Ylva,
Thanx for sharing. I watched the entire speech and I was mesmerized. For the
first time Barack almost won me over from Hillary. But I gather hillary is
in unison with Barack on these crucial choices for America. So I think Barack
succeeded in yielding circumspect and sobriety, the ides of Jeremiah wright
laid to rest. I still want Hillary for President of the United States at this
hour of America's history.
Thanx again. No hard feelings.
Haruna.
In a message dated 3/18/2008 10:25:05 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
If this makes sense to you, please go to the moveon.org link and forward
this to as many people as
you can... Ylva
Did you hear Barack Obama's incredible speech on race in America? It was
honest and moving. You
should definitely check it out—especially since the media soundbites really
missed the point.
You can watch or read the whole speech here:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3511
If you're busy, here's a highlight from the speech:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3510
"We have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds
division, and conflict, and
cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle—as we did in the OJ trial—or
in the wake of tragedy, as
we did in the aftermath of Katrina—or as fodder for the nightly news. We can
play Reverend Wright's
sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the
election, and make the
only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that
I somehow believe or
sympathize with his most offensive words.
"We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's
playing the race card, or
we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the
general election regardless
of his policies.
"We can do that.
"But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking
about some other distraction. And
then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
"That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come
together and say, "Not this
time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are
stealing the future of black
children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and
Native American children.
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. The children of America are
not those kids, they are
our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy.
Not this time.
"This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are
filled with whites and
blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power
on their own to
overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we
do it together.
"This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a
decent life for men and
women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans
from every religion,
every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact
that the real problem is not
that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the
corporation you work for will
ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
"This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed
who serve together,
and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to
talk about how to bring
them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never
should've been waged, and we
want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and
their families, and giving
them the benefits they have earned.
"I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart
that this is what the vast
majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be
perfect, but generation after
generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I
find myself feeling
doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is
the next generation—the
young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already
made history in this
election.
"There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today—a
story I told when I had the
great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer
Baptist, in Atlanta.
"There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who
organized for our
campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a
mostly African-American
community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a
roundtable discussion
where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
"And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer.
And because she had to
miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file
for bankruptcy, and that's
when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
"She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley
convinced her mother that
what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was
mustard and relish
sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
"She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at
the roundtable that the
reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of
other children in the
country who want and need to help their parents too.
"Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her
along the way that the
source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy
to work, or Hispanics
who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out
allies in her fight against
injustice.
"Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks
everyone else why they're
supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many
bring up a specific issue.
And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there
quietly the entire time. And
Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue.
He does not say health care
or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that
he was there because of
Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of
Ashley."
""I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition
between that young white
girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health
care to the sick, or jobs to
the jobless, or education to our children.
"But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so
many generations have come
to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a
band of patriots signed
that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins."
You can watch or read the whole speech here:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3511
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