Christopher Reeve: 'So many of our dreams at first seem impossible', Democratic National Convention - 1996

26 August 1996, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Thank you very, very much.

Well, I just have to start with a challenge to the President: Sir, I have seen your train go by, and I think I can beat it.

I'll even give you a head start.

And over the last few years we have heard a lot about something called "family values". And like many of you, I have struggled to figure out what that means. And since my accident, I've found a definition that seems to make sense. I think it means that we're all family. And that we all have value.

Now, if that's true, if America really is a family, then we have to recognize that many members of our family are hurting. And just to take one aspect of it, one in five of us has some kind of disability. You may have an aunt with Parkinson's disease, a neighbor with a spinal chord injury, or a brother with AIDS, and if we're really committed to this idea of family, we've got to do something about it.

Now first of all, our nation cannot tolerate discrimination of any kind.

And that's why the Americans with Disabilities Act is so important.

It must be honored everywhere. It is a Civil Rights Law that is tearing down barriers, both in architecture and in attitude.

Its purpose -- its purpose is to give the disabled access not only to buildings but to every opportunity in society.

Now, I strongly believe our nation must give its full support to the caregivers who are helping people with disabilities live independent lives.

Now, of course we have to balance the budget -- and we will. We have to be extremely careful with every dollar we spend. But we've also got to take care of our family -- and not slash programs that people need. We should be enabling and healing and curing.

Now, one of the smartest things we can do about disability is to invest in research that will protect us from diseases and lead to cures.

This country already has a long history of doing it. When we put our minds to a problem, we find solutions. Our scientists can do more. But we've got to give them the chance. And that means more funding for research.

Right now, for example, about a quarter million Americans have a spinal cord injury, and our government spends about 8.7 billion a year just maintaining these members of our family. But we only spend 40 million a year on research, that would actually improve the quality of their lives, and get them off public assistance, or even cure them. We have got to be smarter and do better.

The money we invest in research today is going to determine the quality of life of members of our family tomorrow.

Now, during my rehabilitation, I met a young man named Gregory Patterson. He was innocently driving through Newark, New Jersey, and a stray bullet, from a gang shooting, went through a car window, right into his neck and severed his spinal chord. Five years ago, he might have died. Today, because of research, he's alive.

But merely being alive -- merely being alive is not enough. We have a moral and an economic responsibility to ease his suffering and to prevent others from experiencing such pain.

And to do that, we don't need to raise taxes. We just need to raise our expectations.

Now, America has a tradition that many nations probably envy. We frequently achieve the impossible. That's part of our national character. That's what got us from one coast to another. That's what got us -- that's what got us the largest economy in the world. That's what got us to the moon.

Now, on the wall of my room when I was at rehab, there was a picture of the Space Shuttle blasting off, and it was autographed by every astronaut now at NASA, and on the top of that picture, it says, "We found nothing is impossible."

Now that -- that should be our motto. It's not a Democratic motto, not a Republican motto, it's an American motto. It's not something one Party can do alone. It's something we as a nation have to do together.

So many of our dreams -- so many dreams at first seem impossible. And then they seem improbable. And then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

So if we can conquer outer space, we should be able to conquer inner space, too.

And that's the frontier of the brain, the central nervous system, and all the afflictions of the body that destroy so many lives, and rob our country of so much potential.

Research can provide hope for people who suffer from Alzheimer's. We've already discovered the gene that causes it. Research can provide hope for people like Muhammad Ali and the Reverend Billy Graham, who suffer from Parkinson's. Research can provide hope for the millions of Americans like Kirk Douglas, who suffer from stroke. We can ease the pain of people like Barbara Jordan, who battled multiple sclerosis. We can find treatments for people like Elizabeth Glaser, whom we lost to AIDS. And now that we know that nerves in the spinal cord can regenerate, we are on the way to getting millions of people around the world, millions of people around the world like me, up and out of these wheelchairs.

Now, 56 years ago, F.D.R. dedicated new buildings for the National Institutes of Health. He said that (quote), "The defense this nation seeks involves a great deal more than building airplanes, ships, guns, and bombs. We cannot be a strong nation unless we are a healthy nation."

He could have said that today.

President Roosevelt showed us that a man who could barely lift himself out of a wheelchair could still lift this nation out of despair.

And I believe, and so does this Administration, in the most important principle -- the most important principle that F.D.R. taught us: America does not let its needy citizens fend for themselves.

America -- America is stronger when all of us take care of all of us. Giving new life to that ideal is the challenge before us tonight.

Thank you very much.

John Howard: - 'You have endured far too many years in the political wilderness', Election night - 1996

2 March 1996, C Sydney, Australia

Can I say to you, and my first words are addressed to all of the people of Australia, that I am very conscious of the enormous responsibility that has been placed upon me and upon my colleagues by the verdict of the Australian people today.

