The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

z's it's big struggle of working families and neighborhoods in which the that he's made a real difference for us and that's why on

november chicago another communities large and small will make a difference for him so let's spend this week in chicago talking about what has been accomplished and what more we can and see where the bill clinton and al gore at the next four years and not just a case to a new century of that is that with better future it starts here it starts tonight it starts right here in chicago thank you very much mayor richard daley of chicago used both few moments ago we had him on tape and we decided that it was important for everybody to see him for historical reasons but remember it was his father was the mayor of chicago in nineteen sixty eight the last time the democrats say that you know we would go to david gergen park to another newshour regular essayist roger rosenblatt want to recover

story last week in time magazine about christopher reeve will be the final speaker mr david martin provide an emotional inspiration from before he read this one cover about six months i think he really redefined the reaffirmed the definition of what a hero is chris's you know as an actor was still living with his whole body acts and he is also an athlete suddenly this terrible accident happened where is paralyzed from the neck down from a riding accident an excellent live from the neck up you never stop looking so he works now for the cure for spinal cord injury for ending insurance caps on catastrophic injury and it can do both to yet on its own feet help to earn fifty thousand others in similar and similar straits counterfeit so when you see that you just sit

back and sort of comedy make you as an actor he grabbed dramatize for the country in ways that scientists might not be able to what it was like to suffer this kind of entering the mosque leaders are exactly and he's using all this not only the skills that they have but also the contacts he was one man lobby for the arts endowment for the environment for human rights for a number of things and is therefore develop a lot of contacts in congress which he told me absolutely now you can make use of them for the gaza spinal cord injuries knee injuries so it was almost like that one which is called it's called a hangman's injuries go to see one seat it's the highest service of the vertebrate break and when that happens it's just like somebody being hanged trapped or falls away in the news titans and he then has lost feeling almost all feeling off from his neck down some a serious injury reports

well this is interesting i think most unsettling i assume that people who are paralyzed or in a kind of status that they're not really that they're in terrible straits but they're not really suffering anything and certainly are not under any jeopardy it's entirely the other way for tonight for example the dangers are relatively minimum sentence he could embarrass himself by dj cassidy to love grilling by going into a spasm by doing anything that you ordinarily does as part as part of the afflictions arm but they're more serious things there is a condition called this reflexive in which there is a finding of the vowels are a kind of flooding the system remember he doesn't receive messages in his body from his brain busters so that the body can go terribly off and he could be thrown into a situation of high blood pressure or risking stroke or heart

attack and not know what was before was over a dramatic appearance before the academy awards presentation inspires and charlotte before one appeared from the photo video absolutely you are in fear isn't fair river tonight and it is not this is not i mean obviously fascinated by the fear but it has to be extremely anxious that any of these things out of his control to your own business or if you're a no i think you're watching the question is that when the dnc i asked him to speak yesterday spoke just before this this evening just before the top obviously yes in the speech he said to me we can't think about it when he came back and he said he asked me what it's going to be a non partisan speech it's been held by republicans as well as democrats republicans including bob dole i have expressed a great eagerness to help the cause a spinal cord injury bundle obviously for personal as well as political reasons but jim jeffords of vermont to end so unique makes this a non

partisan speech thank you ok thank you david and we would back to roger at the end of the evening the scene when an audience of special things are happening this is an event for those of you all who do not follow baseball business to chicago played shortstop in the congo

as a person who is actually great chicago on just outside its parade united center than she also a few words for all of us it's been everyone to my hometown also and to this convention and i'll see you all inside the

pain usually for his community the national police force but the pope i spent sixteen years in the military

active duty and reserve and veritable vietnam and desert storm and i mean i just think about violence along america's think about the violence in our streets and what is that violence a tenure that was about a police office in less than two years ago i was eleven and i think anything like this to happen just

after the bombing in oklahoma city he was going to say you can take the pain wednesday their exercise of freedom of speech makes our violent all the more unforgettable i knew then what i had to do i began working with the grassroots organization illinois council against handgun violence the polluted

and it lives in many of them were children does have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time joining me an eye on some of the mothers and fathers of those children we want to win working to heal the warm fall by don i'm not a politician and i don't consider myself to be a hero i'm just a victim of gun violence who does happen to be a police officer

i think tonight why did the brothers we'll get the point three the pen the possibilities amir my lower spine that got to say i have to live with for the rest of my life

i can say that what i can help save others by standing up and fighting with the president and the president will make sure that their view a story like mine thank you very much the family being really confide that you survived because i think anyone with laid off was alone counting then didn't offer much opportunity for people like me i had a family i want to work there were no jobs so i collected unemployment rate is

we are your health insurance it was serious that was now under president clinton or nation as more than ten million new jobs and one of them is my i was that was seven out of people fired in nineteen eighty three working the chrysler jeep plant in toledo at the same time a callback a hundred other laid off workers people thought this plant would close just a few years ago but now it's producing more cars than ever some people say isis an audience will welcome the president my plan when the two million people's off the assembly line

