Bruce Springsteen's Speech on The Election
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2012/b ... -z-in-ohio
Let me begin with a shout out to all of our neighbors in the Northeast who are reeling from Hurricane Sandy and its immense impact. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
So, it’s good to be here with you today–and it will be great to feel the power of your votes and voices tomorrow.
I’m here today for Wisconsin, America, and for President Obama. For the last 30 years I’ve been writing in my music about the distance between the American dream and American reality. I’ve seen it from inside and outside: as a blue collar kid from a working class home in New Jersey–where my parents struggled, often unsuccessfully–to make ends meet–to my adult life, visiting the 9th Ward in New Orleans after Katrina, or meeting folks from food pantries from all around the United States, who work daily to help our struggling citizens through the hard times we’ve been suffering
The American Dream and an American Reality: Our vote tomorrow is the one undeniable way we get to determine the distance in that equation. Tomorrow, we get a personal hand in shaping the kind of America we want our kids to grow up in.
I’m a husband and a dad, my lovely wife Patti is here with me. We’ve got three kids growing up and on their way out into the world, I’m 63 (Patti is much younger)… but we have both lived through some galvanizing moments in American history: the Civil Rights struggle, the Peace Movement, the Woman’s Movement, we played in East Berlin one year before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and we were with Amnesty International a year before the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid. These were days when you could feel the winds of change moving and the world shifting beneath your feet.
And… we both remember another galvanizing moment, the night that President Obama was elected.
It was an unbelievable evening, when the hope of your heart felt fulfilled, when you could feel the locked doors of the past being blown open to new and previously unimaginable possibilities– to fresh Hope and Change.
Today we have another battle. Now we are charged with the hard daily struggle to make those possibilities, those changes real and enduring in a world that challenges your hopefulness, a world that is often brutally resistant to change. We’ve lived through that struggle over these past four years when the forces of opposition have been tireless.
I stood with President Obama four years ago and I’m proud to be standing with him today. Because…
I’m thankful for the historic advances in healthcare.
I’m thankful for a more regulated Wall Street that will begin to protect our citizens from the blind greed of those who over reach.
My father worked on a Ford assembly line when I was a child and I’m thankful that we have a President that had faith in the American automobile industry and that General Motors is today making cars. What else would I write about.
I’m thankful that we have a decisive President working hard to keep America safe… and I’m appreciative of the fact that, as promised, he has ended the war in Iraq and is bringing the war in Afghanistan to a close.
I’m here today because I’m concerned about Women’s Rights and health issues both at home and around the World. I don’t have to tell you about the dangers to Roe versus Wade under our opponents policies.
I’m also troubled by thirty years of an increasing disparity in wealth between our best off citizens and everyday Americans. That is a disparity that threatens to divide us into two distinct and separate nations. We have to be better than that.
Finally I’m here today because I’ve lived long enough to know that the future is rarely a tide rushing in. Its often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day. We are in the midst of one of those long days right now. I believe that President Obama feels those long days in his bones for all 100 per cent of us. He will live those days with us.
President Obama ran last time as a man of hope and change. You hear a lot of talk about how things are different now. Things aren’t any different–they’re just realer. Its crunch time. The President’s job, our job–yours and mine– whether your Republican, Democrat, Independent, rich, poor, black, brown, white, gay, straight, soldier, civilian–is to keep that hope alive, to combat cynicism and apathy, and to believe in our power, to change our lives and the world we live in. So, lets go to work tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.. Lets re-elect President Barack Obama to carry our standard forward towards the America that awaits us.
Let me begin with a shout out to all of our neighbors in the Northeast who are reeling from Hurricane Sandy and its immense impact. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
So, it’s good to be here with you today–and it will be great to feel the power of your votes and voices tomorrow.
I’m here today for Wisconsin, America, and for President Obama. For the last 30 years I’ve been writing in my music about the distance between the American dream and American reality. I’ve seen it from inside and outside: as a blue collar kid from a working class home in New Jersey–where my parents struggled, often unsuccessfully–to make ends meet–to my adult life, visiting the 9th Ward in New Orleans after Katrina, or meeting folks from food pantries from all around the United States, who work daily to help our struggling citizens through the hard times we’ve been suffering
The American Dream and an American Reality: Our vote tomorrow is the one undeniable way we get to determine the distance in that equation. Tomorrow, we get a personal hand in shaping the kind of America we want our kids to grow up in.
