Growing up through the presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and LB Johnson, I watched every Democratic and Republican national convention on television. I was electirified by the Civil Rights movement, from the time Eisenhower sent the National Guard into Little Rock - a situation I barely understood at the time, though I could tell from the reaction of the adults around me that it was a Big Deal. Too young to be a Freedom Rider, I read and watched as activism swept across the south, withvoter registration drives and direct action against segregation.
I sat stunned in my 7th grade math class, hearing about the assassination of JKF, my hero, whose election I had prayed for as a fourth grader in 1960. I held my breath as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to a vote. Eventually, I had the heady experience of attending newly integrated public schools. From my early childhood, I knew that giant woman in New York Harbor, Liberty, must be a Democrat, with her lit torch, her open arms, her big heart.
I looked forward to turning 21, so that I could register as a Demorat. Being a Democrat, for most of my lifetime, has meant something important and valuable. "Dixiecrats" and corrupt urban machines notwithstanding, the Democratic Party represented the unrepresented. It offered a fair shake for working people and organized labor; respect for and adherence to the Bill of Rights, justice for the oppressed, advocacy for children, women, and every kind of minority - racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious.
Please make sure that it continues to mean these same vital things to be a Democrat in Massachusetts! Please do not water down our platform into meaningless, noncommital generalizations. We have nothing to gain from becoming the Republican Lite Party. We are lost if we buy in to this nation's temporary paroxysm of fear and doubt, this clinging to leaders who are ideologues of the extreme right.
We must, as a party, continue to hold forth the alternative to paranoia, exclusion, privitization, militarization, corporate welfare, and the right wing's determined march to totalitarianism. This is not the time to take apart the planks of our platform, in order to build a craft in which we can chase the Republicans. The Democratic Party needs to hold fast to its principles, or it will never again persude a majority of voters to come to their senses and restore what is best in America.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.