Of staying in touch with this country have been more than worth the cost. [ applause ] when i announced i would seek the presidency, some said i would appeal to only a few. But in the past two years i have touched many different americans. I have traveled countless thousands of miles to look them in the eye, to know their voices, to learn what no man can ever understand from behind his desk in washington. We only 5. 5 laid off in this country. Actually unemployed. How many, and how little time my eggs after going for 35 cents a dozen. If you dont like how you work here you can quit or well move the plant. I want to see taxes come back to me. I want to see schools and roads and Social Security increased. The country was dushd and people spoke to me openly not just of their frustrations with government, but of their hopes. Were all americans. Were not afroamericans, mexicanamericans. If youre an american youre a american. Some i talked whose words have remained with me. Americans like david hunter, a young vietnam veteran from long beach, california. We dont need training. And Murray Levine an engineer from lexington, massachusetts. And out in sun prairie, wisconsin a family farmer named john krebbs. Bigger corporations are taking over everything. We do need a doctor in our building. And a cleveland clinic, a war widow, sadie devillo and on a baltimore Street Corner a steel worker named art price like the others spoke to me not only of his concern for this country, but of his belief in its future. Thats my freedom out there. Thats what that flag stands for. 50 individual countries drawn together to born the United States. Thats what it means to me. Americans do believe in their country. And their flag. But among some today it has become popular to deride the symbols of patriotism. To find fault with the many individual ways people celebrate their america. But perhaps those who ridicule these beliefs have not come from where these have come. Those who think patriotism is overdone and out of style, might ask how did it used to be . Its going to war to keep our country free. Its kept us free. To do what i want. Thats what its given me. I work hard for what i had. I give to my children what i didnt have. I have given my country a fair share and i expect to get my fair share back. This land was made for you and me the truth is men like art price have given more than their fair share. In the last four years theyve borne the real cost of our economic unfairness. 2 million more are jobless today than in 1969. 17,000 were dropped from arts plant alone and he wonders if hes next or whether it makes any difference. It seems like every time industry gets a pay increase, clothing, automobile, you name it, it goes up in price. Im about to buy a new refrigerator and cant afford it right now. The one i want a year ago is 100 cheaper than this year. Its gone up. It seems like people today are just working to pay for their food and tax and thats it. Theres not much anything else to do. Art price grew up in a neighborhood built by those who came over in search of a better life. And an opportunity for their children that they had never had for themselves. Success meant a good education. Hard work. A decent home. A generation later that pride is still reflected in their neighborhood. Arts wife jean was born in this house. And she tends it daily like her mother and grandmother before. Like most americans, art and jean live for their children, their two daughters katie and marcie. See if daddy wants to get up and eat lunch. Art works hard at his job. Sometimes putting 2019 or three extra shifts a week in order to make ends meet. But he thinks its worth it if his children can get a good education. And a chance in life that he never had. Im going food shopping tonight. Like his father before him he prize himself on being a good father and a good provider. He feels working hard and paying taxes is his did you tiruty buts if his government shares the same obligation. Up good a girl today . You play out in the yard . I think people of america are paying their taxes, tax money being wasted every day. The war. Spend it on education and things that people do need. Cookie monster. Too many loopholes in the fax forms for the million injuri lm. They want to be billionaires so they dont have to pay taxes. Sometimes the unfairness affects his family in a way that hurts the most because it touches his childrens future. Their grade school is overcrowded. One thing, its very old. They say lets just wait and see. Its a lot of wait and see with schools in this area. The price familys problem is faced by 80 of the families in america, the schools arent better today than four years ago and though it gets most of their tax, washington only pays for 7 of their childrens education. Children and ive been left out of a lot of things because i found i couldnt afford and i condition afford nobody. So i do it myself. My full time job and working around the house but sundays i devote to my family because i want them to have what i didnt have coming up in their world. Today my husband makes double what my father made and i just cant make it. It is nothing left at the end of the week. It comes down to the nickel. This august they get a raise saying im looking at the paycheck and i said, did you get a raise and he said, yes, i think i got a race. I guess they did get a raise but the paycheck didnt show it. And this is because taxes just eat it up. I think we could use some chicken. This is 28. Well look at those. We have been deceived. All of us. Like this family. The truth is in the last four years, food prices are risen twice as fast as wages. If it was going to get better, it would get better when the president had the wage and price freeze and whatever it was that didnt work. Because nothing that i can can think of had as about controlled. Ive been to five stores in one week for specials. And when i come back from food shopping, we never have anything for the night because im exhausted. You pay and you pay and you dont get anyplace. That they should struggle just to see things get worse isnt only unfair, its the surest sign that somebody somewhere has forgotten the real needs of our people. The wage and Price Control Program under nixon is a lopsided operation in which theyve been effective of holding down the income of the people and freezing the wages but the price control part is a disastrous failure and youre reminded every time you go to a supermarket. If what has happened to the price family is unfair, whats happened to people like sadie devallo is a tragedy. I get 73. 