"Two hundred and two Septembers after the creation of our Bill of Rights, Attorney General John Ashcroft drafted a document that has eroded our Constitutional rights and broken down the mutual trust between the American people and their government -- and between Americans and each other -- by making suspects out of all of us.

That is not the act of a patriot.

A true Patriot Act is not born out of fear, but out of trust; it is not born out of division, but out of community; it is not born out of suspicion, but out of faith in each of us.

We need to remind this administration what a Patriot Act is.

A neighbor lends a hand to a friend in need -- that is a Patriot Act.

A mother struggles for her children's future -- that is a Patriot Act.

An immigrant becomes a member of our American family -- that is a Patriot Act.

Men and women risk life and limb on behalf of our country through our armed services -- that is a Patriot Act.

Americans come together as a community and as a country to declare their values, their rights, and their very independence. That is a Patriot Act, as it was in 1776 and as it is over two hundred years later, and as it will be, through our actions, over two hundred years from now... "