Alan Keyes
June 21, 1996
San Antonio, Texas

Praise God. Thank you! Praise God. Thank you! Thank you! Praise God. Thank you!

You know, it's a special pleasure for me to be back in San Antonio. Do y'all still have a parade at Fiesta time? You still do that? See, this is where I cut my teeth, in high school--we used to raise all our money for the city council by selling drinks during that parade. Wandering up and down in the hot sun down here. Offering people drinks during that Fiesta parade. Now, little did I know that I would ever come back under these circumstances, but, it feels good.

It feels especially good because, now, I was going to school here during the course of the mid to late sixties. And this was a time when America was in some great upheaval. Some of it good, some of it not so good. But in my course of time here in San Antonio, at that point--now, I don't know what it's like now--a lot of the things that have unfortunately developed to turn Americans away from their common sense and their decent values hadn't washed over San Antonio.

And I grew up in a town where people still believed strongly and deeply in the great values of family and responsibility and decency and patriotism that had built and sustained and defended this country from the time that it was born.

Those are the values I took away with me, when I went to face the great world out there and, I'll tell ya, they're the values I bring back home with me, right now, to San Antonio. And they're the ones we have to stand up for, if we're to get this country back where it belongs!

We do have to be careful, though. I give speeches all the time, and we have to be careful that none of that, in our minds or hearts, ever becomes mere rhetoric. 'Cause it's not.

You look around this country today, and we are living with tangible proof that if you back away from the things that are needed to sustain your families, if you back away from respect for those principles and laws through which human beings can treat each other with decency, you will indeed, as the Bible says, reap the whirlwind.

And the sad truth is that that's not a whirlwind that is just claiming people old enough to know better. The thing that bothers me deeply about the crisis that we're in, is that its primary victims seem to be those whose youth and relative innocence ought to secure them from these consequences. When you look at the kind of things we've seen over the course of the last year, even--the stories of fourteen-year-olds raping ten-year-olds, and six-year-olds leading assaults on four-month-old babies (you remember that one?)--you have got to know that when the spirit of violence is so overtaking even the hearts of innocent youth, that something is deeply wrong. And we can't afford to lie to ourselves about it any more.

There are some people who want us to believe that the problems of this country today are all about money, and all about jobs, and all about budgets. And I will acknowledge, there are some things . . . I used to be president of a group called Citizens Against Government Waste, and we went all around the country campaigning on those very issues, organizing people to understand the importance of watching out for their resources, and reclaiming control of our economic power.

But I think you've got to face the priorities as they are presented to you in our time. And I think we're in serious trouble as a people if we think that the major difficulties we are facing today are economic difficulties.

I mean no offense to anyone. There are a lot of things we need to do, including cutting the taxes, and bringing the power back home to the grass roots--that will help to energize the American economy, by getting the bureaucrats and the politicians off our backs and out of our way so we can get the job done. There's work to be done there.

But if you want me to speak to what I believe to be the number one priority in this nation's life, it is not our money, and it's not our businesses, and it's not our jobs--though money, businesses, and jobs are all being lost because of it.

The crisis that we face is a crisis that we can see haunting the lives of our children and claiming those lives in the streets and in the womb. It's a crisis that we can see stalking the hallways of our schools with fear and violence, and it's a crisis that we can see in the crumbling structure of our family lives. It is the crisis of our moral heart. It is the crisis of our understanding of freedom, which has been taken from that idea of self-government, and discipline, and responsibility with which the country was born, and turned instead into a licentious curse upon this nation. And we must remove that curse.

I was reading something in the paper the other day, by someone I know--a fellow named Ben Wattenberg, who sometimes shows a fair degree of sense, for a Democrat. Occasionally. And he was writing a column--I think it was half tongue-in-cheek--the other day, and he had asked people to make political "prognostications": what was gonna happen in the future? And he had a phrase in there--there was one fellow who had suggested to him that sometime around the year 2004, the fellow whose slogan was, "It's not the money thing, it's the moral thing," would be elected President. And he said, "Well that might be, because sometimes an era of rationality is followed by an era of religion."

