After the war, they studied on the G.I. To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
A belief that we’re all connected as one people. They’re ready to turn the page on the old politics and the old policies – whether it’s the war in Iraq or the health care crisis we’re in, or a school system that’s leaving too many kids behind despite the slogans. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. It’s been about you. “We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried.
They stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, as the blows of billy clubs rained down. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past. We are the party of Roosevelt. I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.
I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations – to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God.
Thank you.