|
Barack
Obama:
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.
(Crown 2007)
Barack
Obama:
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the
American Dream.
Random House/ Hardcover, 608 pages
$27.95
* * *
* *
Speech of Reverend Al Sharpton
I want to address my remarks in two parts.
One, I am honored to address the delegates here. Last Friday, I
had the experience in Detroit of hearing President George Bush
make a speech. And in the speech, he asked certain questions. I
hope he's watching tonight. I would like to answer your
questions, Mr. President. [cheering]
To our chairman, our delegates and all that
are assembled; we are honored and glad to be here tonight. I am
glad to be joined by supporters and friends from around the
country. I am glad to be joined by my family, Kathy Dominique
who will be 18 and Ashley.
We are here 282 years after right here in
Boston we fought to establish the freedoms of America. The first
person to die in the Revolutionary war buried not far from here.
A black man from Barbados named Crispus Attucks. 40 years ago,
in 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party went to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City
fighting to preserve voting rights for all Americans and all
democrats regardless of race or gender. Hamer's stand inspired
Dr. King's march in Selma which brought about the voting rights
act of 1965.
Twenty years ago, Reverend Jesse Jackson
stood at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco,
again appealing to preserve those freedoms. Tonight, we stand
with those freedoms at risk and our security as citizens in
question.
I have come here tonight to say the only
choice we have to preserve our freedom at this point in history
is to elect John Kerry the President of the United States.
(applause)
I stood with both John Kerry and John Edwards
over various occasions in debates during the primary speech. I
not only debated them, I watched them. I observed their deeds. I
looked into their eyes. I am convinced that they are men who say
what they mean and mean what they say. (applause)
I am also convinced that at a time when a
vicious spirit in the politics of this country that attempts to
undermine America’s freedom, our civil rights, our civil
liberties, we must leave this city and go forth, organize this
nation with victory, for our party and John Kerry and John
Edwards in November. (applause)
But let me quickly say this is not just about
winning an election. It's about preserving the principles on
which this very nation was founded. Look at the current view of
our nation worldwide. As a result of our unilateral foreign
policy, we went from unprecedented international support and
solid solidarity on September 12, 2001, to hostility and hatred
as we stand here tonight. We can't survive in the world by
ourselves. (applause)
How did we squander this opportunity to unite
the world for democracy and to commit to the growth and fight
against hunger and disease? We did it with a go-it-alone foreign
policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were
going to Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We
lost hundreds of soldiers. We spent $200 billion at a time we
had record state deficit. And when it became clear that there
were no weapons, they changed the premise of the war. And said
no, we went because of other reasons.
If I told you tonight to let's leave the
Fleet Center, we are in danger. And when you get outside, you
ask me Reverend Al what is the danger? and I said it don't
matter, we just needed some fresh air! I have misled you and we
were misled. (applause)
We are also faced with the prospect of in the
next four years that two or more Supreme Court Justices seats
will become available. This year, we celebrated the anniversary
of Brown versus Board of Education. (applause)
This court has voted five to four on critical
issues of women's rights and civil rights. It is frightening to
think that the days of civil and women's rights and those
movements in the last century could be reversed if this
administration is in the White House in these next four years. I
suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the
court in ‘54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law
school! (applause).
This is not about a party. This is about
living up to the promise of America. The promise of America says
that we will guarantee quality education for all children and
not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our
schools. The promise of America guarantees health care for all
of its citizens and doesn't force seniors to travel to Canada to
buy a prescription drug they can't afford here at home. The
promise of America is that every citizen vote is counted and
protected. And election schemes do not decide the election. It,
to me, is a glaring contradiction that we would fight, and
rightfully so, to get the right to vote for the people in the
capital of Iraq and Baghdad, but still don't give the federal
right to vote for the people in the capital of the United States
in Washington DC. (applause).
Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I
heard you say Friday, that you had questions for voters,
particularly African American voters. And you asked the
question, did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I
have raised questions. But let me answer your question. You said
the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick
Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres
and a mule. That's where the argument to this day of reparation
stops. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert
Hoover and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So
we decided we would ride this donkey as far as it would take us!
[cheers] (applause) (applause) (applause)
Mr. President, you said that we have more
leverage if both parties got our vote. But we didn't come this
far playing political games. It was those that earned our votes
that got our votes. We got the civil rights act under a
democrat. We got the voting rights act under democrats. We got
the right to organize, under democrats. (applause) Mr.
President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we
took Florida so seriously. is our right to vote wasn't gained
because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs,
soaked in the blood of good men. Soaked in the blood four little
girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't
be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. (applause)
(applause)
Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr.
