useearthpits

  Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation’s founding our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer.  We don’t need the Ferguson report to know that’s not true.  Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was thirty years ago.  They held no elected office.And yet, what could be more American than what happened in this place?  (Applause.  It belongs to everyone.  Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  And they comforted themselves with the final verse of the final hymn they sung:“No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you;Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you.  And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, C.  That’s how we honor those on this bridge.)  We give away our power.  That’s why it’s not a museum or a static monument to behold from a distance.  And that’s what we celebrate here in Selma.)  That word is owned by no one.  They will soar on [the] wings like eagles.  (Applause.) These are not just words.)  Right now, in 2015, 50 years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote.  (Applause.  That’s America.  We know America is what we make of it.  (Applause.  Young people in Soweto would hear Bobby Kennedy talk about ripples of hope and eventually banish the scourge of apartheid.  (Applause.  Their patriotism challenged. We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.  (Applause.”  “Yes We Can.  That’s what this movement was all about, one leg in our long journey toward freedom.  (Applause.”  “We Shall Overcome.”  (Applause.Just this week, I was asked whether I thought the Department of Justice’s Ferguson report shows that, with respect to race, little has changed in this country.  We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.  That’s what cements our reputation as a beacon of opportunity.  They saw what John Lewis had done.  We take for granted conveniences that our parents could have scarcely imagined.)   We are the people Langston Hughes wrote of who “build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how. The Americans who crossed this bridge, they were not physically imposing.  We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life.  Not just whites.  A white newsman, Bill Plante, who covered the marches then and who is with us here today, quipped that the growing number of white people lowered the quality of the singing.The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 07, 2015 Edmund Pettus BridgeSelma, Alabama2:17 P.  If we want to honor this day, let that hundred go back to Washington and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore that law this year.  We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; tear gas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching towards justice.  If every new voter-suppression law was struck down today, we would still have, here in America, one of the lowest voting rates among free peoples.  But they gave courage to millions.  Their lives were threatened.  (Applause.  Thank you, everybody.  Young people in Burma went to prison rather than submit to military rule.”  We are the people Emerson wrote of, “who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long;” who are “never tired, so long as we can see far enough.  That’s our spirit.)  The American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.)  That’s what makes us unique.  (Applause. Bush, Governor Bentley, Mayor Evans, Sewell, Reverend Strong, members of Congress, elected officials, foot soldiers, friends, fellow Americans:As John noted, there are places and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. And that’s what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day.  And before the Civil Rights Movement, it most surely was.  We can make sure every person willing to work has the dignity of a job, and a fair wage, and a real voice, and sturdier rungs on that ladder into the middle class.  We know the race is not yet won.  (Applause.  They’re a living thing, a call to action, a roadmap for citizenship and an insistence in the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny.  As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed.  We just need to open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us.  We must run so our children soar.  President George W.  (Laughter.  Which leads us to ask, just how might we repay that debt?First and foremost, we have to recognize that one day’s commemoration, no matter how special, is not enough.  When it feels the road is too hard, when the torch we’ve been passed feels too heavy, we will remember these early travelers, and draw strength from their example, and hold firmly the words of the prophet Isaiah:  “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  It’s no longer sanctioned by law or by custom.”  (Applause.We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free –- Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan.)  What enormous faith these men and women had.) With such an effort, we can make sure our criminal justice system serves all and not just some.”  (Applause.  We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people.  But I rejected the notion that nothing’s changed.  Because the single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.  It’s the same instinct that drew immigrants from across oceans and the Rio Grande; the same instinct that led women to reach for the ballot, workers to organize against an unjust status quo; the same instinct that led us to plant a flag at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the Moon.) END2:50 P.”And then, his knapsack stocked with an apple, a toothbrush, and a book on government -- all you need for a night behind bars -- John Lewis led them out of the church on a mission to change America.Because Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. CST.  And we’re the Tuskeegee Airmen, and the Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied.  It is instead the manifestation of a creed written into our founding documents:  “We the People…in order to form a more perfect union.  Unencumbered by what is, because you’re ready to seize what ought to be.  Latinos marched through those doors.)  