The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
And they are a part of America, this country that I love. The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight. This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement.
The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.
But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. If you're working forty hours a week, you shouldn't be living in poverty. And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights.
I thought of the families I've met who were struggling to get by without a loved one's full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but who still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news. 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? You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.
I just think he doesn't know. But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country.
God bless you.