Posted on December 10, 2014

Sen. Cory Booker's Impassioned Plea For Fairness In Justice System

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-New Jersey): This week, Jews around the country will be reading a section of the Torah that has a section -- these words are written and inscribed from the Torah on the very site that Martin Luther King was killed.



I had the privilege recently of watching the movie Selma and seeing blacks and whites joining hand-in-hand with Latinos and other Americans in this ideal of America that these issues are not black or white, they are about justice. They are about America.



People of good conscience: There is clear treatment being given to one body of Americans, and not to another. There is a call to act.



This ideal and this dream, and written on that place, in Memphis, Tennessee, on the site that one of our great Americans, not great black Americans, one of our great Americans died, are the words of the Torah calling upon us now:



"Here cometh the dreamer, let us slay him and see what becomes of his dreams."



There has been enough death in this country. There has been enough over-incarceration. It is time now that we make the dream real, and we through our legislative efforts, state by state can reduce our prison populations, lower crime, save taxpayers money, and more effectively herald the highest ideals of our country.