Obama Ipsum

But at the end of the day, we cannot walk away - not for the sake of passing a bill, but so that we can finally address the real concerns of Americans and the persistent hopes of all those brothers and sisters who want nothing more than their own chance at our common dream. But we shouldn't use our humility as an excuse for inaction. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. 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.

So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.

They're looking to relieve a chronic loneliness. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale.

It's a war I'm proud I opposed from the start - a war that should never have been authorized and never been waged. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: "I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

But I'm hopeful because I think there's an awakening taking place in America. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past. And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles.

Thank you, and God bless America.