In this moment when all is in the balance, it is time for us to rethink the purpose of our party. We must reclaim our historic mission as the party of bold ideas, of new national beginnings. We must do so with a passion for democracy and with hearts that are filled with courage and love.

Let us make in the days ahead one more call to action for the generation that suffered the Depression and served in war, and now in its twilight years remembers the dreams of its youth for personal independence.

Let us make in the days ahead one more reveille for our generation which unfurled its banner of change in the 1960s, believing "we can change the world, rearrange the world." Let us reclaim the dreams of our own youth for "harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding, for the mind's true liberation." And let us have a clarion call for a new generation which longs to hear and to see and to feel real commitment, real conviction, real courage to recreate the future.

Nothing less than the future of our nation and the world is at stake. Americans are waiting for us. The voters are waiting for us. They will show up when we show up. Our greatest power is not even political. It is the ability to move the human heart. It is the ability to see our nation as truly indivisible, truly united in the cause of all who long for unity, of all who long for connectivity, of all who seek integrity and wholeness in their own lives and integrity and wholeness in the life of our nation.

We have done it before. We are the party of FDR and the New Deal. We are the party of JFK and the New Frontier. We are the party of LBJ and the Great Society. We are the party of the realized dream of Martin Luther King. We are the party of the unrealized dreams of Bobby Kennedy. We are the party of Social Security, of Medicare, of civil rights, of equality for women, of a green planet, of a peaceful planet. We are the party of the people.

We stand looking out upon the new horizon of the twenty-first century. It is still daybreak, the sun is about to come up like thunder. And it is our Democratic Party, which has the opportunity to widen the bright horizon for all the people, to help people, particularly our youth, to become excited about participating in the process of citizenship, by fearlessly stepping into the crucible of change, by working for new initiatives which will win back people's faith in our government, faith in the political process, faith that their vote matters and faith in each person's ability to make a difference. One person can make a difference.

Senator Robert Kennedy, addressing students in South Africa who suffered under the yoke of apartheid, understood the potency of the human heart as surmounting all obstacles. He said: "Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples can create a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

This is my commitment. I am sure it is yours, too.

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