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But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change. I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.
You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours - Hillary Rodham Clinton. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And despite the costs involved, America's commitment will not weaken.
The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. 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. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. Countries like Japan and South Korea grew their economies while maintaining distinct cultures.
So it's 1985, and I'm in Chicago, and I'm working with these churches, and with lots of laypeople who are much older than I am. We have to do what we can, knowing it's hard and not swinging from a naive idealism to a bitter defeatism - but rather, accepting the fact that we're not going to solve every problem overnight, but we can still make a difference. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Now let me be clear: issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam.
God bless you.