The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
A belief that there are better days ahead. We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty.
Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach our kids to learn - they know that parents have to teach, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. And when these battles were overtaken by others and when the wars they opposed were waged and won, these faithful foot soldiers for justice kept marching. A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq. But we can only achieve it together.
But then I asked myself: Are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us? Nor is it beyond the sea. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires. Too much blood has been shed.
You know, a while back, I met a young man named Shamus [Seamus?] in a V.F.W. That's the promise we need to keep. Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future - and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort - a sustained effort - to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news. You're on your own. Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity - men and women - to reach their full potential.
Thank you, and God bless America.