The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
They know those things. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion.
My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. But it also comes from my own American story. I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. I know there is debate about this issue.
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. I learned that my sins could be redeemed.
That we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. And that's what we have to restore. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.
The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. We will all have to make concessions to achieve this. That is true genius of this nation. We are a better country than this.
Thank you, and God bless America.