The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
He was nominally a Muslim since there were a number of Muslims in the village where he was born. But I think they also sensed that a part of me remained removed and detached - that I was an observer in their midst. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old - is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.
So it's 1985, and I'm in Chicago, and I'm working with these churches, and with lots of laypeople who are much older than I am. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. The Holy Koran tells us, "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."
John Kerry believes in America. A belief that we're all connected as one people. To the Joshua generation, these challenges seem momentous - and they are. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced.
Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election.
Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.