View on America - Barack Obama
Posted on April 6th, 2010 by Grand
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, we are the change that we seek.
’)Hope – Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face on uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.
In the fact of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of politics that’s shut you out, that’s told you to settle, that’s divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what’s possible, building that more perfect union.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that American is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in out time, who still question the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach little league in the blue states and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who support the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better that the one we inhabit today.
I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country in Earth is my story even possible.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one u\year or even in the one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall come down to Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.
America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes. It is this hope that has sustained us through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of nuclear crisis. And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous, and more admired than before.
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, "Huh. It works. It makes sense.
But in record numbers, you came out, and you spoke up for change. And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights. Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes we can.
we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea .Yes we can.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
Because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another.
We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in; but start leaving we must.