President, read my lips. Our vote is not for sale! (applause)
There's a whole generation of young leaders
that have come forward across this country that stand on
integrity and stand on their traditions. Those that have emerged
with John Kerry and John Edwards as partners. Like Greg Meeks,
like Obama Baraka. Like our voter registration director,
Margaret Harris. Like those that are in the trenches. And we
come with strong family values. Family values are not just those
with two-car garages and a retirement plan.
Retirement plans are good, but family values
are also for those who had to make nothing stretch into
something happening, who had to make ends meet. I was raised by
a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors
as a domestic worker. Put a cleaning rag and a pocket book and
ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table.
But she's taught me as I walked into that subway that life is
about not where you start, but where you are going.
That's family values! (applause) and I want
it-- I wanted somebody in my community, I wanted to show that
example as I ran for President, I hoped that one child could
come up of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across
the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have
to be a drug dealer. They didn't have to be a hoodlum. They
didn't have to be a gangster. They could stand up from a broken
home on welfare and they could run for President of the United
States. (applause).
As you know, I live in New York. I was there
September 11 when that despicable act of terrorism happened. A
few days after, I left home, my family had taken in a young man
who lost his family. And as they gave comfort to him, I had to
do a radio show that morning. When I got there, my friend James
Mtume said to me, Reverend, we are going to stop at a certain
hour and play a song synchronized with 999 other stations. They
said we are dedicating it to the victims of 9/11. I said, what
song are you playing? He said, we are playing America the
Beautiful. The particular station I was at, they played that
rendition sung by Ray Charles.
As you know, we lost Ray a few weeks ago, but
I sat there that morning and listened to Ray sing through those
speakers "Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves
of grain. For purple mountains majesty across the fruited
plains." And then it occurred to me as I heard Ray singing
that Ray wasn't singing about what he knew because Ray had been
blind since he was a child. He hadn't seen many purple
mountains. He hadn't seen any fruited plains. He was singing
about what he believed to be. Mr. President, we love America.
Not because of all of us have seen the beauty all the time. But
we believe if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we
kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America
beautiful for everybody! Come November, let's make America
beautiful again. Thank you and God bless you. (applause).
Source:
http://www.democracynow.org
* *
* * *
Speech of Barack Obama
Candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois,
Barack Obama, delivered the keynote address at the Democratic
National Convention in Boston Tuesday night. Here is a
transcript of his remarks.
On behalf of the great state of Illinois...
(APPLAUSE) ... crossroads of a nation, land of Lincoln, let me
express my deep gratitude for the privilege of addressing this
convention. Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's
face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.
My father was a foreign student, born and
raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats,
went to school in a tin- roof shack. His father, my grandfather,
was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
But my grandfather had larger dreams for his
son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a
scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that's shown
as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come
before him. (APPLAUSE)
While studying here my father met my mother.
She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in
Kansas. (APPLAUSE)
Her father worked on oil rigs and farms
through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor, my
grandfather signed up for duty, joined Patton's army, marched
across Europe. Back home my grandmother raised a baby and went
to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied
on the GI Bill, bought a house through FHA and later moved west,
all the way to Hawaii, in search of opportunity. (APPLAUSE)
And they too had big dreams for their
daughter, a common dream born of two continents.
My parents shared not only an improbable
love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this
nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or
"blessed," believing that in a tolerant America, your
name is no barrier to success. (APPLAUSE)
They imagined me going to the best schools in
the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous
America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential.
(APPLAUSE)
They're both passed away now. And yet I know
that, on this night, they look down on me with great pride.
And I stand here today grateful for the
diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents' dreams live on
in my two precious daughters.
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 on Earth is my
story even possible. (APPLAUSE)
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of
our nation not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the
power of our military, or the size of our economy; our pride is
based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made
over two hundred years ago:
"We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal... (APPLAUSE)
... that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
That is the true genius of America, a
faith... (APPLAUSE) ... a faith in simple dreams, an insistence
on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and
know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we
can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a
sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our
own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in
the political process without fear of retribution; and that our
votes will be counted -- or at least, most of the time.
(APPLAUSE)
This year, in this election, we are called to
reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a
hard reality and see how we are measuring up, to the legacy of
our forbearers and the promise of future generations.
And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans,
independents, I say to you, tonight, we have more work to do...
(APPLAUSE) ... more work to do, for the workers I met in
Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the
Maytag plant that's moving to Mexico, and now they're having to
compete with their own children for jobs that pay 7 bucks an
hour; more to do for the father I met who was losing his job and
chocking back the tears wondering how he would pay $4,500 a
months for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits
that he counted on; more to do for the young woman in East St.