the police do which are finally opens in american products because the president's plan and even more being bought by americans like me who can't afford new cars again in fact america now makes more authentic than something i could imagine three years ago president clinton's economic policies were making anyone it no fried food on the table today my family owns the new minivan we have health insurance or pension plan and my kids will have the life that is yours you can take the responsibility they came with the leadership of president clinton

thank you mr president are helping millions of families like my smile all americans serving her community and building itself a brighter future maryland concepcion hello many of maryland that's dion in twenty one years though i was born when people my family moved to ireland when i was ten years old but i think seeing my job i worked some odd jobs really need it it's a community service program for young

people that was the model for frankly it is america's program you can so i did light scene which included people are back roads and races or an elementary school in providence it was first language was not english i began to have trouble pronouncing his abcs this year it's been that's right i'll never forget the

smile on his face that they even knows that the letter and i felt that just sense of accomplishment and had really made a difference in someone else's life i do thank you to get a high school degree that off and i wince in america our colleagues and i was so inspired by this that it's a lifestyle it's a few months later i received a vote for brown university you know

the piece nicely browned a pediatrician so that i can continue to help my community i am living proof that anyone can succeed in america it the opportunity so thank you president clinton mostly marines ah concludes the presentations by mark my problems that a chicago police officer thought plants eu

lawyer chrysler jeep plant americans at yale and now richly was outside all moment though interviewed by ernie banks a strip club i think i said you played shortstop chicago cubs logic goes that he also liked her space so he played first base in church not at the same time the greatness not use them again and then you know we will hear from server at the other speakers in the new apportionment is at the moment of the speech by reading the folks on the more the delegates and the author of absolutely no mrs clinton was about to come and the interest in mark shields so what grade she speaks tomorrow night at the end of the evening is the end of the

evening speech on tuesday night air at the beginning of this weeks ago there was some uncertainty about whether national convention and activist bought the decision was made yes that's absolutely true and in fact the most recent wall street journal nbc poll the only major political figure in the country with how the gender gap is still waiting for isn't the cinnamon and poison someone and sixteens in a few days to buy is the art both the cd to performance as well as the controversies world announces how the attacks on or that were observed there were

streams of beef association is beloved by developments in this recession

serve the president of the united states repeatedly urged policymakers to enact the national seven day waiting period they're in our lives that people speaking down it is time to stand up to the gun lobby here complain that said you know there are laying low it's time to stop the hedging vacillation the delaying tactic designed rain rain rain sometimes origins org where scientists has no more excuses well maura lucking one are surviving job that it says it's time for congress to enact the brady bill it i believe we're going to make a life in the us a long way

towards saving lives someone who feels like a line here that i almost didn't lose welcomes at how cash and howl at the end is that

those of us in the and

with ft chris and eight and doomed we now

the piece it's been the pieces wonderful invitation fifteen years ago gm was white house press secretary i sensed god is the year we just two years old all our dreams didn't come true but then one rainy

afternoon in march our dreams were shattered by an assassination attempt on president reagan president reagan was shot in so we almost lost a man say we all was the president in advance of the heroism of the secret service and the determination of the physicians insist that at george washington hospital jim left and so did the president the plan all it wasn't one than one bullets and one may never have on japan the plan nearly forty thousand americans are killed with the fire are more than a hundred

thousand wounded every two hours another child has killed with a firearm and with each job and each another american grain another american family is shattered this nice stop at jim and i just i decided that we should do something about it not as republicans but as americans i became chair of handgun control and gemini join together and speaking out against gun violence we've traveled from coast to coast tour in the past ten years we've not thousands of gun violence victims and their families they are stories continue

to break our hearts especially those involving the children that's why we supported legislation that will require a waiting period for the purchase of a handgun the idea was simple establish a cooling off period and give police the time they need to conduct a background check on the buyer the police the brady bill with an overnight fix that every major law enforcement group the doorsteps so did former presidents reagan carter for an exit and that nine out of ten americans supported a waiting period it just made sense it year after year the gun lobby defeated the brady bill the national

rifle association said that seven days or even seven alex was just too long way to buy a handgun and was then and can feed here as well as a car family and tell the gun lobby a little bit about inconvenience it's been the plan that can result from a gunshot wound but don't take our word for it ask anyone whose life has been touched by gun violence in nineteen ninety one both houses of congress passed the brady bill option and i relate it but the gun lobby and the threat of a presidential veto a un killed the brady bill we quickly learned the

value of having a president who is really committed a peak to peak four years ago the american people the pain president bill clinton and his first state of the union address told congress if you pass the brady bill i'll sure sign that after five long years congress finally passed the brady bill and president clinton kept his promise he

signed it into law said thank you thank you mr president that moment was the proudest moment of our lives and let me tell you why since the brady law went into effect on feb twenty eight nineteen ninety four the brady law has not more than a hundred thousand convicted felons and other prohibited purchasers from buying an anti day and every day the brady law was stopping an estimated eighty five gallons from buying a handgun but we need to do more we showed as president clinton proposed a day stop people convicted of domestic

violence or by yes but the pain soon now to join with you tonight in saluting the great job president has done and fighting crime and violence is not on terror and so forth i understand the difference between a remington rifle and forties seven am you know because you don't go running with the news they you deserve our thanks and a big bear comes up

