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America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do - if we do what we must do, then I have no doubts that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as president, and John Edwards will be sworn in as vice president, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come. "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. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. This is a difficult responsibility to embrace. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead.
It's that folks are hungry for change - they're hungry for something new. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to. This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. It will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve.
And so this will be a difficult debate next week. It's the wisdom Moses imparted to those who would succeed him. America, we cannot turn back.
If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. But I also know that human progress cannot be denied.
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. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.