Now, I gotta tell you. I read that phrase, and I said, "Now, here's the problem." You see? Here's the problem. Are we in the era of rationality? (Crowd yells NO!) 'Cause I'll tell you something. The era of "rationality" has meant more teen-age suicides. The era of "rationality" has meant a skyrocketing rate of crime and violence among the young. An era of "rationality" has meant crime out of control in the streets, families destroyed, illegitimacy skyrocketing, and children unable to achieve in school. If that's rationality, I'll take religion, thank you.

And I believe that the real problem is that folks like that, however well-intentioned this dichotomy of religion/rationality, they have abandoned the insight of our forefathers. I don't know too many more people I would put in the rational category than James Madison, and Hamilton, and Adams, and Jefferson and others. And they were rational enough to understand that if you want to be a free people, and a strong people, then you had better be a people that respects the need for moral discipline, grounded on your faith in God Almighty!

And they didn't just believe it. They set it down in those great first principles of this nation's life, when, at the very beginning, they were explaining why it is they went to war against the British monarch and broke away from Great Britain, and had the right to take their place among the nations of the earth. And unlike some people these days, they didn't feel that you could just go out and commit violence, war and mayhem without some justification. They understood that a decent respect to the opinions of mankind required that you give a moral justification for what you do. And in the document, the Declaration of Independence, where they presented that moral justification, they laid down the ideas, the concepts, that are still the lifeblood of this nation.

They laid down those ideas, on account of which we have the elections, and the due process. They laid down those ideas that allow so many folks to stand up, as Americans do--it's one of our favorite national pastimes, right, to whine about our rights. Now, I don't belittle rights, you understand. I think they're terribly important. But I think it's equally important to remember the great breakthrough of human insight on which those rights are based, and from which our claim to those rights is derived.

And that moment of insight, which took all those centuries--think of it! Humankind had been on this earth for thousands of years. People had found all kinds of excuses for brutality and oppression. And even when governments were good, they were mostly based on bad principles. And finally, the founders of this nation came along. And they set forth, like a lightning flash in the great dark sky of history, those words of truth that allow us--each and every one, whatever our station, our background, our creed, solely on the basis of our God-given humanity--to stand up and look every power in the eye and claim to be respected in our human worth.

And unlike some of the people who claim to be so smart today, like George Will--the famous story where George Will was talking to Pat Buchanan and told him that he thought that no--what was it?--that no sensible person believes in creation anymore. I heard that, and my immediate reply to myself was, "I guess no sensible person believes in George Will anymore."

But notwithstanding the supposed rationality of Mr. Wattenberg or Mr. Will or anybody else who would like us to reject the real premise of this nation's life, that premise is there for all to see. And I know it embarrasses some people. I know as I go around the country holding it up--there are people who wish that I would shut up, and let it retreat into the obscurity of history where they wish to consign it. But I won't let it happen. The Declaration stands as our reminder that not only does God have a place in American politics, but the belief in God and the authority of God are the foundation of American politics.

And they do want us to forget. Someone was telling me that in South Dakota, I think it is, where Mt. Rushmore is, they actually had a tape they were playing, talking about the monument and its background, and when they talked about the Declaration, the narrator--one of these big news people; I forget, Tom Brokaw or somebody, was narrating it--and he quoted the Declaration the following way, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights." Now, you and I know what they left out there, don't we? (Crowd: "Creator!")

Why did they leave it out? They left it out because they want to read the truth out of American history. They have tried to do it in the textbooks. They have tried to do it in the schoolhouse. They have tried to do it in the court decisions. But you and I must stand up and speak the truth. They can never take the words out of the Declaration: "Endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

And the question often arises . . . I say that, and people sometimes will ask me . . . I got a question the other day--I was speaking to a group of young people who were at the Board of Governors' meeting of the YMCA. And, I was talking about these very things I'm talking to you about now, and afterwards one of the young people got up, and he said, "Well, what about someone like me?" He said, "I'm an atheist. Are you saying that I don't have the right to live in America, be a citizen, and so forth?"

