21 January 2008

Obama Speech for MLK Day


We are told that those who differ from us on a few things are different from us on all things; that our problems are the fault of those who don't think like us or look like us or come from where we do. The welfare queen is taking our tax money. The immigrant is taking our jobs. The believer condemns the non-believer as immoral, and the non-believer chides the believer as intolerant.
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And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.

... We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing someone else down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late.

Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts.

2 comments:

scott d said...

that's solid.

CityKin said...

I read that this video was one of the most viewed on youtube in the past week. Strange because it is pretty long and kinda starts out slow. I haven't even found the time to watch it all yet.

I really think the Dems have a chance to expand their majority to 60% with a candidate like him. Kinda like the Reagan democrats, the Obama repubs.

Maybe I am too optomistic on him, I have read that realistically his name and skin color will cost him about 10% of a national vote.