today we plant the seeds of america's economic renaissance and the rain is going to make them grow. 200 years ago our founding fathers gave us a democracy. it was based on the simple yet noble idea that government derived its validity from the consent of the governed. that consent nub cmust be const renewed. it can only be renewed by a full and vigorous debate on the issues that confront our nation. today that surge of renewal that surgeoo&f for consent pro as the constitution provided. today the national debate will commence. it begins here in this city.

lowell is my home. it is where i drew my first breath. it is where i will always derive a sense of place and a sense of belonging. it is what i am. and you, my neighbors and my friends, are what i am as well. i am an american. i love this country. you are americans. you love this country. together we entrusted with the principles that represent mankind's greatest political and social achievement. america is hope.

america is compassion. it is excellence. it is valor. it is humanity. its values have drawn us here from every corner of the globe. these values are a manifest destiny. yet, the leadership in washington has squandered that promise. we were never meant to be the world's greatest debtor nation. we were never meant to have our ancestors patrimony sold to the highest bidder. we were never to rank ninth in the world of wages. we were never meant to have dysfunctional schooling, disploeding cities, racial inharmony, or environment at risk. america is more than this. we are more than this.

our destiny is greatness and we must return to its fulfillment.d -z of this washington avoidance. enough of this washington immediate o mediocrity. we must return to the forebearers by the greatness of our people. weapon need leadershwe need lea calls upon the best of us. we need leadership that pursues a higher vision. today that leadership is not in washington. that leadership is here and across america. it is in the hearts and minds and souls of the american

people. i want to deploy that leadership to meet the challenges that face us and to restore america's greatness. that is why today i declare my candidacy for president of the united states. are you ready? let's go!s/c&ñ

i'm getting wet. today i begin a journey of purpose and i ask you to come with me. on this journey we will reaffirm the values of our ancestors, hard work, determination, will, thrift, productivity, perseverance, and through that affirmation we will again be the greatest economic power on earth. on this journey we will rediscover the caring and compassion for one another that

has been dishonored by the reagan/bush years. and in that discovery we will look upon each other as brothers and sisters and as a community which nurtures its young, its ailing, and its less fortunate. and on this journey we will reach into the future and commit ourselves to thinking in generations. we arec/ç2 a continuum, just a reach back to our(9@x ancestors our fundamental values so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to the children, to our children and their children. these are our children.

and these, h"hsñtoo, of course. and we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching. that sense of sacredness, that thinking in generations must begin with reverence for this earth. this land, this water, this air, this planet, this rain, this is our legacy to our young, yet the reagan/bush years have been a time of cynical avoidance of one environmental issue after another.conservation, global warming, and uncontrolled world population. journey with me to a true commitment to our environment.

journey with me to the serenity of leaving to our children a planet in equilibrium. thinking in generations also means enabling our young to have a decent standard of living. not the reagan/bush legacy to our children of an additional $3 that debt will forever burden and handicap them. george bush promised, readzqñs lips, no new taxes. it won an election, but what he really meant was, read my lips, add new debt. that is generationally immoral.

our children deserve better. on this journey of purpose i commit myself to making this country a striving, thriving, triumph competitor in the world marketplace. i commit myself to an america where our standard of living, our educational and health care systems and our industrial output are second to none in the world. i commit myself to economic security for this generation and their children. this obligation to our young is as old as civilization. in the apache tongue with world for grandfather and grandson is the same. they understood linkage.

they understood honor. they understood mutual obligation. in washington, there is no such wisdom. in washington it's all here and now. it's all polling data. the vision extends only to the next election. it is time to look to our children and feel our responsibility to them. that is my journey of purpose. i want to meet that responsibility so we can rest easy and our guardianship of this time and this place. from a viable economy to the full funding of headstart, from a clean environment, to true equality for women, from a strong military, to a commitment to racial brotherhood, from schools that are honored, to streets that are freed of excessive violence. these are our responsibilities

to our children. i will devote myself to the search for their fulfillment. finally, this journey of purpose must be a journey of choice. we must choose action. we must choose commitment. i offer a different path, harder but more hopeful, longer but more compellincompelling, steep more worthy. 7 1/2 years ago i began my own journey. for me and my family, it was a time of adversity, but during that adversity i discovered a deeper faith. borne out of that adversity was a commitment, devote myself to those people andtis9v to those s

that truly matter to me. today together with nikki and ashleigh and katina and molly, i pledge to fulfill that commitment. we all journey in this world. it is our calling. america is a sum of all the journeys as we search for our national identity and national community. come with me. we are a great nation. we are a great people.

may god give us the. strength to be worthy of this greatness. let's go get them!úóñrbzñ

this sunday night on q and a, two-time pulitzer prize winner cartoonist michael ramirez on satirical cartoons. >> i have this figure that's kind of a conglomeration of extremist israeli settlers and a palestinian figure who, if you notice, he's on a prayer rug but he has a his shoes on. so both these figures are sort of utilizing a false religion for a political purpose. so it just proves that once again i am an equal opportunity offender. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's q and a. >> this weekend on c-span's cities tour, along with our comcast cable partners we'll explore the history and literary

life of oakland, california. on book tv we'll visit marcus book, known as oldest independent black book store and talk with co-owner blanche richardson about the store's history and its importance to the community as source of information and a meeting place during the civil rights movement. >> the history of marcus book store is that it was started in 1960 by my parents, doctors ray and julian richardson. their purpose was to offer this resource to the community feeling that black people needed a place to go where they could learn about themselves from other black people mostly. so it was a service they were providing to the community but also to the community at large because the more other cultures know about black people the better it is for everybody as well.

>> on american history tv take a trip to oakland's chinatown neighborhood and learn about the history of the chinese in the east bay area. william g.wong, author of "yellow journalist" shares his experience as chinese-american glowing up in the chinatown neighborhood. >> in april of 1906 a huge earthquake on the san andreas fault destroyed records at san francisco city hall, birth and death records. here was an opportunity for chinese in the bay area shs san francisco and oakland, to say, hey, our birth records and death records, whether they were there in san francisco or not, are no longer existing. maybe we can come up with some ideas and some plans and some schemes to tell the government that we were born in san francisco. that began theen