New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker fired up the crowd at the Democratic National Convention Monday night with a speech that urged unity in America.
Booker said when he hears Republican nominee Donald Trump make hurtful remarks about other Americans, he thinks of the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.
“Y’all know it,” he said.
“ ‘You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I rise,’ ” he recited.
Booker spoke of Americans throughout history who declared “America, we will rise” even in trying times, including slaves who fought for their freedom and immigrants who risked their lives to provide for their families.
“My fellow Americans, we cannot fall into complacency or indifference about this election, because still the only thing necessary for evil to be triumphant is for good people to do nothing,” he said.
He passionately told the crowd to declare America as a place where “love always trumps hate.”
“Love recognizes that we need each other, that we as a nation are better together, that when we are divided we are weak, we decline, yet when we are united we are strong,” Booker said.
Booker endorsed Hillary Clinton for embodying the view that the country is stronger when people work together.
“Hillary Clinton knows what Donald Trump betrays time and time again in this campaign: that we are not a zero-sum nation, it is not you or me, it is not one American against another American,” he said. “It is you and I, together, interdependent, interconnected with one single interwoven destiny.”
He added that when Americans respect each other, stand up for each other and face challenges together, “that is when we go from an already great America to an even greater America.”
