When John McCain said we could just “muddle through” in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. Too much blood has been shed.
If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more. For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere.
He said that our economy has made “great progress” under this President. And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
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. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect.
That is the true genius of America – a faith in simple dreams,, an insistence on small miracles. When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world. Nor is it beyond the sea. We are the party of Roosevelt. So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We will help Iraq train its Security Forces and develop its economy.
It’s that folks are hungry for change – they’re hungry for something new. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.
Nor is it beyond the sea. This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny. They all have different stories and reasons. These challenges are not all of government’s making.