30 from the veterans. Then i get 89 from Social Security. You want to know the truth. I cant afford to buy groceries and i cant afford to get sick and believe me i cant afford to die. There are 25 million americans over 65. They are mothers and wives, they are people who once belonged to somebody. And now they belong to nobody. Not even the nation their husbands and sons died for. No country in the world treats its old as crew as cruelly as america and it there has never been more cruelty than in the last four years. They are the victims of neglect. I invited them to come and take you here and that and youre ready to blow your top. You get so nervous and so sick and hungry, oh, my god. When you get through there, you know what is wrong with you, but then you go back and wait and going back and waiting for this. You cant do this when youre old. Hello. Can i help you . Yes. I need a refill. Okay. It will be just a minute. All right, thank you. Old people are not inclined to complain. Sadie has worked hard all her life and she isnt giving up now. But her struggle has been especially difficult these last four years. Even with the Social Security increases, Older Americans are fighting a losing battle to survive. They spend 300 a year for medical care not covered by insurance. Old people are dying of malnutrition. They are dying for lack of proper medical care. They have been cast aside by a government that has chosen to protect profits instead of people. My heart is aching for america because i could see it backsliding. We have been abandoned as americans. We really have. But we still love our america. Were real americans. You Better Believe it. You know, some day somebody is going to write the history of these times and i think its going to go be a pretty sad chapter when they write the story on the way weve treated our older people and there isnt anything we ought to want any more than those later years can be years of confidence and decency and security and i am going to do anything i can to see that older people are treated decently. Out on the mid Western Plains in sun prairie, wisconsin, i found other proud chapter in our history being threatened by this administrations neglect here on the family farm of john crebs. My dad started that farm at 1932. He cleared the farm of brush and trees and we grew up there, worked together. And that was the way of life. The Younger Generation aint going to follow the footsteps of their parents. After my generation gets out of here, i dont know who is going to take their place. It will be more than just one familys misfortunate if john crebs cant pass that way of live along. Well all be losing something precious in america. In the last four years, over 1 million americans like john crebs have been forced off their land forever. My taxes here in the last four years doubled. There is no way i should pay on the land that i own here, 8,000 every year and my price and the taxes are guaranteed every year. Every year they go up. That is the only sure thing we got. In the last four years, Small Farmers have been forced to pay up to 40 more for labor and equipment. You and i and john crebs have been left by this administration to pick up an everincreasing tab for everything with we need to fashion a decent life. Figure out what this is going to cost me with my trade in. In you went for the 273 with the thrower and a sweet pickup it would make a list of 3,579. 35 3,579 is the suggested list price. This is chemicals and fertilizer. We have the crop to fight and the only thing keeping us going is working longer hours and putting more out. His real enemy is not as uncertain as disease or drought. It is the recentless power of bigness. In the last four years giant corporations have been allowed to drive the small farmer to the wall. John crebs and his forbearers have fought against hard jobs for generations. I think on my income tax around 90,000 in machinery alone. The tractor and plow cost me 22,000. Go back 20 years ago, you could buy a tractor then for 800, 900. But the profit from his fathers labor has not gone up in jeffreys lifetime and he knows it. Producing more food as meant less b money in the years since johnny was born. Like john crebs, i grew up close to the land. And i know what we stand to lose if we dont do something about their future and their stake in the promise of this country. We set a goal and that makes you feel good. If you can reach these goals in your life once in a while. There is very few kids staying on the farm. I dont know who is going to farm. But i dont think i would want them to take it under the conditions that were farming under now. I think there is better opportunities in town that will give them an education and he can work his 40 hours a week like the rest of the people and forget about it. If you dump everybody into the cities, the cities are already overcrowded, theyre overburdened. Too many people piled up in too small a space. So the farm problem is really everybodys problem. I want to stay on the farm. Because my dad broke it with horses. Im not going to get it up that easy. Well i want to help you stay there. Yes, im calling in reference to the add in the boston globe. Murray levine came off the streets of new york. Worked his way through school on the gi bill and has lost his job in the administrations aerospace shuffle. Yes, maam, about 15 years i was a pretty substantial paid engineer manager, i enjoyed a nice reputation and it finally happened. The day came and i left. Naturally i contacted a lot of companies in the engineering field. It seemed they were all haunted by the same problem, layoffs and no work. So i have 15 letters, you have great qualifications, gee, youre mr. Wonderful but we cant use you at this time. Like nearly 2 million others, murray got caught in the whipsaw of our warbased economy. While this administration fails to turn war plans to industries of peace, when it will make no