Belatedly, GREAT Speech

In what is likely one of my last posts here, I just want to say what a solid speech now-President Barack Obama made on Inauguration Day. The bar was obviously high, but I think he did a fine job meeting it by simply talking about reality in clear terms. The video and text of the speech is at the bottom of this post for any that didn't see it, but a few favorite lines that stuck out to me are below (with my two absolute favorites in bold, where Obama's voice seemed to quiet, while at the same time rising a note or two, emphasizing the gravity of the points he's making):

• " Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights. 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."
• "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 that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."
• "Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage. What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end."
• " For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy" (emphasis mine).
  
• "Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded, then, is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task."

I especially appreciated his emphasis of values because it confirms my view of Obama as an ethicist, as I sought to emphasize with the little series I did, "The Value, and Values of Barack." Here's the video of the rocking speech below though, and the full text of the remarks is available on the new White House website here (by the way, check out this amazing picture of the Inauguration, you can zoom in on just about everybody within a half-mile radius or so, including all the big wigs sitting up by Obama).





Photo credit: The Boston Globe and the amazing set of shots they have from the Inauguration, both as it happened in DC and as it was watched and celebrated around the world.

The Value, and Values, of Barack: Why He Gave That Speech On Race

As a part of PBS' Frontline piece "The Choice 2008" (which I hear is a good look at the candidates), they interviewed Obama's chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod. At one point they asked him: "When the Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright comments came out and the whole hubbub happened, what were your thoughts? How did you decide to deal with it?" This is how he responded, and it blows me away to see the depth of value in Obama that it reflects:

"The Rev. Wright episode was one of those episodes in which I began to see a president in real stark terms, because the stories broke; it was a feeding frenzy in the media. He was in Washington voting until 1:00 in the morning. We had set up some editorial board interviews the next day in Chicago on a different, also challenging subject. So he flew back into the city in the middle of the day on Friday, and he issued a statement on Rev. Wright -- we had written one; he rewrote it. Went off to his editorial boards for three hours, went on television, sat for three or four different interviews on Rev. Wright, and then said that night, 'I want to do a speech on race; I want to put this in context.'

He had mentioned the desire to make a speech like this before, but this seemed like the right time. And he said, 'And I want to do it on Monday or Tuesday.' He said, 'But I have to write it.'

So he went off campaigning on Saturday and came home. At 9:30 Saturday night he dictated an outline to one of his speechwriters, who shot it back to him on Sunday. Sunday night at 10:00, he started working on it again, and worked until 3:00 in the morning. We took off at 8:00 in the morning the next day, on Monday. The speech was Tuesday. Campaigned all day in Pennsylvania, and then from 9:30 till 2:00 in the morning on Monday, he finished the speech.

Knowing his habits, I just went to sleep, thinking I'd wake up in the middle of the night because the speech would be there in the middle of the night. And that's what happened. And I read that speech, and I just e-mailed him back and said, "This is why you should be president," because it was so filled with wisdom and so profound in many ways that it just blew me away that a guy in the midst of all this chaos, with no sleep and in the middle of the night, could produce that kind of thought and that kind of work." (emphasis added)

Take a look at the speech he came up with, below, that offers a glimpse of the hopeful--yes hopeful--perspective that Obama has to offer our country on this issue (in addition to the undoubtedly important approaches he has to foreign policy, energy, civic engagement, health care, etc., etc.). By the way, I wrote a piece on this speech when he gave it back in March that highlights some of the parts that struck me the most. Here's the speech (with 5,056,568 views on You Tube so far, and that's only for this version of it):

The Value, and Values, of Barack: It's Not Weak to Be Kind

I appreciated this address of Obama's from Father's Day yesterday. He had me laughing a number of times through, but also provided some nice, sober thoughts on parenting. At one point he hit on ethics, which always interests me, saying:

"The third thing we need to do as fathers, is pass along the value of empathy to our children--not sympathy, but empathy, the ability to stand in someone else's shoes, to look at somebody through their eyes. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in us, in me, that we forget about our obligations to other people, to one another. There's a culture in our society that says remembering to look out for other people is somehow being soft. We hear that even in our politics, in Washington, that's it's all about you, look out for your self-interest, don't look out for others. You know, our young children, they see that, they see when you're ignoring or mistreating your wife. They see when your inconsiderate at home, when you're distant, when you're thinking only of yourself. So it's no surprise we see that behavior in our schools and on our streets. And that's why we have to teach young people, there's nothing weak about being kind, there's nothing weak about being thoughtful, there's nothing weak about being considerate. We gotta teach our children that you're not strong by putting other people down, you're strong by lifting other people up--that's our responsibility as fathers...When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me--how do I make it in the world, how do I become successful, how do I get the things I want. But now my life revolves around my two little girls...and what I think about is what kind of world am I leaving them. Are we leaving them a country where there's a huge gap between a few people who are wealthy and a whole bunch of people who are struggling everyday? Am I leaving them a country that's still divided by race, a country where, because they're girls, they don't have as much opportunity as boys do? Am I leaving them a country where we're hated around the world because we don't cooperate with other nations?...What I've realized is that life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children--all of our children--a better world, even if it's difficult..."

