The West Wing (TV Series)

Undecideds (2005)

Jimmy Smits: Matthew Santos

Photos 

Quotes 

• Matthew Santos : Good morning. My prayers are with Ronnie Burke's family today. I know yours are too. My prayers are with Officer Rafael Martinez and his family. They are not struggling with the loss of a child but they are struggling with a terrible truth. My prayers are with those families and with this one.

  [the audience seems put out that they have to listen] 

  Matthew Santos : You know, I find myself on days like this casting around for someone to blame. I blame the kid, he stole a car. I blame the parents, why couldn't they teach him better. I blame the cop, did he need to fire. I blame every one I can think of and I am filled with rage. And then I try and find compassion. Compassion for the people I blame, compassion for the people I do not understand, compassion. It doesn't always work so well. I remember as a young man listening on the radio to Dr. King in 1968. He asked of us compassion and we responded, not necessarily because we felt it but because he convinced us that if we could find compassion, if we could express compassion, that if we could just pretend compassion it would heal us so much more than vengeance could. And he was right: it did but not enough. What we've learned this week is that more compassion is required of us and an even greater effort is required of us. And we are all, I think everyone of us, are tired.

  [the audience has begun to turn toward the Congressman. We hear some light consent] 

  Matthew Santos : We're tired of understanding, we're tired of waiting, we're tired of trying to figure out why our children are not safe and why our efforts to try to make them safe seem to fail. We're tired. But we must know that we have made some progress and blame will only destroy it. Blame will breed more violence and we have had enough of that.

  [More people begin to join in the vocal agreement] 

  Matthew Santos : Blame will not rid our streets of crime and drugs and fear and we have had enough of that. Blame will not strengthen our schools or our families or our workforce. Blame will rob us of those things and we have had enough of that. And so I ask you today to dig down deep with me and find that compassion in your hearts because it will keep us on the road. And we will walk together and work together. And slowly, slowly, too slowly, things will get better. God bless you. God bless you and God bless your children.

  [the audience applauds lightly at first, and then the entire audience joins in] 

• Matthew Santos : You all think that there is something I can get up there and say that's going to bridge the divide? Well, there isn't.

  Helen Santos : I don't think that's true.

  Matthew Santos : Well, the staff doesn't either, so maybe you should get together and talk about it.

  Helen Santos : You don't have to say the right thing, which, conveniently, doesn't exist, but you do have to say something from your heart.

  Matthew Santos : I do, huh?

  Helen Santos : Yeah.

  Matthew Santos : Nobody wants to hear that, Helen. They want to hear what I have to say as the representative for every Latino man, woman, and child in the 50 United States. And let me tell you something: I'm frankly getting very tired of being responsible for every Jose Miguel Rodrigo Garcia Martinez de Lopez in America. I'm exhausted!

  Helen Santos : Nobody expects that.

  Matthew Santos : Of course, they do! They want me to make sense out of all of this. And you know what, Helen, I've got nothing. Why the hell do they shoot a kid who is trying to surrender? There's some guy on the scene that says the kid was trying to put his hands up in the air. The cop couldn't have waited, like, a half a second more before he fired? And who walks around South Central with a plastic M-16? Where did this kid think he was living, Martha's Vineyard? Nobody figured out that when you live in the ghetto, you carry around something else if you don't want to get your ass blown away? That's what I've got right now. You think that's going to make anyone feel better?