Excerpt of Text from President Barack Obama’s remarks at the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march.
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“Look at our history. We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. That’s our spirit. That’s who we are.
“We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some. And we’re Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That is our character.
“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. We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life. That’s how we came to be. (Applause.)
“We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South. (Applause.) 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.
“We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent. 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.
“We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge. (Applause.)
“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.
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20 Responses
That’s quite a speech from an Indonesian, reminiscing the days when blacks used to work. He seems pretty proud if his illegal immigrants.
1. Obama’s ancestors were slave owners, not slaves. His father was a foreign student from Kenya, whose ancestors were defintiely not slaves.
2. Slavery ended because a lot of whites paid a tremendous cost in blood and treasure (adjusted for population size, the civil war casualties were equivalent of about five million dead).
3. Note that the end of slavery came about in a war in which the only issue was slavery. The southern states offered to stay in the union in return for a constitutional amendment protecting slavery. When facing utter defeat, they turned down liberal terms of surrender on the grounds it wouldn’t allow them to keep slaves (by way of comparision, while the efforts to the Allied forces to defeat the Third Reich saved millions of Jews, had Hitler been a friend of Jews but otherwise a bloodthirsty meglomaniac tyrannt, the war would have progressed pretty much the same -we were a tangent unlike the Blacks whose freedom was the cause of the civil war).
4. The civil rights acts were passed by northern white, and with the Republicans providing the bulk of the votes (Democrats were fairly evenly split on the matter).
He probably would have messed that up like he messes up everything he touches
He forgot to add…
WE’RE THE DELIRIOUS ONES! WE’RE THE ONES WHO WOULD STILL BE SLAVES AND WOULD STILL HAVE NO RIGHTS IF NOT FOR THE REPUBLICANS, BECAUSE THE DEMOCRAT PARTY WAS ABSCONDER BOTH OF THOSE LAWS!!
Cute little speech “mr. O”, apparently there’s a couple versions of that story.
Now where’s the door?! Thanks for nothing, you thieves, and good riddance.
No you’re not! You weren’t born then! You weren’t even born in this country unless Kenya is a declared province!
How come he didn’t use “I” and “me” in his address?
I just threw up a little in my mouth….
why wouldn’t the editor make sure there was a complete transcript…at least linked to this speech?
why does the editor want ywn equal to the ny post and the enquirer?
why not inform the klal fully about relevant matters that ywm CHOOSES to cover in the first place?
(emigrating)
A lovely statement, includes a lot of people including most of our ancestors.
Yea ok obama, your mother is white and your dad’s side us from Kenya so your family weren’t slaves my white American president
The title does not fit.He was not just speaking about Blacks but all Americans who fought for certain ideals. We take issue with some of those ideals but the speech was not even mainly about Blacks.
To #1,
The fact that Obama’s mother was an American citizen is enough of a requirement to become president. McCain was born in Panama (he ran for president) and Ted Cruz was born in Canada (he currently is running for president). The fact that people bring this up is pure racism. You should be ashamed.
Did he address the staggering volume of black crime, the lack of family and family values, and the choice of many blacks to live in ghettos in purely uncivilized manners? Or is all that the fault of the white population? This guy is beyond ignorant, and he should be banished from public life to a place of total disgrace.
#13.
Quite possibly you only think it’s racism because Obama looks black, so you are exhibiting racial favoritism which is racist. You should be ashamed.
I don’t understand any of the comments. You guys belong over at truthrevolt.
Wow, talk about a race baiting ingrate! The Obama’s are pure “takers”.
obama again proved he is a liar. His family was of Indonesia origin means they never were slave. Time America call obama for what he is a liar who is an complete idiot
obama the pres who made JIM CARTER A RESPECTABLE PRESIDENT
#13, if you are correct, why couldn’t he admit he was born in Kenya? Why all the lies and subterfuge? It’s not racism that brings this up. The man is such a terrible president and that has nothing to do with racism.