The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
These are the Americans that I know. That won't keep America safe. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country.
They are both passed away now. It wasn't until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together.
It's been several months now since I announced I was running for president. And slowly, I came to realize that something was missing as well - that without an anchor for my beliefs, without a commitment to a particular community of faith, at some level I would always remain apart, and alone. They stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, as the blows of billy clubs rained down. And until we do, our conscience cannot rest. 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. The people of the world can live together in peace.
But I think they also sensed that a part of me remained removed and detached - that I was an observer in their midst. On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night. Out of work? Tough luck.
The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton's army, marched across Europe. We can recognize the truth that's at the heart of the UCC: that the conversation is not over; that our roles are not defined; that through ancient texts and modern voices, God is still speaking, challenging us to change not just our own lives, but the world around us. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans - Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy. I know there are many - Muslim and non-Muslim - who question whether we can forge this new beginning.
Thank you.