the polls but gun violence is not a democrat or a republican problem it's a problem that affects each and every one of us yeah it was it was a democrat as the brady bill and a democrat president resigned but we could never have passed the brady bill without the support of a lot of republicans including former president ronald reagan the panda

panda without the support of the law enforcement community it's been the pentagon now we need your help this battle is not about guns it's about family it's about children it's about our future you can't have a stronger families without safe for children the gun lobby likes to say or gemini or trying to take guns away from hunters and sportsmen the gun lobbyist long to the hunters and sportsmen of america we say keep your guns but just give us the laws that we need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and have that and the children

the pen senator robert kennedy expressed his great optimism about ending gun violence in america he told a crowd of supporters of los angeles there were on weight country an unselfish country a compassionate country moments later an assassin's bullet took his life but he was right than any is right now we are a great country we're a compassionate country gemini are full of hope with our lovers

working together we can restore peace in our neighborhoods we can eliminate random fun violet and we can preserve the american dream for all of us but please don't do it first air and jim brady your heart your order listen you mentioned

the crew of the page to keep the peace the very foundation of our nation and the cornerstone of that foundation as our children

i am here is a crusader for america's children their hopes and their dreams at home in seattle i am a part of the leadership that was my responsibility and every educator and every heart in our school district we owe our children are challenging education and education that will prepare them for a world that is going through the most profound change in history nothing we do as a nation is more important before i serve seattle's children i serve america as an army general and as we move into the twenty first century our devotion to education must match our commitment to our nation's defense a good education is the best

defense for our children and our nation's future spending on children flourish how powerful is the team that builds a child's self esteem and motivation and gets achievement from every single student what is more fulfilling than to listen to its i'll read flow of liane with understanding and what is more uplifting and just see a child graduates with high skills for the next century america's children need all of us they need us to get our priorities straight and they need us to act as leaders on their behalf to president clinton is that kind of leader and head

start so more children enter school ready to learn he thought the set real standards for public schools the moment it's a real measure of achievement he's not up for safe schools to keep drugs and guns out and discipline in the protective school lunches the nurse young minds mr president as you made your way to chicago i have a message on behalf of our nation's police maintain your focus on education indeed america and a real vision for the future of education to be promoted to the next grade or graduated from school students must be required to

meet well applying standards passing them without achievements would be guessing about teenagers must be required to meet high standards for professional performance and be rewarded for the good jobs they do have enough money by wiring our schools to the information superhighway every school to every classroom for every child and above all we must reach one hundred percent of the children we serve not at present not ninety percent to one hundred percent and no excuses styled social condition must not the

family is our children who have families are fortunate what they tuned the community support america we cannot care for societies most precious resource our children by ourselves we must recognize that the african proverb it takes a whole village to raise a child actor their savings their states and yes they need their federal government and we must all be their village and in education we intend to be their best hope as we start that this mall let

us resolve to make schools safe and charging places opening schools that are more exciting than the streets and even more exciting than television small that provide opportunities to every child a parrot said to me i can feel the excitement of seattle public schools through my child in every home and every community and as we start at the school i asked you to find teachers five years they desperately need our support

american public education for children everywhere the names and faces may change but the answer is the same leadership for children leadership from every school board in leadership from every business and leadership from the highest office in the land leadership from an education president today our students rely upon us tomorrow our country will rely upon them we must all become leaders and champions of our children's opportunities america are children are waiting and we must not disappoint them love them and leave it thank you very much craig very

republican convention on the soviet victory belongs to the gun lobby he is the peak tonight to make a very special introduction

on this night of american heroes of another american hero chairman words can do many things but example is the most powerful feature of all tonight i am privileged to introduce a brave and indomitable man proves that the american spirit family every four years he has been a source of strength and great cause a voice of concern for the environment for the arts and for compassion for people now here's an example of what one individual can do to move the world these guys are it's been

as bad oh my and

it means the fight now in and visited one of them

one in five in that you have a map of parkinson's these a neighbor with a spinal cord injury a brother rebates and a really committed to this idea of family we've got to do something about that first of all our nation cannot tolerate discrimination of any it's been the american disabilities that

creates the civil rights law is both an architecture and imagine if you are not only building that every obligation to fight for our nation and for the board

is helping people individually is a for now a new orleans for every dollar but we've lost and out of a chair the pay to

play they used to invest in research team that will protect those are the long term problem with some scientists can do more and that

means more funding for research if i'm right now for example about a quarter million americans have a spinal cord injury and our government spends about a point and maintaining these members of our family but we only spend forty years there would actually improve the quality of the wines get off public assistance or even fewer than we wondered if dave is going to determine the quality of life

that they're in their rehabilitation than men and that group patterson in newark new jersey in a stable of them again shooting went right into his neck and seventies or five years ago you might've gotten the day because the research is a lot but merely being alive being alive we have a moral and economic responsibility to ease it

and to prevent others from this period think that if you do that we don't need to raise taxes if we just need to raise their expectations many news if part of our

national character you that there isn't one coast to another word that has the largest economy will do that now know all of my room and i was in rehab we don't know if it's

that the pay to play fb