Among other things, he goes on to make an interesting note, that when fathers are taking responsibility (yes, "responsibility," that word conservatives attempt to claim as theirs alone), that the government has an obligation to do its part for them--allowing health care to be affordable, having a fair tax code, providing job training, paid sick leave, etc. Check out the whole video below, it's a worthwhile 20 minutes or so (P.S. - At one point I think he uses the word "promises" when he means to say "challenges," or something like "challenges"--see if you hear that, and throw a comment my way if you do :). A product of having to talk day in and day out I suppose):

The Value, and Values, of Barack: Imperfect Messenger

I wish, at times, that I saw more lengthy excerpts from candidate speeches in newspapers, as opposed to brief quotes. I say this even though my tolerance for political speeches has, as with all of ours likely, begun to wain again recently--but then I listened to Obama's North Carolina victory speech from last week. Below are some extended excerpts that struck me as the most unique parts of it (the first portion of the speech felt a bit like his normal stumping). At one point, he calls himself an "imperfect messenger," highlighting a humility that I find both rare and endearing in a leader. Interestingly, it is less often spoken and more often demonstrated with Obama--demonstrated in the way he often slowly, deliberately chooses his words, in his self-deprecating humor, and in the way he continues to call citizens the most important part of his campaign.

Although I put portions of the speech below, I would encourage interested readers to watch the video at the bottom of this post; because, after all, if we only read speeches, there would be no need for people to give them. It does matter how they are given. Granted, the "how" matters less than the substance generally, but delivery is not unimportant when one considers the uncertainty we all feel about our politicians and their trustworthiness.

Here are the excerpts that especially stuck out to me from the speech:

"The people I've met in small towns and big cities across this country understand that government can't solve all our problems – and we don't expect it to. We believe in hard work. We believe in personal responsibility and self-reliance. But we also believe that we have a larger responsibility to one another as Americans – that America is a place – that America is the place – where you can make it if you try. That no matter how much money you start with or where you come from or who your parents are, opportunity is yours if you're willing to reach for it and work for it. It's the idea that while there are few guarantees in life, you should be able to count on a job that pays the bills; health care for when you need it; a pension for when you retire; an education for your children that will allow them to fulfill their God-given potential. That's the America
we believe in. That's the America I know.

This is the country that gave my grandfather a chance to go to college on the GI Bill when he came home from World War II; a country that gave him and my grandmother the chance to buy
their first home with a loan from the government.

This is the country that made it possible for my mother – a single parent who had to go on food stamps at one point – to send my sister and me to the best schools in the country on scholarships.

This is the country that allowed my father-in-law – a city worker at a South Side water filtration plant – to provide for his wife and two children on a single salary. This is a man who was diagnosed at age thirty with multiple sclerosis – who relied on a walker to get himself to work. And yet, every day he went, and he labored, and he sent my wife and her brother to one of the best colleges in the nation. It was a job that didn't just give him a paycheck, but a sense of dignity and self-worth. It was an America that didn't just reward wealth, but the work and the workers who created it.

Somewhere along the way, between all the bickering and the influence-peddling and the game-
playing of the last few decades, Washington and Wall Street have lost touch with these values. And while I honor John McCain's service to his country, his ideas for America are out of touch with these values. His plans for the future are nothing more than the failed policies of the past. And his plan to win in November appears to come from the very same playbook that his side has used time after time in election after election.

Yes, we know what's coming. We've seen it already. The same names and labels they always pin
on everyone who doesn't agree with all their ideas. The same efforts to distract us from the issues that affect our lives by pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy in the hope that the media will play along. The attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences to turn us against each other for pure political gain – to slice and dice this country into Red States and Blue States; blue-collar and white-collar; white and black, and brown.

This is the race we expect, no matter if it's myself or Senator Clinton that is the nominee. The question, then, is not what kind of campaign they'll run, it's what kind of campaign we will run. It's what we will do to make this year different. Ya see, I didn't get into race thinking that I could avoid this kind of politics, but I am running for President because this is the time to end it.

We will end it this time not because I'm perfect – I think we know at this phase of the campaign that I am not. We will end it not by duplicating the same tactics and the same strategies as the other side, because that will just lead us down the same path of polarization and gridlock.

We will end it by telling the truth. We will end it by telling the truth forcefully, repeatedly, confidently – and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change, even if it's coming from an imperfect messenger. Because that's how we've always changed this country, not from the top down, but from the bottom up. When you the American people decide that the stakes are too high and the challenges are too great.

The other side can label and name call all it wants, but I trust the American people to recognize that it is not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda's leaders. I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness but wisdom to talk not just to our friends but to our enemies--like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did. I trust the Ameircan people to realize that while we don't need big government, we do need a government that stands up for families who are being tricked out of their homes by Wall Street predators; a government who stands up for the middle-class by giving them a tax break; a government that ensures that no American will ever lose their life savings just because their child gets sick. Security and opportunity, compassion and prosperity aren't liberal values or conservative values – they're American values, and that is what we are fighting for in this election..."

