I spent the evening watching Obama’s historic speech in a packed hotel room in downtown San Francisco. I got home to find close to 100 posts piled up in the “Politics” section of my feed reader. With that amount of text flying, it’s virtually impossible to find anything to say that’s truly original, and there are far better writers than me who will turn out much more lyrical paeans to Obama’s speech.
So I’ll just share one part of the speech, that made my jaw drop amidst all the cheers and even a couple of tears:
….part of what has been lost these past eight years can’t just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose, and that’s what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.
The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.
I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in a hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.
You know, passions may fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.
But this, too, is part of America’s promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
Obama called out what are arguably the four most divisive issues in American domestic policy, and talked about trying to find common ground on them.
A less gutsy politician wouldn’t have done that. And in fact the speech could have been just fine without that section. But no, Obama went the extra mile and took all four of them head on.
Election Day is less than 70 days away. Bring it on. We’re ready.
Good to read the post. Yes, Obama was gutsy to take on the heavy issues tonight. Hoping we can keep twitterville excited enough to make tweetups in Sept / Oct for calling for votes in swing states. We must do the work on this one. It is not going to be easy. In spite of talk of liberal press, it is not true. MSM is irresponsible & will make it difficult for voters to hear the full story.
Heh… we were watching it this morning over breakfast (couldn’t realisticallyo wake up at 4:00am CET, as much as I wanted to) and that exact same part got us, too. I nearly cried at the prospect of having an *articulate* president again.
Nice call-outs. Seems like those four points are all politicized problems, overwhelming realworld problems? (People living in poorer neighborhoods should indeed have effective protection from local thugs regardless of what the pro/con “gun control” debate thinks of it, etc.)
Do they all come down to “less centralized politicized control over your life, more sanity”? If he throws a reduction in IRS process in there too, then…. 😉
Hello I like your post “45 Years After Dr King: Obama Nominated” so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate into German and linking back. Answer welcome. Greetings Kroatien