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That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. "If you're organizing churches," they said, "it might be helpful if you went to church once in a while." And I thought, "Well, I guess that makes sense." They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered.
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. Because whether it's poverty or racism, the uninsured or the unemployed, war or peace, the challenges we face today are not simply technical problems in search of the perfect ten-point plan. And so long as we're not doing everything in our personal and collective power to solve them, we know the conscience of our nation cannot rest. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. This is important because no development strategy can be based only upon what comes out of the ground, nor can it be sustained while young people are out of work.
They're telling me that their conversation about what it means to be Catholic continues. The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons.
I'd been inspired by the civil rights movement - by all the clear-eyed, straight-backed, courageous young people who'd boarded buses and traveled down South to march and sit at lunch counters, and lay down their lives in some cases for freedom. There is real evil and hardship and pain and suffering in the world and we should be humble in our belief that we can eliminate them. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights.
They know we can do better. Let's come together - Protestant and Catholic, Muslim and Hindu and Jew, believer and non-believer alike.
Thank you very much everybody.