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And he knows that it's not enough for just some of us to prosper. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights.
After the war, they studied on the G.I. From Willow Creek to the 'emerging church,' from the Southern Baptist Convention to the National Association of Evangelicals, folks are realizing that the four walls of the church are too small for a big God.God is still speaking. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
The questions I had didn't magically disappear. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognize Israel's legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.
No, the word is very near. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. And that's what we have to restore.
It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.
Thank you, and God bless America.