BAR Speech: Full Text

BAR is speeking right now. Here is what she has to say:

Our Fathers and Grandfathers Understood
Sacrifice & Trust
Barbara Ann Radnofsky

My parents raised me to believe that we are here on earth due to service and sacrifice of others; we stand on the shoulders of others.

I'm the granddaughter of a WWI veteran who served as the commander of his American Legion post, and the daughter of a WW II prisoner of war.

When my father's B-17 was shot down over Nazi Germany, flak pierced his flak jacket and his parachute sprang open inside the plane.

As he lay bleeding on the floor of the plane, his bombardier took off his own parachute, strapped it to my father, and threw him out of the plane on a static line.

The bombardier went on to receive the Silver Star his heroism years later.

I know I am here because of the bravery and sacrifice of others.

My Grandfather was a great man, a boxer before the war when he was injured in his navy service, and then a postal worker who proudly served as Commander of his American Legion Post.

My father and grandfather knew what it was to Trust the man next to you.

When the Nazis came to my father’s POW camp, they mustered the men, officers from the air forces. They announced: all the Jews will step forward. To a man, everyone stepped forward. They risked their life to save their fellow man.

Today you will hear from statewide candidates, men and women who have stepped forward. They deserve our respect and support. They are courageous and trustworthy.

We are like you: mothers, fathers, teachers, ranchers, judges, lawyers, public servants, wives, husbands, children, grandchildren. And we love Texas.

Your state wide slate has courage and optimism Your state wide slate counts among our heroes a great man now gone on to his reward Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a loyal democrat who flew combat missions, succeeded in business and in all levels of elected leadership and brought us economic prosperity. He knew and revered this country's democratic leadership in the early 1960s.

When Pres. Kennedy set goals for the nation, he united this country and caused great things to happen for Texans and the US. When he said we will put a man on the moon, that's what we did: ordinary people working together in extraordinary times.

And we know we did not get here on our own. I had brave men and women in uniform who saved my father’s life and a government which made college possible for my dad on the GI bill so he could become a NASA scientist, his dream of public service.

And a government provided good schools and teachers so I can contribute. I had a work study grant in college and I can thank my grandparents and my parents and my teachers and the government for helping me get where I am.

After 9-11, the people of this country lined up to give blood. They stayed in line long after they were told no more blood was needed or storable. They wanted to give of themselves. The leadership of this state and country missed the opportunity to call on the moral, good Americans who are willing to give of ourselves.

And I can thank the grassroots of Texas for getting me past the primary and the runoff
with sixty percent of the vote. Thank you.

People are ready to trust. Do Texans trust our state wide elected officials, every one of them an elected republican, who brag what they’ve done when:

Texas is forced by federal law which my opponent voted for to be a net donor of our federal gas tax dollars. Yes, Texas taxpayers subsidize the rest of our country with our gas tax dollars as gasoline exceeds three dollars a gallon.

Do we trust our state wide elected officials when:

Texas ranks last in federal bring home the bacon dollars. Last, while the federal government forgot about Hurricane Rita and its effects and we can't get our fair share of hurricane reimbursement dollars.

Texas ranks last in keeping kids in school. Last, while my opponent voted for massive cuts in educational programs which would help keep Texas schoolchildren from dropping out and given them loans. Massive cuts that would have provided vocational programs for students who aren't college bound and are ready to be vibrant members of society, not burdens.

Texas ranks last in uninsured adults and children by percentage. Last, while my opponent rubberstamped failed administration policies 95.6 percent of the time.

Do Texans trust our state’s senior senator who:
Calls perjury a mere technicality? Such a person should renounce perjury or resign.

Ignores letters and phone calls from her constituents and from non partisan groups for debate and issue discussion? Such a person should return her phone calls and come out from hiding and debate the issues.

Served as the hostess for Tom Delay's lobbying project which provided lists as to which cronies would be hired for lobbying jobs to buy favors and votes. Such a person should renounce her embrace of lobbying abuses and sell out to special interests.

And, in this day of three dollar a gallon gasoline, do we trust a senior senator who took more oil lobby campaign cash than any other congressperson and then votes for wasting our tax dollars on subsidizing Alaskan bridges to nowhere and subsidies for her big oil company contributors and record, obscenely subsidized profits? And when she advocates US oil dependence on foreign places like corrupt Azerbaijan, where her big contributors hold energy leases? Such a person should give back her nearly 2 million dollars taken in energy lobby money, give up her Enron money, give back her Exxon money, and she should give back her tribal money while she's at it.

Do we trust a Senator who runs for a third full term, after she was elected in 1994 by making a solemn contract with America, and repeating that solemn contract, that she would serve a maximum of two terms. Do we trust her? In her announced third term try, such a person should be held to her word. She gave her word to the voters and she broke it. Come November we will hold her to her word. This is the end.

Do we trust a senator who justifies the occupation of Iraq “for the credibility of America” and who promises “this war is going to last a long time”. Do we trust her with our national security? A senator who has deserted our veterans and turned her back on needed VA facilities, including a VA hospital south of San Antonio. These are the military personnel who risked their lives so that we may live free.

Towards the end of the War when Nazi Germany was in disarray, my father and several buddies stole a wood burning jeep, German uniforms and left the POW camp.

You don’t have to go far back in history to recognize that a country’s survival depends on energy independence. We’d cut off Germany’s fuel and she converted many vehicles to burn wood. Using my father's knowledge of German and the stolen German uniforms, they made their way to Allied lines and when they got to Allied lines they traded that Jeep for a plane ride to England, where they got themselves promptly arrested and put in jail, the safest place to be at the end of the war if you were in England and wearing a German army uniform.

And after getting out of jail and reporting back to his unit, my father was sent stateside to hospital. My big burly dad who weighed 210 pounds when I knew him, had been machined gunned as he descended and still had the bullets and flak in his back, my big burly dad weighed 135 pounds after the war and when he got to the hospital, knowing a little bit about my father, it won't surprise you to know that he left, in search of his childhood sweetheart, my mother.

But when they went to get married, they found out that they couldn't, because after all he
had been through he was too young to be married without his mother's permission.

Those were the men and women.... Those were the teenagers .... Who saved the world for democracy. Ordinary children in extraordinary times saved the world and we Americans can step forward and do it again. Ordinary men and women in extraordinary times, who saved this world for democracy; they were and are my heroes.

My husband and I grew up at a time when government leadership meant something and mutual goals were achieved by hard work and sacrifice. That is how Texas know-how put a man on the moon.

People believed that good could come. They trusted their leaders. Why do Texans trust Radnofsky v Hutchison on leadership: We’ve posted where we stand on the issues at www.radnofsky.com, in an issues chart with more footnotes than a church organ, and in more than 400 appearances statewide as I’ve called for:
- A VA hospital south of San Antonio

- Pay as you go spending and a balanced budget

- An independent ethics commission with subpoena power to truly stop our corrupt politicians wasting our taxpayer dollars

- Public financing of campaigns

- Passage of the Social Security Fairness Act to protect our educators, police officers, firefighters and other heroes

- A national energy policy focusing on energy independence

- Real health care reform including coverage for preventive care

- Withdrawal from the occupation of Iraq

- An end to foreign ownership of our ports. Use the U.S. Merchant Marine for port security combined with

- A comprehensive immigration and border security plan that targets illegal trade, including the drug trade, instead of targeting legal trade and wasting billions of our taxpayer dollars, unfairly burdening Texas taxpayers and

- A rational, respectful plan to target zero abortions and

- A debate for goodness sake A debate on the issues of the day... issues which affect every day of our lives, our children’s lives, our grandchildren’s lives

This is doable. Believe.