Former Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley lives! Or so he says in a letter to supporters. Read it for yourself:
From: Bill Bradley
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 10:53 AM
To: Supporters
Subject: A message from Bill Bradley
Dear Friends,
Thanks to so many of you who have kept in touch.
I want to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on my activities.
During the six months after the campaign, I wrote a brief memoir, entitled The Journey From Here, which was published by Artisan. I did it for all of you so that there would be a record of what we believed in and fought for in 2000. I hope that you will enjoy it.
In the fall, I campaigned for Vice President Al Gore and for Democratic
candidates across the country, in key battleground states like Oregon,
Washington, New Hampshire, Florida, Missouri, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. One of the joys of campaigning was the large number of my supporters who came to these events. It was great to see so many of you when I was on the road again.
Since the election, I have remained active in the private sector and in
the non-profit sector. I have taken a position as a Managing Director of
Allen & Company, which allows me to work with the companies that will fuel our economic growth for years to come. I have become Chair of the Board of Advisors for two groups: America's Health Together
(http://www.healthtogether.org) and the McKinsey Institute for Management
of non-profits. The first will promote good health care for all
Americans. The second will try to think through ways to make the
non-profit sector more effective. In addition, I have agreed to become a
public sector member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and to act as Honorary
Chair of "Close the Book on Hate", an effort by Barnes & Noble and the
Anti-Defamation League to counter racism and sexism. For more information
on this campaign, visit http://www.adl.org/ctboh/campaign.html.
And, I recently helped kick off an exciting new venture called "Upromise",
a way for parents and relatives to increase savings for the college
education of their children. Upromise's strategy is simple: 1) make it
easy for parents and families to open tax-deferred college saving
accounts; 2) convince America's best-known companies to contribute a
percentage of their customer's spending to those accounts; and 3) create a
way for extended families to pool their purchases and savings for a
child's benefit. To date, AOL, AT&T, Borders, Citibank, Century 21,
Coca-Cola, CVS, ExxonMobil, Fidelity Investments, General Motors,
McDonald's, Salomon Smith Barney and Toys"R"Us have announced their
participation.
At the family level, Upromise's impact could be staggering. A family with
children and family income of $58,000 can save more than $20,000 over 15
years. That same family now owns only $12,900 in financial assets. In
other words, a family can exceed–through Upromise contributions alone–the financial assets it would currently own through savings. For more information about Upromise, you can visit its website at
http://www.upromise.com.
Finally, as part of these activities and others, I will remain active on
behalf of Democratic causes and candidates (for example, I just campaigned
in Seattle for Mayor Paul Schell) who share the values we fought for in
the presidential campaign–such as the need to make good health care
available for everyone, to protect our natural world and to insure quality
education for all.
As a nation, I believe we must sustain the prosperity of the past decade
and use it wisely. We are an increasingly diverse nation, which means the
challenges and joys of living together will multiply. We cannot permit
any American to live without the hope of realizing his or her potential,
for the diminishment of some of us is really the diminishment of all of
us. I hope that more of us will come to see that ultimate connection and
that our insight will be expressed in public policies and private actions
that move us all toward an America that lives up to its ideals.
I was encouraged by the passage of McCain-Feingold in the United States
Senate, but it is important to recognize that this is at best a first step
toward the goal of political reform in our nation. The events of last
November's election underscore the need for true electoral reform as well,
so every American has confidence that every vote counts and every vote
will be counted. McCain-Feingold takes the first step of banning soft
money for our political parties, but doesn't address the fundamental
problem of contributions to individual candidates from special interests–contributions that often appear geared toward purchasing special access and treatment from those who hold power.
In the course of my presidential campaign, many people commented that it
was the first campaign they'd been active in or the first campaign they'd
contributed to. That support meant a lot to me. When I filed my official
papers of candidacy in New Hampshire, I wrote on them "Trust the people."
Throughout the campaign, through the highs and the lows, I never felt that
trust was misplaced. I still believe we can move toward a system where
elected officials trust the people, and in return, earn that trust back.
Each of us can contribute to this possibility with our own actions, large
and small. I hope you will continue to make that effort.
Sincerely,
Bill Bradley
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