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Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur.
Imagine Lincoln's Second Inaugural without its reference to "the judgments of the Lord." Or King's "I Have a Dream" speech without its reference to "all of God's children." Or President Kennedy's Inaugural without the words, "here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own." At each of these junctures, by summoning a higher truth and embracing a universal faith, our leaders inspired ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. But it also comes from my own American story. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. Meanwhile, the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.
Each of us in our own lives needs to do what we can to help the poor. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. That won't keep America safe.
People don't expect government to solve all their problems. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive.
These challenges are not all of government's making. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.
God bless you.