Louis, and thousands more like her who have the grades, have the
drive, have the will, but doesn't have the money to go to
college.
Now, don't get me wrong, the people I meet in
small towns and big cities and diners and office parks, they
don't expect government to solves all of their problems. They
know they have to work hard to get a head. And they want to.
Go into the collar counties around Chicago,
and people will tell you: They don't want their tax money wasted
by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. (APPLAUSE)
Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and
folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to
learn.
They know that parents have to teach, that
children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and
turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says
a black youth with a book is acting white. They know those
things. (APPLAUSE)
People don't expect -- people don't expect
government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in
their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we
can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at
life and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They
know we can do better. And they want that choice.
In this election, we offer that choice. Our
party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this
country has to offer. And that man is John Kerry. (APPLAUSE)
John Kerry understands the ideals of
community, faith and service because they've defined his life.
From his heroic service to Vietnam to his years as prosecutor
and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the United
States Senate, he has devoted himself to this country. Again and
again, we've seen him make tough choices when easier ones were
available. His values and his record affirm what is best in us.
John Kerry believes in an America where hard
work is rewarded. So instead of offering tax breaks to companies
shipping jobs overseas, he offers them to companies creating
jobs here at home. (APPLAUSE)
John Kerry believes in an America where all
Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in
Washington have for themselves. (APPLAUSE)
John Kerry believes in energy independence,
so we aren't held hostage to the profits of oil companies or the
sabotage of foreign oil fields. (APPLAUSE)
John Kerry believes in the constitutional
freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world, and
he will never sacrifice our basic liberties nor use faith as a
wedge to divide us. (APPLAUSE)
And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous
world, war must be an option sometimes, but it should never be
the first option. (APPLAUSE)
You know, a while back, I met a young man
named Seamus (ph) in a VFW hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was
a good-looking kid, 6'2", 6'3", clear eyed, with an
easy smile. He told me he'd joined the Marines and was heading
to Iraq the following week.
And as I listened to him explain why he had
enlisted -- the absolute faith he had in our country and its
leaders, his devotion to duty and service -- I thought, this
young man was all that any of us might ever hope for in a child.
But then I asked myself: Are we serving Seamus (ph) as well as
he's serving us?
I thought of the 900 men and women, sons and
daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors who won't
be returning to their own hometowns. I thought of the families I
had met who were struggling to get by without a loved one's full
income or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or
nerves shattered, but still lacked long-term health benefits
because they were Reservists. (APPLAUSE)
When we send our young men and women into
harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers
or shade the truth about why they are going, to care for their
families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their
return and to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win
the war, secure the peace and earn the respect of the world.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, let me be clear. Let me be clear. We
have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found.
They must be pursued. And they must be defeated.
John Kerry knows this. And just as Lieutenant
Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who
served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate
one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and
secure. (APPLAUSE)
John Kerry believes in America. And he knows
that it's not enough for just some of us to prosper. For
alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient
in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one
people.
If there's a child on the south side of
Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my
child. (APPLAUSE)
If there's a senior citizen somewhere who
can't pay for their prescription and having to choose between
medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's
not my grandparent. (APPLAUSE)
If there's an Arab-American family being
rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that
threatens my civil liberties. (APPLAUSE)
It is that fundamental belief -- it is that
fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters'
keeper -- that makes this country work. (APPLAUSE)
It's what allows us to pursue our individual
dreams, yet still come together as a single American family:
"E pluribus unum," out of many, one.
Now even as we speak, there are those who are
preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad
peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.
Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a
liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United
States of America. (APPLAUSE)
There's not a black America and white America
and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States
of America. (APPLAUSE)
The pundits, the pundits like to slice and
dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for
Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for
them, too. 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.
(APPLAUSE)
There are patriots who opposed the war in
Iraq, and there are patriots who supported 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. (APPLAUSE)
In the end, that's what this election is
about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we
participate in a politics of hope?
John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards
calls on us to hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism here,
the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go
away if we just don't think about it, or health care crisis will
solve itself if we just ignore it.
That's not what I'm talking. I'm talking
about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves
sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of
immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young
naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope
of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a
skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a
place for him, too. (APPLAUSE)
Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the
face of 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.
I believe that we can give our middle class
relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.
I believe we can provide jobs for the
jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in
cities across America from violence and despair.
I believe that we have a righteous wind at
our backs, and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we
can make the right choices and meet the challenges that face us.
America, tonight, if you feel the same energy
that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel
the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness
that I do, if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that
all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington
to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry
will be sworn in as president. And John Edwards will be sworn in
as vice president. And this country will reclaim it's promise.
And out of this long political darkness a brighter day will
come.
