is at the heart of this immoral policy."

"All of the systems of the world today have this in common: for they are mainly concerned with industrialization, efficiency, and gross national product; the value of man is forgotten."

"As vice president, he came to Japan not long after I arrived as ambassador in 2013. He stepped off Air Force Two wearing his aviator glasses and a big smile. He radiated American optimism and generosity of spirit. He made clear that America would always stand by our allies, and that we were committed to keeping the region peaceful and prosperous. He delivered tough messages as well, but he did it in private, with skill and respect. He thanked our diplomats for serving far from home. I saw a leader who was strong but fair, and who had the trust and respect of other countries."

"Joe Biden is admired abroad because of his record of accomplishment at home. As senator, he secured a unanimous vote to extend the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. He led the fight to ban assault weapons — twice defeating the NRA. He wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act to combat domestic violence and sexual assault. He won Senate support for historic agreements to reduce nuclear arsenals and ban chemical weapons."

"When Barack Obama was running for president, he asked me to help lead his search for a running mate, and I supported Joe Biden. Their strong partnership and commitment to fundamental American values achieved real progress on climate change, marriage equality, tax fairness, and criminal justice reform. As vice president, Biden secured Republican votes to pass the American Recovery Act, which helped prevent a second Great Depression. He was Obama’s point person for the Affordable Care Act — working with my Uncle Teddy to guarantee quality affordable health care to millions more Americans. But this election is about more than achievement. It is about character."

"America’s place in the world and the society our children inherit will be determined by the character of the leader we choose. We need a president who can bring people together, who knows how to get things done at home and abroad, whose word we can count on, and who can nurture the next generation of leaders. We need Joe Biden."

"And this summer as he faced yet another challenge, he and Vicky have taught us all about dignity, courage and the power of love. In this campaign, Barack Obama has no greater champion and when he's president he will have no stronger partner in the United States Senate."

"Not only has Teddy helped put the American Dream within reach for so many families, he's been a powerful force around the world for human rights and human dignity, for refugees and the dispossessed. He helped end apartheid in South Africa and bring peace to Northern Ireland. He's been a leader on arms control and he took a strong, early and courageous stand against the war in Iraq. He's a man who always insists that America live up to her highest ideals, who always fights for what he knows is right and who was always there for others. I've seen it in my own life. No matter how busy he is, he never fails to find time for those in pain, those in grief or those who just need a hug. In our family, he's never missed a first communion, a graduation or a chance to walk one of his nieces down the aisle. He has a special relationship with each of us and his 60 great nieces and nephews all know that the best cookies and the best laughs are always found at Uncle Teddy's. Whether he's teaching us about sailing, about the Senate or about life, he has shown us how to chart our course, take the helm and sail against the wind."

"I have admired Joe Biden since I was a Senate intern, in 1974. He was a new senator, devout Catholic, and devoted father to two young sons who had just lost their mother and sister. Teddy recognized him as someone who shared his belief that government should always be on the side of those who need help. In their own families and beyond, they gave others strength in times of loss. They never stopped listening to those who were struggling and treated everyone with dignity. They fought for working families. They worked across the aisle to get the best deal possible and battled to protect the gains they had won. They shared an empathy for others and a commitment to service over self."

"In January 2008, I joined my uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, to endorse Barack Obama for president. We believed America was ready for a new generation of leadership, for a president who would inspire us, as my father did, to believe in the power of ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and the nobility of public service. We face a very different world today. President Trump has done immense damage to our institutions, exploited our differences, and shredded our credibility around the world. I am excited by the Democratic candidates and the ideas they have put forward. But this year, it’s not just policy proposals that are on the ballot. Our fundamental values are at stake as never before in my lifetime."

"I'm here tonight I'm here tonight to pay tribute to two men who have changed my life and the life of this country – Barack Obama and Edward M. Kennedy. Their stories are very different but they share a commitment to the timeless American ideals of justice and fairness, service and sacrifice, faith and family. Leaders like them come along rarely. But once or twice in a lifetime, they come along just when we need them the most. This is one of those moments. As our nation faces a fundamental choice between moving forward or falling farther behind, Senator Obama offers the change we need. Everywhere I go in this country, people tell me that Barack Obama is making them feel hopeful, the way they did when my father was president. It's hardly the words he uses – words that remind us that we are all in this together and that we each have something to contribute to this country that has given us so much."

"It is time for a President who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and inspire others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs each of us to get involved. And now I'd like to introduce the person I believe will be that President - Barack Obama."

