The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for 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. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered. We cannot impose peace.
In this election, we offer that choice. The questions I had didn't magically disappear. Yet what we also understand is that our values should express themselves not just through our churches or synagogues, temples or mosques; they should express themselves through our government. It's a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end.
Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. And Ashley asks him why he's there. We seek no military bases there.
We need to heed the biblical call to care for "the least of these" and lift the poor out of despair. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders.
But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. This history is well known.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.