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And it's a testament to what we can achieve when good people with strong convictions stand up for their beliefs. Many bring up a specific issue. That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension.
While studying here, my father met my mother. He told me he'd joined the Marines, and was heading to Iraq the following week. God is still speaking. Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation.
Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn't have the money to go to college. We need to heed the biblical call to care for "the least of these" and lift the poor out of despair. But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank.
Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn't have the money to go to college. I have made a solemn pledge that I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premiums by up to $2500 a year. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild." And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.