I’m a husband and a dad, my lovely wife Patti is here with me. We’ve got three kids growing up and on their way out into the world, I’m 63 (Patti is much younger)… but we have both lived through some galvanizing moments in American history: the Civil Rights struggle, the Peace Movement, the Woman’s Movement, we played in East Berlin one year before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and we were with Amnesty International a year before the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid. These were days when you could feel the winds of change moving and the world shifting beneath your feet.
And… we both remember another galvanizing moment, the night that President Obama was elected.
It was an unbelievable evening, when the hope of your heart felt fulfilled, when you could feel the locked doors of the past being blown open to new and previously unimaginable possibilities– to fresh Hope and Change.
Today we have another battle. Now we are charged with the hard daily struggle to make those possibilities, those changes real and enduring in a world that challenges your hopefulness, a world that is often brutally resistant to change. We’ve lived through that struggle over these past four years when the forces of opposition have been tireless.
I stood with President Obama four years ago and I’m proud to be standing with him today. Because…
I’m thankful for the historic advances in healthcare.
I’m thankful for a more regulated Wall Street that will begin to protect our citizens from the blind greed of those who over reach.
My father worked on a Ford assembly line when I was a child and I’m thankful that we have a President that had faith in the American automobile industry and that General Motors is today making cars. What else would I write about.
I’m thankful that we have a decisive President working hard to keep America safe… and I’m appreciative of the fact that, as promised, he has ended the war in Iraq and is bringing the war in Afghanistan to a close.
I’m here today because I’m concerned about Women’s Rights and health issues both at home and around the World. I don’t have to tell you about the dangers to Roe versus Wade under our opponents policies.
I’m also troubled by thirty years of an increasing disparity in wealth between our best off citizens and everyday Americans. That is a disparity that threatens to divide us into two distinct and separate nations. We have to be better than that.
Finally I’m here today because I’ve lived long enough to know that the future is rarely a tide rushing in. Its often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day. We are in the midst of one of those long days right now. I believe that President Obama feels those long days in his bones for all 100 per cent of us. He will live those days with us.
President Obama ran last time as a man of hope and change. You hear a lot of talk about how things are different now. Things aren’t any different–they’re just realer. Its crunch time. The President’s job, our job–yours and mine– whether your Republican, Democrat, Independent, rich, poor, black, brown, white, gay, straight, soldier, civilian–is to keep that hope alive, to combat cynicism and apathy, and to believe in our power, to change our lives and the world we live in. So, lets go to work tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.. Lets re-elect President Barack Obama to carry our standard forward towards the America that awaits us.
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Comments
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Godfather.
Crazy how that works huh?
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Hm... you're the first person I've ever heard say a disparaging thing about him. And I've known a lot of people who've worked with him. So... who's your friend?
no names man...but his first name is Dave and he has known Bruce sense before fame and worked for him for a long time,he had some stories to tell
Godfather.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I don"t know Gary Johnson ... I just find it ridiculous that your anti war ... so choose someone who is anti war ... the hypocrisy is ridiculous.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Bruce's best contribution: a genuine troubadour for our time. When people complain about celebrities throwing their weight behind their beliefs, especially those who immerse their passions and efforts into all things societal, I suspect they are not comfortable with their own convictions.
I never knew Bruce was in gay porn?!?!?!?!?!
and? this is relevant to him supporting obama because?
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
A man who lives a life the rest of us can only dream of?
A man who is worth gazillions?
A man who charges $200+ dollars for a concert ticket?
THAT GUY is qualified to tell the rest of us working Americans what is best for us?
THAT GUY lives on fantasy Island.
THAT GUY has no problem CASHING IN on the American Dream..right?
THAT GUY is all about MAKING MONEY...
Just like the despised Republicans...Right?
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
speedy speedy go get off the computer and calm down for a bit
no, he isn't more qualified then the rest of you Americans on sharing opinions..
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
Actually no.
He was born into a working class family and struggled with them financially though most of his youth and into his early adulthood. Yes, he's since become one of the richest men in the world (net worth in the billions), thanks to his hard work ethic, his incredible talent and his own business talents. He's earned it all, unlike the spoiled, rich Mitt Romney who was given it on a silver platter and made the rest of his fortune screwing the working class out of a future.
