The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And then another one. And Ashley asks him why he's there. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together. They all have different stories and reasons. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead.
That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper. That together, our dreams can be one. That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops. Now, that must be our work here on Earth.
For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretense of liberalism. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
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. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. We cannot walk alone.
God bless you.