The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
Imagine Lincoln's Second Inaugural without its reference to "the judgments of the Lord." Or King's "I Have a Dream" speech without its reference to "all of God's children." Or President Kennedy's Inaugural without the words, "here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own." At each of these junctures, by summoning a higher truth and embracing a universal faith, our leaders inspired ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. We are the party of Kennedy. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own. The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."
It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words - within our borders, and around the world. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point.
In the following century, men and women of faith waded into the battles over prison reform and temperance, public education and women's rights - and above all, abolition. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.
Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity. The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point.
This is a problem that's brought together churches and synagogues and mosques and people of all faiths as part of a grassroots movement. That's why organizations are rising up across the country to reclaim the language of faith to bring about change. "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. In all nations - including my own - this change can bring fear. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.
Thank you.