Obama Ipsum

There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America. In a sense, what brought me to Chicago in the first place was a hunger for some sort of meaning in my life. I learned that everyone's got a sacred story when you take the time to listen. The President vetoed a similar plan, but he doesn't have the last word, and we're going to keep at it, until we bring this war to an end. 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. We cannot impose peace.

That is true genius of this nation. When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.

It wasn't until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight.

I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.

I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share.

Thank you.