Here's the video:



Above photo credit: Obama's Flickr page, some rights reserved.

Update: Since I'm home sick from work today, I was able to catch up on Sunday's Washington Post, which I was too busy to read over the weekend; that phrase "imperfect messenger" from Obama's speech apparently stood out to Post writer David Ignatius as well, as he starts out this article on Obama's demeanor talking about it. Two other recent Post articles are also worth noting: the first is on the potential damage of Clinton's continued campaigning, where the author interestingly points out that "there is still a price to be paid for letting the nomination campaign drag on. At the most personal level, it denies Obama the rest he badly needs. His friends talk with real concern about the fatigue he constantly feels and often shows"; the second article offers a welcome human perspective on Clinton, while also suggesting that she only has the following options left: "To consolidate her gains while repairing the damage to her standing from a bitter contest, she will have to abandon efforts to block Obama's nomination. She can keep fighting, or she can become a powerful figure in the Democratic Party. She cannot do both...Any moves that risk further divisions in the Democratic Party -- Hillary Clinton's comment last week about Obama's weakness among voters who are "hard-working" and "white" didn't help -- will aggravate a problem she wants to go away. So would an orchestrated campaign by Clinton supporters to push Obama hard to make her the vice presidential nominee. An aggressive 'Clinton for vice president' campaign would simply reopen fights that are just ending and offer Obama two bad choices: either to look weak by capitulating to pressure from the defeated wing of the party or to look spiteful by refusing to take Clinton on. "

The Value, and Values, of Barack: Obama on...Parenting?

In this five minute piece on education, take a look at how Obama discusses it in some basic-level detail, but then also the second half where he gets into parenting--it's good. He wears a smile most of the way through as he talks about parenting, offering some honest thoughts with the good-hearted understanding of a parent. Here's an excerpt, with the video below:

“It doesn't matter how much money we put in, if parents don't parent. It’s not good enough for you to say to your child, ‘Do good in school,’ and then when that child comes home, you’ve got the TV set on, you got the radio on, you don’t check their homework, there’s not a book in the house, you’ve got the video game playing. Am I right? So turn off the TV set. Put the video game away. Buy a little desk or put that child at the kitchen table, watch them do their homework. If they don’t know how to do it, give ‘em help. If you don’t know how to do it, call the teacher. Make ‘em go to bed at a reasonable time! Keep ‘em off the streets! Give ‘em some breakfast! Come on! Can I get an amen here? You know I’m right, you know I'm right. And, I'm sorry, since I’m on a roll, if your child misbehaves in school, don’t cuss out the teacher! You know I’m right about that, you know I'm right about that. You know, don’t cuss out the teacher! Do something with your child! Alright, everybody settle down here, we're having too much fun here.”

The Value, and Values, of Barack: Racial Acuity

Obama spoke today, and it was indeed unique. The topic was race, and his honesty was encouraging. I will not say much before pasting an excerpt of his speech and a link to the video of it, but will note that what stood out most was his ability and authority, as a man of mixed race, to speak to both the black and white community--and with a candor and conviction that was heartening, and so necessary in our country, divided racially and otherwise as we are under the surface. To hear a leader so moved by issues that politicians seem alternately blind and powerless towards, was in itself moving; and it was not simply moving because inspiration is nice, but because people need to be moved in order to move (i.e., to progress)--and clearly, with race, there is much need for progress still; or, as he put it in his speech, there is much need for us to continue the work of perfecting our union.

Lastly, I would note that this is the first of what I intend to be a series of pieces on the values of Obama. The word itself--values--has been too commonly reserved for the political right, and in a way that limits the meaning of the word to a single religious community's singular, narrow interpretation. The Religious Right's use of the word, in fact, has not only cheapened it for those outside of the Religious Right, it has gone so far as to strip the value for those within, removing phrases such as income equality, disease reduction, and shared humanity from the idea of "values."

Below, I pasted an excerpt from the text of Obama's speech, wherein he speaks directly to the black and white communities in the ways I mentioned above. I would urge you to read and consider the capacity such thinking has to propel our country in correcting directions. The link to the video follows the speech, and is worth watching in its entirety, as it is filled with concepts that I personally have not heard many politicians delve into in near this depth, with near this focus.

"In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. 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.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well."

The speech in full (around 20-30 (worthwhile) minutes):

The Value, and Values, of Barack Series

Part 1 - The Value, and Values, of Barack: Racial Acuity

Part 2 - The Value, and Values, of Barack: Obama on...Parenting?

Part 3 - The Value, and Values, of Barack: Imperfect Messenger

Part 4 - The Value, and Values, of Barack: "It's Not Weak to Be Kind"

Part 5 - The Value, and Values, of Barack: Why He Gave That Speech on Race