Conversation 687-001

Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

I can't see it all, man.

Just remember what I wrote.

I appreciate it.

I have people living on the top of the city.

I want to see if you've got your level and everything.

I suppose if you want to hear a little of that, that's good.

All right.

I'll talk about this level probably in a little bit here.

If you focus on it before it goes in, that's maybe about 13 and 1 half.

14 and 1 half.

I don't know.

I'm just asking.

I don't know.

Who's directing?

Here, here.

Who's?

No.

WP's not?

He didn't.

Yeah.

That's what I told you.

No, no, no, no.

I don't know.

Jim, any problems?

No, sir.

You all right?

Yeah, I'm fine.

I'm on a little stronger as I talk.

Right.

That's it.

I don't want to wait until the very, very special moment.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know.

And that's what you want to do.

Take care of it.

All those kids.

I'm sorry, what's your name?

Steve.

We would have to have this park just about all the park points of the test.

And there's not another facility that's got enough room for three cameras to shoot through that.

That's reasonable, fellas.

Maybe it's something bigger shooting.

But at least they've put out a lot of money.

Two votes of 6,000 to be on these states in the 2017 election.

So about 6,000 who have made a weak appearance in the election.

But that doesn't mean we have a problem.

We have a real problem.

We have a problem.

All right, baby.

Good day.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

I want you to know that he still gave me the answer.

That's just what he is.

He doesn't have a reason to talk shit.

Well, yeah, I'm scared.

Shut up.

Sometimes, she can't seem to let it go back anymore.

She can't hold it.

She just went back to where she had to be to let it go.

She can't let it go.

She can't.

No, every once in a while, she can't let it go back.

She can't let it go.

She can't.

Thank you.

I've never seen him.

I don't know.

That lady, uh, I don't know her.

You're crazy.

I'm not crazy.

What about this?

Thank you.

He left.

Thank you, Ma.

Don't take me for a ride.

Three minutes.

No, he's not.

Marks, Marks, Mark is here.

You don't need to be skeptical.

We'll check.

Go ahead, Matt.

I told him.

I told him that he has a, let me tell you.

And I changed my mind.

He's a nice man.

I'm a big man.

He's a nice man.

Two minutes, sir.

What?

I can't hear you, sir.

Four minutes, sir.

All right, the door is open.

We've got about two minutes.

One minute there, we've got a minute and 45 seconds.

45, minute 45, okay.

Well, we'll have 40 minutes of the scale, 40 seconds of the scale.

30 seconds left.

One minute to yourself and take a deep breath.

We're on the air at 45.

30 seconds.

15 to a standing line.

Good evening.

Tonight I want to talk to you about one of the most difficult issues of our time, the issue of busing.

Across this nation, in the north, east, west, and south, states, cities, and local school districts have been torn apart in debate over this issue.

My own as a Indian as well know, I am opposed to busing for the purpose of achieving racial balance in our schools.

I have spoken out against busing scores of times over many years.

And I believe most Americans, white and black, share that view.

But what we need now is not just speaking out against more busing.

We need action to stop it.

Above all, we need to stop it in the right way, in a way that will provide better education for every child in America in a deep segregated school system.

The reason action is so urgent is because of a number of recent decisions of the lower federal courts.

Those courts have gone too far.

In some cases, beyond the requirements laid down by the Supreme Court, it ordered a massive bust to achieve racial balance.

The decisions are left in their wake, confusion and contradiction in the law, anger, fear, and turmoil in local communities.

And worst of all, agonized concern among hundreds of thousands of parents for the education and the safety of their children who have been forced by court order to be bused miles away from their neighborhood schools.

What is the answer?

There are many who believe that a constitutional amendment is the only way to deal with this problem.

The Constitutional Amendment proposal deserves a thorough consideration by the Congress on its merits.

But as an answer to the immediate problem we face of stopping more busing now, the Constitutional Amendment approach has a fatal flaw.

It takes too long.

The Constitutional Amendment would take between a year and 18 months at the very least to become effective.

This means that hundreds of thousands of school children will be ordered by the courts to be bused away from their neighborhood schools in the next school year with no hope for relief.

What we need is action now, not action two, three, or four years from now.

And there's only one effective way to deal with the problem now.

That is for the Congress to act.

That is why I am sending a special message to the Congress tomorrow urging immediate consideration and action on two issues.

First, I shall oppose legislation that would call an immediate halt to all new busing orders by federal courts, a moratorium on new busing.

And next, I shall propose a companion major, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1972.

This act would require that every state or locality grant equal educational opportunities to every person regardless of race, color, or nationality.

For the first time in our history, the cherished American ideal of equality of educational opportunity would be affirmed in the lawful hand by the elected representatives of the people in Congress.

The act would further establish an educational bill of rights for Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and others who start their education under language handicaps to make certain that they, too, will have equal opportunity

The act I propose would concentrate federal school aid funds on the areas of greatest educational need.

That would mean directing over $2.5 billion in the next year mainly towards improving the education of children from poor families.

This proposal deals directly with the problem that has been too often overlooked.

We all know that within the central cities of our nation, there are schools so inferior that it is hypocritical even to suggest that the poor children who go there are getting a decent education, let alone an education comparable to that of children who go to schools in the suburbs.

Even the most extreme proponents of busing admit that it would be years before programs could be set up and financed which would bus the majority of these children out of these central city areas to better schools in the suburbs.

