While Americans' attention is focused on the war against Iraq, the Bush administration "is going backwards on almost everything that's really meaningful in your life," U.S. Sen. John Kerry said Monday.

At a reception in Ministers' Hall at Claflin University, he called for a more varied foreign policy and a renewed focus on the economy and other domestic issues.

"Let's invest in our children, our educational system, our health care system, our communities," said Kerry, who is one of nine Democratic Party candidates for president in 2004.

With the first caucuses and primaries 10 months away, Kerry's campaign is foot-to-the-floor. "South Carolina is very important and could be one of the key states," he said.

"I have a record of fighting the tough fights," he said. "My background and accomplishments set me apart. My broad range of experiences shows leadership."

Kerry acknowledged that he came from a privileged background and attended Yale but stressed his commitment to civil rights.

He recalled his first trip to the South. "I'll never forget the shock I got when I saw the sign, 'Whites Only.' I couldn't believe I was in the United States of America."

Kerry said he is the "only person running who has actually fought in a war."

During the Vietnam War, he served as an officer on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta and was highly decorated, including three Purple Hearts.

The soldier who manned the gun alongside him was an African-American from South Carolina, Kerry said.

"We were all brothers on that boat," he said. "We all prayed to the same God and fought under the same flag for the United States of America."

Soldiers returning from Vietnam were not treated as heroes, and "people of color, who had born the brunt of combat in war," received the worst treatment when they returned, he said.

Veterans had to fight for VA benefits, an expanded GI Bill, counseling and treatment for stress syndrome and Agent Orange-related problems, said Kerry, who founded Vietnam Veterans of America.

A lawyer by profession, Kerry is a former prosecutor and lieutenant governor. He is in his fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, where he has served on the Foreign Affairs Committee for 18 years and the Intelligence Committee for six.

Kerry has been an outspoken advocate for campaign finance reform, deficit reduction, veterans, prisoners of war and public education.

Kerry said the United States needs a defense "second to nobody, because it's a dangerous world." But he said a president should lead the nation into war "not because we want to, but because we have to."

Our troops in Iraq have done an "astounding" good job, Kerry said, adding that he is "grateful to God this appears to be over so quickly."

As for the Iraq recovery effort, he said it's "essential to internationalize it as rapidly as possible" so the U.S. is not seen as an occupying force in an Arab country.

Kerry said President Bush was too quick to play the military card and it will be "very difficult to repair the damage" politically across the globe.

"The United States needs to start building international support" and "making friends around this planet," said Kerry, who added that his foreign policy as president would be "proactive, engaged ... and humble," with "more thoughtfulness and sensitivity."

Kerry criticized Bush's decision to withdraw from the global warming treaty, 10 years in the making. "We don't need a president who makes us the world's biggest scofflaw," Kerry said.

But he spent far more time talking about his domestic policies, the cornerstone of which, he said, is education.

Decades ago, the Supreme Court rejected "separate but equal" educational policies, but today, Kerry said, school systems are "separate and unequal. ... It's not an issue of color, but tax base."

"It is a national priority to have our citizens be part of the skilled labor force" and capable of "making smart decisions in elections and public life," Kerry said.

Education should be available for all children, "not just kids of parents with high incomes," Kerry said. "I'm going to hold this president accountable for making a mockery of the words No Child Left Behind."

Another national priority should be making health care accessible to all, including the 41 million Americans who now lack health insurance. Health care "is not a privilege; it is a right," Kerry said.

Advancement on domestic issues often hinges on money, and Kerry insisted Democrats are better at handing the nation's finances. Bush blew through a huge surplus and now there's a big deficit, Kerry said.

Kerry said it's easy to oppose Bush's tax cut when it's understood that it would benefit only the richest 1 percent of Americans. Kerry wants breaks for average wage-earners.

Kerry said he understands the "cynicism, disappointment and bitterness" that has swept over some people, particularly after the Republicans, as he put it, stole the presidency in 2000.

However, "just because the Supreme Court made the wrong decision in 2000 doesn't mean we have to live with it for the next six years," he said.

"I have come today hopefully to excite you and to ask you to come back into the system and get hold of our politics," Kerry said. "You can't just complain about it. If you don't do something about it, it's going to get worse."

Civil rights activism decades ago produced the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, Kerry said.

"I'm asking you to believe again," he said. "I want to reinvigorate the capacity of common people to be heard."

He said his skin color might not match those in his audience, but "my heart and soul and gut are in the same place as yours. ... This is not about me. This is about us."

T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552.

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