And I had to be very clear with him. Absolutely I'm not saying that. As a matter of fact, what I tried to explain to him--and the irony of it is so beautiful, it's so delicious, but true--I tried to explain to him that he had the right to live in America not believing in God, because America believes in God.

It is that respect for the transcendent authority of God that leads us to understand that we must treat with sensitivity and delicacy and care the dignity and rights of all people. Because God has endowed them with that patrimony, and in the end they will have to answer to Him for their use of it. You see? And so there you have all these people out there pretending that, "Well, if you're one of those right-wing religious fanatics, one of those Christian Republican conservatives," all these things they talk about that somehow or other that means intolerance--that's a lie.

Have you noticed that the most strident intolerance--the people who are trying to read us out of the Republican Party, read us out of American politics, read us out of American life--it all come from the other side?

Because, I don't know: my Lord is very clear. He says that we love one another, and we hate evil. And that means that I'm gonna look upon you, brother and sister, as a human being. But don't expect that that will shut my mouth in the face of injustice and wrong, 'cause it won't.

But there's another level too, at which all of this is really very practical. During the campaign, I had some people who would challenge me sometimes that I was out there talking about these moral issues--why didn't I talk about the issues that were really practical? Now, I find this very strange. Everything I read now, everything I see, confirms the fact that the major problems we are grappling with as a people. In education, in crime, in the difficulties we have with people young and old in terms of behavior and background, even in health-care costs related to all kinds of criminal activities and difficulties--what is the major contributing cause to all of it? It is the collapse of the family structure, directly related to the loss of heart and self-discipline needed to sustain the family.

Fathers turning away from their responsibility for the children that they have begotten. Mothers deciding that they will harden their hearts against their offspring, whether through abortion or abuse or whatever. That spirit of violence and irresponsibility is destroying the family. And as the family crumbles, the nation crumbles--what's more practical than that?

Now, I've gotta tell you. People are often asking me these days what I'm going to be doing now. Well, one of the things I shall be doing, regardless of whatever else may or may not happen: I will be working to promote respect for the Declaration principles throughout this society. You see, I believe that those of us who are people of faith--we have stood by for too long and allowed the moral heritage of this country to be ignored and trampled upon. We have stood by for too long.

Think about it. Why didn't somebody, when the courts were telling us that our children couldn't pray in school, couldn't speak the name of God--why didn't somebody go to one of these judges and say, "Excuse me. The Declaration says we are endowed by our Creator. How am I supposed to teach Johnny where his rights come from, if I can't speak the name of God in public places?"

I believe that if we restore allegiance to the Declaration and its truth, we will call this country back to that inescapable premise which the Declaration trumpets for all to see: that this is a nation founded on respect for God's existence, and God's authority, and God's role in human affairs.

But I'm also, in the next little while, gonna be working hard to try to make sure that the party to which I have dedicated my life remains a party worthy of that dedication. There are people who will talk about this and that and the other thing, and I know that there have been some folks talking about how we need a third party and so forth and so on. I myself, speaking now as Alan Keyes, Republican, have to tell you that I don't believe that this country needs a third party. BUT, I think what this country desperately needs is a Republican Party that sticks with its principles and stands for the truth!!

And I had to make it very clear right now to a bunch of reporters that I did not come here to Texas to pick a fight with anybody. So, much as they tried to goad me on, I did not allow myself to be drawn into any fights with anybody. But, this is true of me: there is the pro-life plank in the Republican Platform. I, and others like me, will stand four-square in front of it. And if anybody tries to take it out, and throw it away, they will pick a fight with me!!

