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Each of us in our own lives needs to do what we can to help the poor. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles.
When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world. But somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. This last point is important because there are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.
She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. This year, in this election, we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we are measuring up, to the legacy of our forbearers, and the promise of future generations. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.
Because we all have the capacity to do justice and show mercy; to treat others with dignity and respect; and to rise above what divides us and come together to meet those challenges we can't meet alone. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.
But then I asked myself: Are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us? I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us. This is the hope of all humanity. For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive.
Thank you very much everybody.