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But we also know that government initiatives are not enough. To the Joshua generation, these challenges seem momentous - and they are. It is not up in heaven. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.
I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night. 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. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans - Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy. This history is well known. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams. Now, that must be our work here on Earth.
Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. America, we cannot turn back. Let me also address the issue of Iraq. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments - provided they govern with respect for all their people.
That is the true genius of America - a faith in simple dreams,, an insistence on small miracles. Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms.
Our conscience cannot rest until we not only secure our borders, but give the 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country a chance to earn their citizenship by paying a fine and waiting in line behind all those who came here legally. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them. This is the hope of all humanity. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true. This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Thank you, and God bless America.