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And we should close Guantanamo Bay and stop tolerating the torture of our enemies. Many bring up a specific issue. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Threatening Israel with destruction - or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews - is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.
Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.
What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement? So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition.
And as a consequence, so did I. The President vetoed a similar plan, but he doesn't have the last word, and we're going to keep at it, until we bring this war to an end. This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. And so in that spirit, let me speak as clearly and plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together.
Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope? And it's around this time that some pastors I was working with came up to me and asked if I was a member of a church. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election. 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.
Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.