Obama & The American Promise

Thursday night, August 28th, 2008, 45 years to the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Monument in Wash., DC, Sen. Barack Obama gave his DNC Convention nomination speech to nearly 85,000 at the former Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO. I will always consider Mile High as the rightful name of the now Invesco Field (if you're a long-time NFL fan you know what I'm talking about).

The significance of this day cannot be understated whether you're Black, White, man or woman in this country, Dr. King was more than just a great orator; he sacrificed his life so that ALL Americans could live The Dream that he spent his whole life fighting for. And what really is the American Dream? Barack Obama's biography recounted tonight reminded us that the American dream is really simple, but worth fighting for, and that the last 8 years has robbed the little guy of his will to dream. In simplest terms, the American Dream is for fathers and mothers, husbands and wives to be able to go to work and bring enough money home to care for their family. The American Dream is for each man to be successful while caring enough to make sure that his neighbor has a helping hand in hard times. The American Dream is not, however, for 90% of the nation's wealth to be held captive in the hands of a 10% who can't relate to $4/gallon at the gas pump and frankly "don't get it".

Yes, truly this was a historic occasion in so many ways. The obvious story line is that 45 years after Dr. King's greatest speech at age 34, the first Black man was nominated as Presidential candidate of a major political party. Though of course, the 47-year-old Obama is part White also, the Eurocentric culture has assigned the Black race to anyone who has at least one drop of Black blood. It is not, however, the fact that Obama is part Black that has the nation excited. I mean, Alan Keyes didn't excite us in two elections when he received less than 1% of the Republican primary vote--did he? Rather the country loves Obama because he embodies the best of us, represents truly equal opportunity, and captures the spirit of hope, hard work, and courage that we aspire to.

Here are some of my favorite highlights of the speech--there were quite a few:

We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.

These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.

We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.

Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year?

It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.

For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.

Well it's time for them to own their failure.

It's time for us to change America. Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them.

And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.

And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength."

Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise.

We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe.

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.

So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.