Together, we can address unfair sentencing and overcrowded prisons, and the stunted circumstances that rob too many boys of the chance to become men, and rob the nation of too many men who could be good dads, and good workers, and good neighbors.  For we believe in the power of an awesome God, and we believe in this country’s sacred promise.)  One hundred members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right to protect it.  If you think nothing’s changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or Los Angeles of the 1950s.  All of us need to recognize as they did that change depends on our actions, on our attitudes, the things we teach our children.M.May He bless those warriors of justice no longer with us, and bless the United States of America., and so many others, the idea of a just America and a fair America, an inclusive America, and a generous America -- that idea ultimately triumphed.)  How do we so fully give away our power, our voice, in shaping America’s future?  Why are we pointing to somebody else when we could take the time just to go to the polling places?  (Applause.  And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow.  Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the South meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar, the number of bubbles on a bar of soap.  Many are sites of war -- Concord and Lexington, Appomattox, Gettysburg.  (Applause.  We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge. It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the true meaning of America.As is true across the landscape of American history, we cannot examine this moment in isolation. Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr.)With effort, we can roll back poverty and the roadblocks to opportunity.   Fellow marchers, so much has changed in 50 years. Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that Ferguson is an isolated incident; that racism is banished; that the work that drew men and women to Selma is now complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the “race card” for their own purposes.  We’ve seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives.  That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.  Somebody already got us over that bridge.  They marched as Americans who had endured hundreds of years of brutal violence, countless daily indignities –- but they didn’t seek special treatment, just the equal treatment promised to them almost a century before.)   Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for black folks, but for every American.  And we’re Susan B.  Young folks with bedrolls and backpacks were milling about.  That’s how we came to be.  We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit.  We don’t fear the future; we grab for it.)We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South. We know the march is not yet over.  That’s who we are.  That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction -- because we know our efforts matter. (Applause.)  We respect the past, but we don’t pine for the past.  Our job’s easier because somebody already got us through that first mile.  “We are capable of bearing a great burden,” James Baldwin once wrote, “once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is. Bush signed its renewal when he was in office.  And the change these men and women wrought is visible here today in the presence of African Americans who run boardrooms, who sit on the bench, who serve in elected office from small towns to big cities; from the Congressional Black Caucus all the way to the Oval Office.  They saw that idea manifest itself here in America.) We honor those who walked so we could run.  Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood, so much sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, the Voting Rights Act stands weakened, its future subject to political rancor.  Together, we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on –- the idea that police officers are members of the community they risk their lives to protect, and citizens in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland, they just want the same thing young people here marched for 50 years ago -– the protection of the law.How can that be?  The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic efforts.)  To those who marched, though, those old gospel songs must have never sounded so sweet. Martin Luther King, Jr.  And John Lewis is one of my heroes.  We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. What a glorious thing, Dr.  Women marched through those doors.  Young people behind the Iron Curtain would see Selma and eventually tear down that wall.  (Applause.  For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair.  It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo.  (Applause.  It evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the Civil Rights Movement.Selma teaches us, as well, that action requires that we shed our cynicism.  Back then, they were called Communists, or half-breeds, or outside agitators, sexual and moral degenerates, and worse –- they were called everything but the name their parents gave them. King might say.  To deny this progress, this hard-won progress -– our progress –- would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.  Not just blacks.  Political and economic and social barriers came down.  That’s what it means to believe in America.) It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. CSTAUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you, President Obama!THE PRESIDENT:  Well, you know I love you back. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there’s new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed.  Americans don’t accept a free ride for anybody, nor do we believe in equality of outcomes.That’s what it means to love America.  Veterans of the movement trained newcomers in the tactics of non-violence; the right way to protect yourself when attacked.They did as Scripture instructed:  “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.And with effort, we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge –- and that is the right to vote.President and Mrs.We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World Series anyway.  