South Carolina State Home
Columbia, South Carolina
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Whats up, all people. Good afternoon. (Applause.) Good afternoon, South Carolina. Good afternoon. Please have a seat.
It’s so good to be again. It’s so good to be again.
I wish to thank Grace Fellowship Choir for lifting our hearts together with your stunning voices. And I simply wish to thank all the leaders who’re right here for the work that you just do day by day.
To Senator Devine, I thanks for that stunning introduction and, most of all, on your brave management and, in fact, all of the historical past that you just make day by day. Can we please applaud Senator Devine for her work — (applause) — and her latest election?
And to President Murphy and all of the leaders of the South Carolina NAACP, thanks for welcoming me at the moment. (Applause.)
And, in fact, it’s at all times an honor to be within the house state of Assistant Chief Jim Clyburn. (Applause.) I don’t want to inform South Carolina what a robust chief he’s. And, in fact, he is without doubt one of the closest advisors and buddies to President Joe Biden and to me.
At this time, we rejoice the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a visionary who noticed what could possibly be unburdened by what had been; an organizer who moved the minds, the hearts, and the ft of the American folks; a frontrunner who devoted his life and, in the long run, gave his life to advance considered one of our nation’s highest beliefs: the best of freedom.
Freedom is key to the promise of America. Freedom is to not be given. It isn’t to be bestowed. It’s ours by proper. (Applause.) And in some ways, the story of America has been a narrative of our combat to understand that promise.
As Dr. King wrote within the Letter from Birmingham Jail, “The purpose of America is freedom.” And so, we collect this afternoon to honor his legacy. And I subsequently pose a query that I do imagine Dr. King would ask at the moment: In 2024, the place precisely is America in our combat for freedom? How are we doing?
Properly, as Vice President of the US, I’d say, at this second in America, freedom is underneath profound risk.
At this time, in reality, we’re witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms. Contemplate, in states throughout our nation, extremists assault the sacred freedom to vote. They go legal guidelines to ban drop packing containers, restrict early voting, and prohibit absentee ballots.
In Georgia, extremists had the gall to go a regulation to even make it unlawful to easily supply meals and water to folks standing in line for hours to train their fundamental civic obligation.
I ask the buddies, no matter occurred to “love thy neighbor”? The hypocrisy abounds.
And please word, the governor in Georgia signed that regulation on the 56th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery.
At this time, in states throughout our nation, extremists suggest and go legal guidelines to assault a girl’s freedom to make choices about her personal physique — legal guidelines that may even make no exception for rape and incest.
And allow us to all agree: One doesn’t must abandon their religion and deeply held beliefs to agree the federal government shouldn’t be telling her what to do along with her physique. (Applause.)
Freedom.
Each individual in our nation has a proper to dwell protected and to dwell free from the horror of gun violence. And but, at the moment, these so-called leaders stand by and refuse to go affordable gun security legal guidelines to assist shield our youngsters and locations of worship.
Each individual in our nation has a proper to be who they’re and love who they love overtly and with delight. And but, this previous yr, extremists have proposed or handed a whole bunch of legal guidelines focusing on LGBTQ folks.
Each individual in our nation has a proper to be free to study and acknowledge our nation’s true and full historical past. (Applause.) And but, at the moment, extremists go e book bans — e book bans on this yr of our Lord 2024.
After which they even attempt to erase, overlook, and rewrite the ugly components of our previous. For instance, the Civil Warfare, which should I actually must say was about slavery? (Applause.)
All of the whereas, they inform our youngsters that enslaved folks benefited from slavery. They insult us in an try and gaslight us in an try and divide and distract our nation with pointless debates.
Basic freedoms underneath assault: freedom from concern, violence, and hurt; freedom to vote, to dwell, to study, to manage one’s personal physique; and the liberty to easily be.
And perceive the profound affect these assaults have had on the subsequent era of leaders. So a lot of our younger leaders are right here this afternoon.
This previous fall, I met with greater than 15,000 younger leaders in my “Battle for Our Freedoms Faculty Tour,” together with on the Faculty of Charleston. (Applause.) From our younger leaders, I heard that the assault on freedoms, effectively, it’s a lived expertise. It’s not simply hypothetical.
Give it some thought. Through the top of their reproductive years, this era has witnessed the best court docket in our land — the court docket of Thurgood — take a constitutional proper that had been acknowledged from the folks of America, from the ladies of America.
This era now has fewer rights than their moms and grandmothers. That’s not a hypothetical.
That from kindergarten to twelfth grade, this younger era has needed to endure active-shooter drills. Our kids, who needs to be in a classroom, fulfilling their God-given potential to discover the fantastic thing about the world, and as a substitute have to fret that somebody would possibly bust by their classroom door with a gun.
And when college students go to vote, they typically have to attend in line for hours due to legal guidelines that deliberately make it tougher for them to solid a poll. It isn’t a hypothetical.
However though our younger leaders are clear-eyed about these challenges, I’ll share with you: They won’t be discouraged. They won’t be deterred. Standing on the shoulders of the generations who got here earlier than, our younger leaders are ready and prepared for this combat — (applause) — as are we.
Six many years in the past, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King spoke to our nation, to the hundreds of People who had marched that day on Washington. And he spoke of what he known as a “promissory word” — a promissory word, a examine that had been signed to the American folks within the Declaration of Independence and the US Structure.
Dr. King’s voice rang out when he, quote, mentioned, “We refuse to imagine that the financial institution of justice is bankrupt.” “So, we’ve come to money this examine,” he mentioned, “a examine that can give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the safety of justice.”
And, in fact, lower than a yr later, due to the motion that Dr. King and so many different nice American leaders helped to construct and maintain, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed. And within the many years since, impressed by the facility and the aim of that motion, collectively, we now have received many victories to make our nation extra free, extra equal, and extra simply, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act, to — sure, Senator, to the appointment of the primary Black girl to serve on the best court docket in our land. (Applause.)
So, if he have been right here, I feel Dr. King can be the primary to say that, sure, we now have come far. And although we now have come far, on this second, it’s as much as us to proceed that combat to money that promissory word.
And like Dr. King, even by the struggles and the setbacks, even throughout the ache and the heartbreak, even when our ft develop weary and our legs develop drained, we’ll march ahead for freedom. As a result of I do imagine — I do imagine the true energy behind the promise of America is within the religion of her folks. The promise of America, I do imagine, is within the religion of the folks — our religion within the founding rules of our nation and our profound dedication to make these rules actual.
Era after era, on the fields of Gettysburg, within the colleges of Little Rock, on the grounds of this state home, on the streets of Ferguson, and on the ground of the Tennessee Home of Representatives, we the folks have at all times fought to make the promise of freedom actual.
And so, at the moment, we should achieve this as soon as once more.
The nice Coretta Scott King as soon as mentioned, “Freedom is rarely really received. You earn it and win it in each era.” And at this second in historical past — (applause) — at this second in historical past, within the relay race of historical past, I say, then, allow us to not throw up our fingers, as a result of it’s time to roll up our sleeves. (Applause.) And we have been born for a time resembling this.
And so, with religion, with hope, and optimism, we’ll combat. And after we combat, we win. (Applause.)
Might God bless you. And will God bless the US of America. Thanks. (Applause.)
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