The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. John Edwards calls on us to hope. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. Because I've lived it. 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.
People don't expect government to solve all their problems. And there's another issue we must confront as well. Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach our kids to learn - they know that parents have to teach, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. They stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, as the blows of billy clubs rained down. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. 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. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's.
And right here in the UCC, we're hearing from God about what it means to be a welcoming church that holds on to our Christian witness. And he does not bring up a specific issue. And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. And that's what we have to restore. There is so much fear, so much mistrust.
I'm talking about something more substantial. They are moral problems, rooted in both societal indifference and individual callousness - in the imperfections of man. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors - found the courage to keep it alive. Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.