The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality. These challenges are not all of government's making. I'll invest in early childhood education. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.
They stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, as the blows of billy clubs rained down. Consensus and compromise will not come easy. We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops.
The skeptical bent of my mind didn't suddenly vanish. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. All these things must be done in partnership.
They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. And despite the costs involved, America's commitment will not weaken. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort - a sustained effort - to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.
In a sense, what brought me to Chicago in the first place was a hunger for some sort of meaning in my life. Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. The fourth issue that I will address is democracy. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.
Thank you very much everybody.