The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. Too much blood has been shed.
Nor is it beyond the sea. Those are mutual interests.
I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents' dreams live on in my two precious daughters. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope? Because it's not who we are. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they've defined his life. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain. It is time for these settlements to stop.
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. Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country.
Thank you.