Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The speech everyone is talking about

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union"
Barack Obama starts his speech in Philadelphia with this meaningful phrase, which was written by the Founding Fathers of this country.These words describe also why Barack Obama is running for president. Because he believes in America to come to a point where this is possible. Moving on from the problems we have been dealing with for the past decades and starting to work together in order to make a better America for the next generations.
The major reason for Obamas speech on such a controversial issue as race is clearly the videos of his pastor Jeremiah Wright, which were viewed on youtube.com over and over again. In these videos, the pastor uses very concerning language. We can see him blaming the happenings of 9/11 on the American Government, saying "Not God blees America. God damn America." These controversial statements have thrown a shadow on Obama's campaign since he is seen as having a strong relationship to the pastor of his church, he has been visiting for more than 20 years. In his speech, Obama tries to clear these accusations up with claiming that, although he had heard the pastor speek about controversial issues he had never agreed with him and had let the pastor know about his disagreement.
He goes on with the statement that race is an issue this country can no longer afford. "The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through -- a part of our union that we have yet to perfect." Obama explains, there is an anger towards whites from the side of members of the black community, but the same thing exists on the side of whites who are dealing with an anger towards blacks.
"This is were we are right now" Obama states in his speech. He describes our society to have staled on this issue and we are far away from moving on. Strongly believing in being able to change this he says "We can move beyond some of our old racial wounds", if we work together.
When Obama says "It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper." it reminds me about what was said to be one of the major strenghts of the Athens back in ancient times. To educate for the public good and make the public good the most important thing for every citizen. And I agree on what Obama says here, I think this is what America needs to move on: not worrying about how I am deprived of something that someone else got, no matter which race. If we keep on doing this, always blaming other races for our lack of something, whether it is jobs,security, social security benefits or even just an opportunity, we will never be able to change as a society.
Obama concludes his speech with saying "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."







1 comment:

Cristina Devereaux Ramírez, Ph.D said...

Isn't this speech incredible?! I listened to the speech twice already before. If you'll notice, he pulls all the right rhetorical moves. He's been well taught. I do hope he is our next President.

Mrs. R