"But it's the life he's led that is the true source of this inspiration – a life spent fighting for ordinary people in neighborhoods and courts in the state Senate and in the United States Senate. I've never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them, but I do now – Barack Obama. And I know someone else who has been inspired all over again by Senator Obama. In our family, he's known as Uncle Teddy. More than any senator of his generation or perhaps any generation, Teddy has made life better for people in this country and around the world. For 46 years, he's been so much more than just a senator for the people of Massachusetts. He's been a senator for all who believe in a dream that's never died."

"We need a President who will fight to give every child a world-class education. And Barack Obama has been fighting for children since he was a community organizer more than 20 years ago. We need a President who will restore our commitment to civil rights and equality. And Barack Obama has brought the Bill of Rights alive as a civil rights lawyer and by teaching constitutional law. We need a President who will end the war in Iraq. And Barack Obama is the person to do it because he had the courage and judgment to oppose this war from Day One. So when the Democratic Party holds its convention here in Denver this summer, I hope we'll nominate the candidate who stands for the future of our party and the future of this country - Barack Obama."

"Obviously, cost of living is a huge issue at home just like it is here. Our economies are doing well but people aren’t feeling it."

"Most important, this election is about winning. We need a nominee who can compete in every state, who can bring wandering Democrats and independents back to the fold, and even attract some Republicans. Biden at the top of the ticket is our best bet to win the White House, keep the gains we made in the House, and put the Senate in play. Although 60 years have passed, people still tell me that they are inspired by the words from my father’s inaugural address: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." Joe Biden embodies those words. He understands that the source of America’s strength — what truly makes us great — are the values and ideals that unite us. That’s what his life of service tells us. That is what his character and decency reflect. That’s why, at this fragile moment for our democracy, Joe Biden is the president we need."

"Over the years, I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me they wish they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This longing is even more profound today. Fortunately, there is one candidate who offers that same sense of hope and inspiration. That candidate is Barack Obama. It's rare to find a leader who can inspire us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals, and to imagine that together we can do great things. And when that kind of leader comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible. That is the kind of opportunity we have in choosing Senator Obama."

"If you're no longer being denied a job because of your race, gender or disability or you've seen a rise in the minimum wage you're being paid, Teddy is your senator, too. And for children who are receiving health care thanks to the Children's Health Insurance Program, if you see a nurse at a community health center or if you are benefiting from the Medicare program that he fought to create – and just last month he returned to the Senate to save – Teddy is your senator, too. If you're a child who is getting an early boost in life through Head Start or attending a better school or can go to college because a Pell Grant has made it more affordable – Teddy is your senator, too. And if you're an eighteen-year-old who's going to vote for the first time – and I bet it will be for Barack Obama – Teddy's your senator, too."

"The children of some of you here tonight are involved in the great protests of today-are they chronic malcontents and subversives? I think not-I think they are probably fairly well-educated, thoughtful people who see certain conditions they don't like and are trying to do something about it. I'm not sure they know exactly what they want to do. I do know they are clearly dissatisfied with the way their world has been run in the past. So, the problem is not what to do about dissent among our young people-the problem is what to do about the causes of this dissent. The question is not "how to suppress the dissent" but how to make it meaningful... how to make it productive of a better society which truly places high value on individual human beings as human beings and not merely as so many cogs in the great, cold and impersonal machinery of an industrialized society."

"so many of our children are growing up in complete isolation in a society that places a premium on conformity, in middle-class homes where parents still want to play down their differences, and prefer to homogenize with society. Some of these children are rebelling and are seeking ways to preserve their uniqueness and their special heritage. I see pride and strength in this. One of the most promising avenues for this renewed search for one's heritage is in our school systems-the logical place for instructing children in the knowledge they need. Programs of ethnic heritage studies are needed in our schools."

"America is not a country which needs to demand conformity of its people, for its strength lies in all our diversities converging in one common belief"

"We cannot and must not presume knowledge about Asia merely because we are Asians"

"Although Congress has repealed the Emergency Detention Act, the fight for freedom is not over. We now see a new witch hunt proclaimed in which all government employees will be examined for their memberships and organizations. It seems that we have not yet succeeded in expunging the notion that "dangerous" persons can be identified by class or group relationships and punished accordingly. I believe that nobody can find safety in numbers-by huddling with the larger mass in hopes of being overlooked. Those who seek to suppress will always find ways to single out others. Instead, we must change the basic attitude that all must conform or be classed as renegades and radicals. Our nation was founded on the idealistic belief in individualism and pioneering spirit, and it would be tragic for our own generation to forswear that ideal for the false security of instant assimilation."