Bruce has never forgotten where he came from AND he's never forgotten that it was the American system that allowed him to get where he is. He isn't "all about making money" and not only donates (very quietly) massive amounts of money to causes that be believes in, but he has also taken part in countless charity events and campaigns. He was one of the people credited with helping free Nelson Mandella, he had a major part in the "Sun City" campaign to end apartheid, he has toured and performed for free MANY times over the decades he's been famous.
He is NOT "all about making money." (and he himself isn't who charges $200 for concert tickets. That's the promoter and the reason for that is that Bruce Springsteen plays 5 hour shows in huge stadiums and that's not a cheap show to put on. I saw him play a small theater in Toronto back in 1998 and the ticket was the same price you'd pay to see a smaller band in the same venue.
And he's also given his name to many causes that he supports, even if he himself wouldn't personally benefit. He was also one of the first major stars to come out in support of marriage equality.
Of course nobody is saying that because a famous person tells you to vote a certain way that you should.
But if you believe in the things Bruce has CLEARLY supported his whole career and put his money, time and reputation where his mouth is... well, that's at least some food for thought.
Spot On
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
A voice for the common man
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
A man who lives a life the rest of us can only dream of? yes he does
A man who is worth gazillions?he is
A man who charges $200+ dollars for a concert ticket?he does, whether he has a promotor or not he has major input
THAT GUY is all about MAKING MONEY...he is all about making money
too say is isn't about making money is pure bullshit.
he's also one of the biggest anti-war musicians around...i guess he's really only anti war when the other guy is pro.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I'll forego the catty comment about "to, two and too" and just say that he's a performer who has made his money writing and performing. And that's kinda OK... in fact... I think "The American Dream," as some might put it.
"all about?"
No... he isn't. THAT is your "pure bullshit."
As far as being "anti-war," I'm not sure what you're getting at. The president hasn't started any wars and has done all he can to get us OUT of those wars... you can't just stop one day and leave. Besides... as many have pointed out... it's impossible to 100% support every policy of a politician. You choose who you think best matches your own goals. He has.
(and I don't see people crying about how recently, big mega stars have supported Mitt Romney... stars like... Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charlie Daniels and... um... Bo Derek. And I guess Kirk Cameron. Wow, you guys suck.)
At what point did conservatives all become weepy pacifists? I must have missed that very special episode of Blossom.
If this is true, then every successful band, including Pearl Jam, is all about MAKING MONEY...right?
Libya?
Drone Strikes?
I'm not a conservative...duh...I'm saying he could have supported someone who is totally committed to no war. I'm also not a democrat...I don't label myself politically.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Your right ... they are all about making money. Thats no problem as far as I'm concerned. Just don't try and convince me that he even remotely understands middle class or poor people...especially don't try and tell because he come from middle class roots he understands...the economy of today is much tougher than it was when he was growing up. I have an Uncle that worked at all of the Detroit 3...today...in 2012 if you land one of those jobs its like winning the lottery. I had cousin in the early 70's was working at GM 2 weeks out of high school...that doesn't happen today. He has no clue like most celebrities.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I think it would be interesting.
So in other words, you have no idea what you are talking about. I thought this was a very good article on Springsteen.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012 ... ct_remnick
The Detroit analogy seems pointless. Because Detroit is in much worse shape than it was when 3 car companies were booming, Springsteen knows nothing of the economy? That is just brilliant :roll:
You are right. The people talking shit on Springsteen don't have a clue.
Comparing the economy of 2012 and when he was growing is impossible is my point ... I'm not saying anything about Springsteen own personal views on the economy ... because I'm sure he would admit that the economy not the same today. My comments were directed toward POD.
As far as his anti war stance ... it's absolute hypocrisy.
If your anti war then war should be unacceptable under any circumstance.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
These kind of sayings annoy the shit out of me.
He's ALL about making money? As if thats his only defining motivation for anything. :?
Im at work right now -- i'm all about making money. :P
But if I had a marketable skill like Bruce, and I loved performing, I'd do it all the time. I'd rake it in, and I'd donate a ton of it, just as what was explained earlier. Why no comment on his charitable donations?
I really dont understand how people can assume they know and understand someones motives enough to bash them.