The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
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. But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. 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. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans - the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.
John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they've defined his life. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
If you're working forty hours a week, you shouldn't be living in poverty. The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognize Israel's legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. America, this is one of those moments. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country.
God bless you.