ey buzz words in the presidential contest are Medicare, tax cut, and fuzzy math. Oddly, the candidates say little about race - a raging national issue that is hundreds of years old.
Instead, talk of race is largely stock comments on racial profiling and affirmative action. Both candidates oppose profiling. George W. Bush is for limited ''affirmative access.'' Al Gore's familiar prescription for affirmative action is ''mend it, don't end it.''
It is progress to see former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell on the national stage and to know that Bush's top foreign affairs adviser is Condoleezza Rice, an African-American woman. And in the second presidential debate, Bush put an elegant spin on the issue saying, ''the biggest discrimination comes in public education when we just move children through the schools.''
Sadly, this sentiment is undercut in the governor's home state by high dropout rates for minority students.
For now, the country lacks rhetorical inspiration on race. It may not be original to borrow from the past, but historic lines do still ring with meaning in the present.
There is John F. Kennedy praising American citizens in a 1963 speech on civil rights: ''Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world, they are meeting freedom's challenge on the firing line, and I salute them for their honor and their courage.''
There is Martin Luther King, who wrote: ''What has changed is our strength. The upsurge of power in the civil rights movement has given it greater maneuverability, and substantial security.''
There is John Hope Franklin, professor emeritus of history at Duke University, who wrote: ''... we need to do everything possible to emphasize the positive qualities that all of us have, qualities which we have never utilized to the fullest, but which we must utilize if we are to solve the problem of the color line in the 21st century.''
Building on these ideas, the passionate presidential candidate could add: More than we have dreamed of is possible.