Thank you very much, everybody.
God bless you. Thank you.
* * * * *
What Barack Obama
Believes
-- A then 26-year-old Barack Obama (news,
bio,
voting record) walked down the aisle of
Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, knelt
beneath a cross suspended from its rafters and,
as he later explained it, committed himself to
God after years as a religious skeptic. In those
early days at the self-described "unashamedly
black" church, the future Democratic
presidential candidate was moved to tears by a
sermon from its activist pastor, the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright Jr., whom he has portrayed as
his spiritual mentor. Two decades later, Obama
himself would be Wright's topic of the day — but
not for reasons either man would have hoped.
Michael Tarm, "Activist Obama church enters
spotlight."
Yahoo
* * * * *
Obama's Community
Roots—After
a transient youth and an earnest search for
identity, Obama also found a home—a
community with which he continued
relationships, a church and a political
identity. He honed his talent for listening,
learned pragmatic strategy, practiced
bringing varied people together and
developed a faith in ordinary citizens that
still influences his campaign message. He
discovered the importance of personal
storytelling in politics (and wrote short
stories that refined his style). Later, as a
politician, he worked closely with community
groups (though not as ardently as another
community organizer turned politician, the
late Senator Paul Wellstone). As a
presidential candidate, he frequently refers
to his community organizing, asking
supporters to treat his campaign as a social
movement in which he is just "an imperfect
vessel of your hopes and dreams."
David Moberg The
Nation *
* * * * Harry Belafonte (at 80) on Clinton & Obama Selma Campaign—"We
are hearing platitudes, not platforms. What do they
plan to do for people of color, Mexicans, for people
who are imprisoned, black youth? What are their
plans for the Katrinas of America?"
Seattle PI *
* * * *
Obama on the Moses & Joshua Generations
-- Getting
his church groove on, Obama dubbed the elders of the
civil rights movement - the heroes and heroines of
Edmund Pettus Bridge and other struggles - the "Moses
Generation" that led the people to the borders the
Promised Land. Obama's generation was personified by
Joshua, who the Old Testament says picked up the
leadership reigns from Moses and conquered Canaan by
repeatedly marching his troops around Jericho while
commanding the priests to blow their horns. The walls of
the city "came tumbling down." Getting those walls to
tumble is Black folks' unfinished business, with Obama
playing Joshua. But Obama has never blown a bugle or
commanded troops or outlined a strategy for victory. It
is true that Selma is "home" to every African American,
part of the collective legacy. But Obama gained national
fame declaring at the 2004 Democratic National
Convention, "There's not a black America and white
America and Latino America and Asian America; there's
the United States of America." Apparently, home is
wherever Obama hangs his campaign hat on a given day.
Glen Ford , "The Barack and Hillary Show Plays Selma"
Black Agenda Report *
* * * *
Democratic presidential
candidates crave the Latino and black vote, but ignore the Drug
War’s unfair toll on people of color.—According
to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African
Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they
account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those
convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or
consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on
nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are
black or Latino. . . . Unfortunately, a quick search of the top
Democratic hopefuls’ websites reveals that not one of them — not
Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama, not John Edwards, not Joe
Biden, not Chris Dodd, not Bill Richardson — even mentions the
drug war, let alone offers any solutions. . . . Obama has
written eloquently about his own struggle with drugs but has not
addressed the tragic effect the war on drugs is having on
African American communities. As for Clinton . . .she has
ignored the suffering of poor, black women right in her own
backyard. Arianna Huffington
Common Dreams
* * * *
* Black America's
leadership structures are in disarray. Such was evident
and, in various ways, widely acknowledged at media
entrepreneur Tavis Smiley's
State of the Black Union event, held this past weekend
at Hampton University, in Virginia. The forum has evolved
into an annual substitute for genuine politics in a Black
polity that is bereft of institutions of accountability. By
default, Tavis fills the void with his road shows and media
exhibitions. But Mr. Smiley is not the problem: he is simply
a businessman, who sees a hole in the market where a
movement used to be. . . .
Tavis
Smiley's fortunes have risen in direct proportion to the
decline of Black leadership, which today is largely a gaggle
of media-dependent personalities and elected officials
contemptuous of their own constituents. No amount of
showmanship can conceal the vast, empty space that separates
the people and those who claim to speak for them. The entire
Black leadership class must be made to apply for renewal of
their lapsed credentials. We are tired of "Black Faces in
High Places." A Black Leader should be a Black Leader, and
not just "Leading Blacks" to their doom.
Leutisha Stills, Black
Leaders...or Leading Blacks?"
Black Agenda Report * * * *
*
posted 2004 updated 19 February 2008 |