That means that putting primary emphasis on more busing rather than on better education inevitably will leave a lost generation of poor children in the central cities doomed to inferior education.

It is time for us to make a national commitment to see that the schools in the central cities are upgraded so that the children who go there will have just as good a chance to get quality education as do the children who go to school in the suburbs.

What I am proposing is that at the same time we stop more busing,

we move forward to guarantee that the children currently attending the poorest schools in our cities and in rural areas be provided with education equal to that of good schools in their communities.

Taken together, the two elements of my proposal, the moratorium on new busing and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, would focus our efforts, where they agree with the law,

on better education for all of our children, rather than on more busting for some of our children.

In addition, I am directing all agencies and departments of the federal government at every level to carry out this spirit as far as the letter of the message in all of their actions.

I am directing the Justice Department, intervening in selected cases where the lower courts have gone beyond the Supreme Court's requirements in order to bust them.

These are the highlights of the new approach I propose.

Let me now go to the heart of the problem that confronts us.

I want to tell you why I feel that busing for the purpose of achieving racial balance in our schools is wrong, and why the great majority of Americans are right in wanting to bring it to an end.

The purpose of such busing is to help end segregation.

But experience in case after case has shown that busing is a bad means to a good end.

The frank recognition of that fact does not reduce our commitment to desegregation.

It simply tells us that we have to come up with a better means to that good end.

The great majority of Americans, white and black, feel strongly that the busing of school children away from their own neighborhoods for the purpose of achieving racial balance is wrong.

But the great majority, black and white, also are determined that the process of desegregation must go forward until the goal of genuinely peaceful educational opportunity is achieved.

The question then is, how can we end segregation in a way that does not result in more busing?

The proposals I have sent to the Congress provide an answer to that question.

One emotional undercurrent that has done much to make this issue so difficult is the feeling that some people have that to oppose busing is to be anti-black.

This is dangerous nonsense.

There's no escaping the fact that some people do oppose busing because of racial prejudice.

But to go on from this and conclude that anti-busing is simply a code word for prejudice is a vicious lie of millions of concerned parents who oppose busing, not because they are against desegregation, but because they are for better education for their children.

They want their children educated in their own neighborhood.

Many have invested their life savings in a home, in a neighborhood they chose because it had good schools.

They do not want their children bussed across the city to an inferior school just to meet some social planners' concept of what is considered to be the correct racial balance, or what is called progressive social policy.

There are right reasons for opposing busking, and there are wrong reasons.

And most people, including large and increasing numbers of blacks, oppose it for reasons that have little or nothing to do with race.

It would compound an injustice to resist in massing busking simply because some people oppose it for the wrong reasons.

There is another element to consider, and this is the most important one of all.

That is the human element, which I see reflected in thousands of letters I have received on my mail from worried parents all over the country, north, east, west, and south.

Let me give you some examples.

I believe it is wrong when an eight-year-old child who was once able to walk to a neighborhood school is now forced to travel two hours a day on a bus.

I believe it is wrong when a working mother is suddenly faced with three different bus schedules for her children, and that makes it impossible for her to continue to work.

I believe it is wrong when parents are burdened with new worries about their children's safety on the road and in the neighborhoods far from home.

I believe it is wrong when a child in a poor neighborhood is denied the extra personal attention and financial support in his school that we know can make all the difference.

All these individual human wrongs add up to a deeply felt and growing frustration.

These are wrongs that can be and must be set right.

And that is the purpose of the legislation I am sending to Congress tomorrow.

I submit these proposals to the Congress and I commend them to all of you listening tonight mindful of the profound importance and the special complexity of the issues they address.

The key is action, and action now.

And Congress holds that key.

If you agree with the goals I have described tonight, to stop more busing now and provide equality of education for all of our children, I urge you to let your congressmen and senators know your views so that Congress will act promptly to deal with this problem.

Let me close with a personal note.

This is a deeply emotional and divisive issue.

I have done my very best to undertake to weigh and respect the conflicting interests, to strike a balance which is thoughtful and just, to search for answers that will best serve all of our nation's children.

I realize the program I recommended will not satisfy the extremists on the one side who oppose busing for the wrong reasons.

And I realize that my program will not satisfy the extreme social planners on the other side who insist on more busing even at the cost of better education.

But while what I have said tonight will not appeal to either extreme, I believe I have expressed the views of the majority of Americans.

Because I believe that the majority of Americans of all races want more busing stopped and better education started.

Let us recognize that the issue of busing divides mankind.

But let us also recognize that the commitment to equal opportunity in education unites all Americans.

The proposals I am submitting to Congress will allow us to turn away from what divides us and to turn toward what unites us.

The way we handle this difficult issue is a supreme test of the character, responsibility, and the decency of the American people.

Let us handle it in a way we can be proud, by uniting behind a program which will make it possible for all the children in this great and good country of ours to receive a better education,

and you will enjoy a better life.

Thank you.

Good night.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I think you still have the signal, ma'am.

Now, please come and approach the statue.

Walter?

I don't say I have that picture.

You use what you used last time.

Walter Robinson.

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

In fact, we always give the crew, if you like, all of these presidential contracts.

And so they're not part of the ground team on that.

There they are with the steel.

You can see now the steel is on.

You can see that they have the steel on.

All of these men will do just a good job.

Thank you.

Let's see.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah.

Thank you, sir.

Goodbye.