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If you're working forty hours a week, you shouldn't be living in poverty. This is a problem that's brought together churches and synagogues and mosques and people of all faiths as part of a grassroots movement.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.
But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. 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. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
And there's another issue we must confront as well. Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.
When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world.
God bless you.