"According to Attorney Koota, I wonder how many generations must we be Americans to be steeped with this spirit of Americanism with which he believes he is possessed? Can it be said that only Hawaii has a foreign ideology as its background and not Brooklyn, New York, or any city in this country where its people are of immigrant stock?"

"I hope that all Japanese American organizations and others with strong beliefs in the magnificent history and culture of the Orient will now help lead the way to a more enlightened America. We have an immense story to tell, for as I have said the public at large too often assumes that all civilization is Western and no worth is given to the human values of the East. As long as this belief persists, we will have future Vietnams. The way to counteract it is to build public knowledge, through school courses, travel, and dedicated emphasis on increased communications, so that our people will know and appreciate all that is Asian."

"They need the guidance and support of their parents to succeed, but in any event with or without us, they are trying. It behooves us to do all we can to accept their aspirations, if not all of their actions, in the hope that this new generation will be able to find a special role for themselves in America, to help build her character, to define her morality, to give her a depth in soul, and to make her realize the beauty of our diverse society with many races and cultures of which we are one small minority."

"We must teach our country that life is no less valuable, and human dignity no less precious, in Asia than elsewhere."

"The World War II detention overnight reduced the entire population of one national origin to an enemy, stripped of property, rights of citizenship, human dignity, and due process of law, without so much as even a stifled voice of conscience among our leading scholars or civil libertarians. More recently, the Vietnam War has reinforced the view of Orientals as something less than fully human. All Vietnamese stooping in the rice fields are pictured as the enemy, subhuman without emotions and for whom life is less valuable than for us."

"America's democracy was almost stolen from us on January 6. Our democracy has never been tested like it was on that day and it will never be tested again as it was then if we learn the lessons of that fateful day. On the other hand, if we fail to learn the lessons that are there to be learned, or worse, deny even that there are lessons there to be learned, we will consign ourselves to another January 6 in the not-too-distant future, and another after that, and another after that. While for some, that is their wish, that cannot be our wish for America."

"It is no wonder that America is at war over her democracy. Every day for years now we have borne witness to vicious partisan attacks on the bulwarks of that democracy — our institutions of government and governance and the institutions and instrumentalities of our democracy — by our own political leaders and fellow citizens. Every day for years now we have witnessed vicious partisan attacks on our Institutions of Law themselves, our Nation's Judiciary, and our Constitution and the Laws of the United States — the guardians of that democracy and of our freedom. For years, we have been told by the very people we trust, and entrust, to preserve and to protect our American institutions of democracy and law that these institutions are no longer to be trusted, no longer to be believed in, no longer deserving of cherish and protection. If that is true, then it is because those with whom we entrusted these institutions have themselves betrayed our sacred trust. And, indeed, it does seem at the moment that we no longer agree on our democracy. Nor do we any longer seem to agree on the ideals, values, and principles upon which America was founded and that were so faithfully nurtured and protected by the generations and generations of Americans that came before us. Yet we agree on no other foundational ideals, values, and principles, either. All of a sudden it seems that we are in violent disagreement over what has made America great in the past and over what will make her great in the future. In poetic tragedy, political campaign slogan has become divisive political truth. And there is no reason to believe that agreement about America by we Americans is anywhere on the horizon, if for no other reason than that none of us is interested in agreement. In the moral catatonic stupor America finds itself in today, it is only disagreement that we seek, and the more virulent that disagreement, the better. This is not who we Americans are or who we want to be. Nor is this America or what we want America to be."

"No American ought to turn away from January 6, 2021, until all of America comes to grips with what befell our country that day, and we decide what we want for our democracy from this day, forward. The genius that is America's democracy is this. The Constitution vests all power in "We the People." We agreed in the Constitution to delegate our power to our representatives, only during their time in our service, and at that, exclusively for the purpose of representing our interests in the Nation's Capital, not theirs. Our democracy is the process through which our representatives, using the power that we have delegated to them, in turn and in trust, govern us. We choose in our national elections those who we want to represent us, including most importantly the President of the United States. It is for this simple reason that to steal an election for the presidency from us is to steal our democracy from us."

"Reeling from twin wars, leaderless, and rudderless, America is in need of help. Our polarized political leaders have shamefully and shamelessly failed us. They have summoned our worst demons at the very moment when we needed summoned our better angels. As a consequence, America finds itself in desperate need of either a reawakening and quickening to the vision, truths, values, principles, beliefs, hopes, and dreams upon which the country was founded and that have made America the greatest nation in the world — a revival of America and the American spirit. Or, if it is to be, we are in need of a revival around a new vision, new truths, new values, new principles, new beliefs, new hopes and dreams that hopefully could once again bind our divided nation together into the more perfect union that "We the People" originally ordained and established it to be. We cannot hobble along much longer, politically paralyzed and hopelessly divided, directionless and undecided as to which revival it will be — if any at all. Where do we begin? This is the easier question. Who has the patriotic and political courage to go first? This is the harder question."