Somebody was telling me that there was some political figure the other day, I don't even know what the name was, who referred to this as our "pet cause." Now, I want to tell you. Some people make this mistake. They think that the abortion issue, the pro-life issue, is some special-interest group or something. That's not true. I take this issue seriously because I believe it poses the greatest threat to the heart and soul of this nation's existence. That is not some special-interest issue.

I believe, at a practical level, as it corrupts our hearts, it is destroying the family, and we see how the practical consequences of that go. It's also doing other things. Think about it. You had this pro-abortion doctrine in 1972, and on the foundation that they laid then, that Blackmun laid then--and, of course, you read the decision, he said, "Well, it'll never go beyond the first trimester." You read that, the words are in there! "Oh the medical profession would never allow that, the ethics . . . " All this garbage. And now, we stand here faced with what they call "partial-birth abortion."

Now, I know what we oughta call it. What we oughta call it is "child murder"! What we oughta call it is "infanticide"! And I also know what we ought to call the President who vetoed the bill that would stop it! But I'm too polite to say so.

But more. I look around this group, and I see many people here who are showing gray in their head up here the way I'm showing it in my beard a little these days. Now, I have to say to all you young folks who think you're never gonna get here, that I too thought that I would never get here. But it's one of those things about humanity, that we progress, and before you know it, the wisdom on the inside reflects itself in the graying hair on the outside.

But, I look at all of you and I say, "You know, you're still living in a country right now where the hair can grow gray and you can have a sense of dignity and worth. What's going to happen when they have built on the logic of abortion the edifice of euthanasia and the right to suicide? What's gonna happen when they have, on the basis of 'quality of life' and all these other things, declared that, 'well, you know, when your life just isn't worth living anymore, you should take it'?"

Now, whose gonna make that judgment? Well, we see whose gonna make it. The people who believe, I suppose, that the only thing that makes life worth living is a Baywatch body and a full bank account. The people who don't understand that so much of what we know about the truth of the human spirit, and the human heart, and the human soul, have been taught to us by those whose bodies were blasted by disease, by those who faced the strongest adversity and the greatest pain, and who made us understand that human beings have a spirit of God to rise above that pain, that that is truly who we are!

And I dread the day when we will live in an America where, as we get older, we're gonna have to start wondering what that look is in everybody's eye. You know? That look that they might give you at the party where you refuse to join in? And they start to say, "Well, you know, what are YOU still doing here? Don't you understand that your persistent life is an ecological disaster? Don't you understand what a burden you are placing on your friends and family?"

Don't pretend it won't happen. 'Cause it will. And all of a sudden the right to suicide will become the obligation to do away with yourself, when other people think that you're not useful anymore.

I think that there is only one way to safeguard against that kind of abuse. And let's remember who in this century epitomized that abuse. Because the same arguments being made today about "quality of life"--the Nazis called it "life unworthy of life," and they had a euthanasia program dedicated to stamping it out. I do not believe that we sent all those men and women to risk their lives and give their lives in World War II so we could let the Nazi creed take over in America today.

So when folks are prone out there to tell us that this is some special-interest issue, I think we should tell them that this is the issue out of whose heart this nation was born. This was the issue out of whose heart our patriots fought and died, in so many wars, in so many places, so that its freedom could survive. And this is the issue out of whose heart the better future of this nation will be born, or destroyed. It's not some special-interest issue, unless the species that you're interested in is the human race.

And I would ask you here, that if you believe that that's true--we have something here that transcends this election, that election, politics or anything else. No matter what we are doing, no matter what our way of life and walk of life, let us dedicate ourselves, individually, in all our different ways to calling this nation back home to its great first principles. Calling it back home to the Declaration. Calling it back home to the reverence for God and what He means for America.

We can do that in all our different ways, in all our different walks of life. We can do that across every line of race and creed. We can do that across even party lines--because many people of good will and decent conscience there are in America. And I don't care what background they have or what label they wear. I still believe that we can walk with them, hand in hand, under the banner of that truth on which this nation was founded, to be as we are supposed to be: Americans all, showing to all humanity the better destiny of this human race.

Thank you very much.