plans to convert his talent from missiles to mass transit when it exports jobs to japan and germany and imports goods that he could design better, murray is left to his own devices. Id love to do something for you, quickly because i understand the problem. But things are slow. I know your capabilities, in fact youre precisely the kind of guy my Company Needs and continue to grow with. What does it look downstream. Do thinks look like theyll be picking up shortly. Sit back here and wait. The worst i ever felt was the lack of fulfilling my role as a provider and as a husband and as a father. I would hear little bits of conversation, even a whisper, dont ask daddy for that. Man, im 510 and 185 pounds and when i see that i feel like i weigh zilch. I could take anybody out could give me and i know how to fight it but how the hell do you handle the kids looking at you with such sympathy and im going to put my suit and tie on and go out. I looked at all of the franchises and i went to power meeting and movie theaters to dairy barns, anything that anybody had an idea to make a buck. Ill just have to check this out with my boss. Is your boss in now . Oh, no, not at the moment. There is no way of telling how many murrays with advanced degrees are wasting their hardearned talents in today. There is no way of gauging the loss that this administration has inflicted on our troubled society by the deliberate squandering of trained minds. And murray alone can know what it is like to have to look to his wife for the support of their family. We started working on a parttime basis when i was still employed. When i was working and my wife left in the morning. That was great. I thought she was doing something creative with her time and to see her leave now in the morning, i just get a knot in my stomach and i get so dang angry. Okay, honey, have a good day. You too. There is so much to do. The hours and days and years that are being lost in cleaning up the environment, the health problems, the medical problems. Just so many great things we can work on and were not. And that is what hurts. That is what is frustrating. This country can have full employment, utilizing peoples skills up to the fullest of their ability and they could do it in peace time. I dont think we need to have a war going to provide employment for the people of this country. Out in milwaukee, i met two young men who rekindled my sense of hope about this country and what could be done to restore the spirit of caring about each other again. David hunter and his friend tom poole. I want to be in the army, just like you were in the army. He was in the army too. Why . Because he went to the government. Were you there too . Yeah. He was right by where i was. Where were you . I was there. My thing is i was going to be in vietnam for two years straight. 18 months as a pilot and then six months on the ground as a company commander. To see what it was like. To see if i could do it. Im really bitter. Because of what ive seen. I wrote a letter home for a kid who lost his arm. I talked to 19yearolds that didnt have any legs. I watched three people die. I mean, its not a beautiful thing. But the people of the United States dont appreciate what life and what death does to people. I cant imagine. Why did they let 50,000 guys die first when god knows how many came back lie tom, me, no legs, no arms, no eyes. Why did they let all this happen . Ready to go . See if youre better today. Lets get down there. The tragedy of this war will not end with the signing of any treaty. It will not end with the return of the last prisoner. Ill make it down five times and back this time. All right, lets go. I dont suffer with those who were wrong ten years ago, nor do i suffer with those in power who have been wrong for the last four years. Those profits who have made a political game out of human suffering have been much in the news. But these are the anonymous forgotten victims of that game, tucked away to languish in nameless hospitals. When i came to after 13 days of unconsciousness, the first thing i remember doctors saying is, dave, youll never walk again for the rest of your life. And now my big deal is educate myself so i can educate other guys like me. So that they wont want to die. They want to live. I wanted to die once, too. And i tried it. Now i want to live every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Im going for a doctorate in medicine. I want to go up to a guy who is laying in bed and broke his back and lay it on the line to him. And i want to be able to say, ive been through it. In the last four years, over 100,000 of them have been left to find their own way back from the devastation wrought by drugs and shrapnel. That is the great tragedy of a government who will offer them no real help to come all the way home. If you dont want to walk, theyre not going to give you braces. Right. If you dont show up down here, when youre supposed to show up down here to walk, why is the government going to waste the money. Do you know how braces right now are just rotting. How many are hanging up back there. Do you want to walk. I want to walk. What could a person want more in this position. I person could want it and want it and want it and just wish for it. But you got to work for it. Wishing doesnt get you anywhere. Wish you could just get out of the braces period. I wish i could get out of them. But that doesnt help me walk at all. You gotta wanna walk. They wanted us to play war. Were broken soldiers. Dont throw us away. I love the United States. But i love it enough so i want to see some changes made. The American People want to believe in their government. They want to believe in their country and i would like to be one of those that provides the kind of leadership that would help restore that kind of faith. I dont say i can do it alone. Of course i cant. But the president could help set a new tone in this country and help raise the vision and the faith and the hope of the American People and that is what id like to try to do. Would you like to get a president that we can believe in. Well i hope ill be that kind of a president. Were featuring American History tv programs this week as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan 3. Tonight a look at