Obama Ipsum

They know they have to work hard to get ahead - and they want to. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. 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. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. It is time for these settlements to stop. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.

Many bring up a specific issue. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. What is that promise? And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. For peace to come, it is time for them - and all of us - to live up to our responsibilities.

The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. That together, our dreams can be one. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace. Too many tears have flowed.

Tonight is a particular honor for me because - let's face it - my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won't be fulfilling God's will unless I go out and do the Lord's work. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women.

You know, a while back, I met a young man named Shamus [Seamus?] in a V.F.W. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.