The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
People are coming together around a simple truth - that we are all connected, that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus.
He told me he'd joined the Marines, and was heading to Iraq the following week. Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Hope in the face of uncertainty. She poured everything she had into me. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country.
Wright deliver a sermon called "The Audacity of Hope." And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work. It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
It's a journey that takes us back to our nation's founding, when none other than a UCC church inspired the Boston Tea Party and helped bring an Empire to its knees. 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. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before. It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect. And that's to be expected. 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.
God bless you.