Not stock photos or airbrushed history, or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others.” There’s nothing America can’t handle if we actually look squarely at the problem.)We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, that racial division is inherent to America.  But we do expect equal opportunity.  Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America’s character -- Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.Now, I have to imagine that when a younger John Lewis woke up that morning 50 years ago and made his way to Brown Chapel, heroics were not on his mind.) We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.Because of campaigns like this, a Voting Rights Act was passed.  Their faith was questioned.  We have endured war and we’ve fashioned peace.  But they led a nation.  (Applause.  And this is work for all Americans, not just some.  But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship; that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five to decide they loved this country so much that they’d risk everything to realize its promise.  We are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes.  A doctor described what tear gas does to the body, while marchers scribbled down instructions for contacting their loved ones.  And we will not grow weary.  And if we really mean it, if we’re not just giving lip service to it, but if we really mean it and are willing to sacrifice for it, then, yes, we can make sure every child gets an education suitable to this new century, one that expands imaginations and lifts sights and gives those children the skills they need.In time, their chorus would well up and reach President Johnson.)  We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened up the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.  And if we make such an effort, no matter how hard it may sometimes seem, laws can be passed, and consciences can be stirred, and consensus can be built.)  What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people –- unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many, coming together to shape their country’s course? What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this, what greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?  (Applause.  If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done.We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some.  (Applause.  You are America.  In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history -- the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham; and the dream of a Baptist preacher -- all that history met on this bridge. What’s our excuse today for not voting?  How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought?  (Applause.  That is our character.”  (Applause.)  President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office.  The air was thick with doubt, anticipation and fear.M.  We know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged, all of us, by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth.  And I understood the question; the report’s narrative was sadly familiar.As we commemorate their achievement, we are well-served to remember that at the time of the marches, many in power condemned rather than praised them.  What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it’s no longer endemic.  America is not some fragile thing.  (Applause.)What they did here will reverberate through the ages.  They will walk and not be faint.”  And in the days to come, they went back again and again. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth.  When the trumpet call sounded for more to join, the people came –- black and white, young and old, Christian and Jew, waving the American flag and singing the same anthems full of faith and hope.) The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge, that’s the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny.  (Applause.  (Applause.  (Applause. For we were born of change.  And what a solemn debt we owe.Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer.  It meant risking your dignity, and sometimes, your life.Selma is such a place.We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent.  If we want to honor the courage of those who marched that day, then all of us are called to possess their moral imagination.  The march on Selma was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations; the leaders that day part of a long line of heroes.  (Applause. They saw that idea made real right here in Selma, Alabama.  Unconstrained by habit and convention.  All of us will need to feel as they did the fierce urgency of now.T.Look at our history.  A day like this was not on his mind.  And he would send them protection, and speak to the nation, echoing their call for America and the world to hear:  “We shall overcome.  That’s why someone like John Lewis at the ripe old age of 25 could lead a mighty march.  Not because the change they won was preordained; not because their victory was complete; but because they proved that nonviolent change is possible, that love and hope can conquer hate.”  “We The People.  Faith in God, but also faith in America.  For founders like Franklin and Jefferson, for leaders like Lincoln and FDR, the success of our experiment in self-government rested on engaging all of our citizens in this work.”That’s what America is.  They will run and not grow weary.) Of course, our democracy is not the task of Congress alone, or the courts alone, or even the President alone.)  Their endeavors gave the entire South the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past, but by transcending the past.  From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, this generation of young people can draw strength from this place, where the powerless could change the world’s greatest power and push their leaders to expand the boundaries of freedom.  Asian Americans, gay Americans, Americans with disabilities -- they all came through Chemical earth rod Manufacturers those doors.) It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes.  (Applause.  (Applause.We gather here to celebrate them.)That’s why Selma is not some outlier in the American experience.  Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed.