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It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. But I also get the sense that there's a hunger that's deeper than that - a hunger that goes beyond any single cause or issue. 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. That is true genius of this nation. There is so much fear, so much mistrust.
But my journey is part of a larger journey - one shared by all who've ever sought to apply the values of their faith to our society. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement? When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. But we will support a secure and united Iraq as a partner, and never as a patron. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort - a sustained effort - to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.
If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. And it offends our conscience. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
I thought of the 900 men and women - sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who won't be returning to their own hometowns. Indeed, faith should bring us together. And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country - you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world.
The hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam.
Thank you.