Elizabeth Ann Warren

“ Robert Kennedy lived his life with courage and conviction, never afraid to challenge a divided nation to face its moral failings. Bobby challenged us all to take a step back from the stale, cheap politics of the moment and to do better by each other. ”

“ And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
Consider three statistics: corporate profits, the stock market and unemployment.
Today, corporate profits are up - corporate profits that count gun sales from manufacturers whose weapons are used to massacre children in our schools and our streets. Corporate profits that count revenues from drug companies when they quadruple prices for the sick and the desperate. Corporate profits that count revenues of banks like Wells Fargo as they rip off millions of American consumers. ”

“ He knew that we cannot simply run our economy for those at the top and assume that it will solve America's problems. In the intervening years since his speech, America ran that experiment anyway - and watched it fail miserably.
It's time to try something different. It's time to challenge each of us to do better by each other - to see the dignity in one another - to put our values first. ”

“ Our Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. ”

“ Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. ”

“ It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country.
"It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. ”

“ It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. ”

“ They do not speak to the citizen who fears police violence or the police officer who fears gang violence, or the immigrant who cannot speak out about sexual assault at the hands of her boss, or the toxic rhetoric flowing through our politics and seeking to turn neighbor against neighbor. ”