"If one of our national political parties — one of the two political guardians of our democracy — cannot agree even as to whether the violent riot and occupation of the United States Capitol, inspired by the President of the United States and carried out by his followers to prevent Congress from counting the votes for the presidency of those same United States, was reprehensible insurrection or needed, legitimate political discourse, we all can agree on nothing. Nor should we."

"The former president's party cynically and embarrassingly rationalizes January 6 as having been something between hallowed, legitimate public discourse and a visitors tour of the Capitol that got out of hand. January 6, of course, was neither, and the former president and his party know that. It was not legitimate public discourse by any definition. Nor was it a civics tour of the Capitol Building — though that day proved to be an eye-opening civics lesson for all Americans. January 6 was, rather, a defining, and a redefining, day in American history — defining and redefining of America itself. On that day, America finally came face to face with the raging war that it had been waging against itself for years."

"As to the first question, we begin where the reconciliation of all broken human relationships, be they broken from war, anger, betrayal, or love, begins — by talking with each other, and listening to one another again, as human beings and fellow citizens who share the same destiny and the same belief in America and hope for her future. For years now, taking the lead from our politicians, we Americans have spoken only coarse, desensitizing, dehumanizing political vile at each other, which enables us to speak to each other without guilt or regret. For too many years now, we have spoken to each other as charlatanic political gladiators in an arena that today has become annihilative of America's future, not promising of that future."

"America is at a perilous crossroads. Who is it that we have become and what is it that America has become? Is this who we want to be and what we want America to be? And if not, just who is it that we Americans want to be? And just what is it that we want our America to be? Many will again turn their eyes away, miscalculating that this is the last time they must see, and thus remember. The partisan mercenaries, who have no interest in either understanding or peace, will be the first who turn away and, in their determined ignorance, ignore. The mercenaries know better than we that what we forcibly put out of our minds or what we forget, we are destined to repeat."

"Very few ever have the honor of counseling the President of the United States of America. That highest of honors carries with it the highest of obligations. Counsel provided to the President of the United States must be the product of not only exquisite, penetrating legal analysis but also profound, insightful legal judgment. These two combined are so far from mere technical legal competence as almost to be its polar opposite. The President and the country deserve nothing less from those who counsel the President, so consequential are the stakes for the Nation when the President acts upon the advice of his or her Counsel. Whatever else, the President of the United States did not receive such counsel during his sustained effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It is as much the former president's fault as anyone's that he did not."

"Irrespective of the merits of the legal arguments that fueled the former president's efforts to overturn that election — irrespective of them, though there were none — those arguments, and therefore those efforts, by the former president were the product of the most reckless, insidious, and calamitous failures in both legal and political judgment in American history. From their inception, the legal arguments that underlaid the efforts to overturn the 2020 election were, in that context, little more than beguiling and frivolous, perhaps appropriate for academic classroom debate, but singularly inappropriate as counsel to the President of the United States of America in his effort to overturn the presidential election — an election he had lost fair and square and as to which there was not then, and there is not to this day, evidence of fraud. It is breathtaking that these arguments even were conceived, let alone entertained by the President of the United States at that perilous moment in history."

"Had the Vice President of the United States obeyed the President of the United States, America would immediately have been plunged into what would have been tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis. The former president's accountability under the law for the riot on the United States Capitol on January 6 is incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American People and thereby steal America's democracy from America herself. This said, willful ignorance of law and fact is neither excuse nor defense in law. Willful ignorance, thus, is neither political nor legal excuse or defense available to the former President of the United States, his allies, and his supporters."

"False claims that our elections have been stolen from us corrupt our democracy, as they corrupt us. To continue to insist and persist in the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is itself an affront to our democracy and to the Constitution of the United States — an affront without precedent. Those who think that because America is a republic, theft and corruption of our national elections and electoral process are not theft and corruption of our democracy are sorely mistaken. America is both a republic and a representative democracy, and therefore a sustained attack on our national elections is a fortiori an attack on our democracy, any political theory otherwise notwithstanding."

"By constitutional order, We the People of this great Nation confer upon our elected representatives the power that they are then, by solemn constitutional obligation, directed to wield on our behalf and on America's behalf. But today our politicians live in a different world from the rest of us, and in a different world than that ordained by the Constitution. They live in a fictional world of divided loyalties between party and country, a world of their own unfaithful making."