The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta. He does not say education or the war. It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well. Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
And it offends our conscience. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races. And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain.
I'm not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I learned that everyone's got a sacred story when you take the time to listen. The skeptical bent of my mind didn't suddenly vanish. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher purpose. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it.
Because whether it's poverty or racism, the uninsured or the unemployed, war or peace, the challenges we face today are not simply technical problems in search of the perfect ten-point plan. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women.
And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away.
God bless you.