The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
That is true genius of this nation. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. And that is why we are providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend upon.
But I think they also sensed that a part of me remained removed and detached - that I was an observer in their midst. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism.
In the end, that's what this election is about. Hope in the face of uncertainty. And we cannot ignore the very real concerns of Americans who are not worried about illegal immigration because they are racist or xenophobic, but because they fear it will result in lower wages when they're already struggling to raise their families. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. This bond is unbreakable.
They're ready to turn the page on the old politics and the old policies - whether it's the war in Iraq or the health care crisis we're in, or a school system that's leaving too many kids behind despite the slogans. And when these battles were overtaken by others and when the wars they opposed were waged and won, these faithful foot soldiers for justice kept marching. As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. That has been my experience at Trinity. That promise is our greatest inheritance. We will help Iraq train its Security Forces and develop its economy.
In a sense, what brought me to Chicago in the first place was a hunger for some sort of meaning in my life. We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work. And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people - Muslims and Christians - have suffered in pursuit of a homeland.
God bless you.