I feel many emotions tonight, but the deepest emotion of all I feel is that of humility that the Australian people have given me the privilege of leading the Government of this country and I want to say that the Government that I will lead will be a Government not only for the people who voted for us but also for the people who voted against us.

Eleven years ago when I was unsuccessful in an election I said in my concession speech that the things that united Australians were infinitely more important and more enduring than the things that divided Australians.

That has always been my political credo, and it will be a political credo that I will carry forward in the governance of this country over the next three years.

I want to thank Paul Keating for his gracious words. I want to wish Paul Keating and Anita and their family a good health and happiness in the future. Can I say that although we have been vigorous opponents be has been a great warrior for his own political cause and despite our differences that is something that I recognise.

I owe thanks to many people and I will come to that in a moment. I want to make it clear that although uniting the Australian people will be the cornerstone of my approach in Government, we have been elected with a mandate, a very powerful mandate.

And whilst I will seek at all times unity and a common point of view, we have not been elected to be just a pale imitation of the Government that we have replaced.

We have been given this emphatic mandate tonight because there have been many things that have been left undone that need to be attended to and addressed. We need to implement the program on which we were elected and I want to make it very clear that there will be an absolute determination with fairness and understanding and to do that and to do it with resolution and without qualification.

I want to thank all of my colleagues and I especially wish to thank Tim Fischer and the National Party. I will lead a Coalition in Government as I have led a Coalition in Opposition, and I look forward to working very closely with Tim Fischer as the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. To all of my Parliamentary colleagues, I say thank you. And I particularly want to extend my thanks to the Liberal Party organisation; to Tony Staley the Federal President; to Andrew Robb and Ron Walker the honorary federal treasurer and the many other members of the organisation who have worked so tirelessly.

Can I say it is an immensely proud moment for me tonight to lead back into Government the Liberal Party of Australia. We have endured sixteen years without a federal electoral victory and tonight is an immensely proud and wonderful moment.

And in celebrating the miracle of democracy that we can peacefully and respectfully transfer power through the ballot box and through no other device, let us also as Liberals and as Liberal supporters celebrate the magnificent win that we've had tonight.

It is a victory for those who voted Liberal in the past and for those who are by habit swinging voters, and it is a victory that has also embraced many traditional Labor Party areas of Australia. And when you look at the swings in Western Sydney and in some of the areas...( inaudible)..; and I look at the magnificent result in Queensland that wonderful result in South Australia and the way in which the Liberal Party held its very high proportion of seats in Victoria and the early returns in Western Australia are very encouraging. It is a comprehensive endorsement of the philosophy and the approach of the Liberal Party.

And to all of you who have endured the barbs and the insults and you've heard your Party being written off, I want to say to the rank and file of the Liberal Party, you have endured far too many years in the political wilderness. And tonight it is a victory that we all share. It is not mine alone, it is mine because I was given from the moment I became the leader of the Liberal Party just over a year ago, I was given the most magnificent loyalty and support by my Parliamentary colleagues and all of the members of the organisation. And I say from the bottom of my heart how grateful I am for that support and that loyalty because that is ( inaudible)....

I said when I launched our campaign only a few weeks ago that one of the great features of the Liberal Party is that it was owned by no section of the Australian community and our only obligation is to give good Government to all of the Australian people.

And it will be my intention and my commitment that from now I and my colleagues will devote our all to delivering good government, to doing good things, and for delivering the maximum degree of unity and cohesion to the Australian people.

There is something special about being an Australian and today I experience along with everybody else I had to queue up to cast my vote, and the bloke in front of me turned around and said, " oh, hello". He had a Labor Party how to vote ticket he didn't have a Liberal one and he said, " It's nice to meet you but I'm not going to vote for you!" And that is, can I say, that is a celebration of what Australia is all about.

And the very last thing that I want to say is a special word of thanks to some people who've been very close to me over the past months. I want to thank my own personal staff. The personal staff of a Party leader carry enormous burdens and responsibilities and I am personally very very grateful to all of my staff for the magnificent job that they have done.

They have shared the disappointments and tonight they share the exhilaration of this remarkable victory.

And lastly, can I say to my wife Janette and to my three children, Melanie, Tim and Richard, of all the things these four people in the world, they have kept me going and they have sustained me and they have shared the difficulties as well as the successes of politics. And anybody in public life should always remember the contribution of their families and I unhesitatingly express not only my affection but also my enormous gratitude to my wife and my three children for what they have done for me and what they continue to mean to me.

And my very last words are to all of the people of Australia, to my fellow Australians, I am both deeply moved and I understand very very deeply and very profoundly the responsibility that has been given to me tonight. And I can but make a simple promise and a simple commitment, that from now on I will do all I can to advance the welfare of all of the Australian people.

I will focus on those things that bind us together, I will focus on our strengths, I will defend the interests and the values and the principles of this country both domestically and internationally. There is something very special, there is something unique about our nation and about being Australian and I commit myself and my future Government to the service of all of the Australian people.