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ENOUGH! Like Obama said in his Speech on Race, we have to move beyond it

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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 06:07 AM
Original message
ENOUGH! Like Obama said in his Speech on Race, we have to move beyond it
and we can't, if we get stuck in it.

Enough is enough of what Hillary said.

I'm not feeding anymore media frenzy in where they get to talk about race anymore.

I no longer give a shit what Hillary Clinton says.

Please Obama supporters, please let it go......for all of our sake.

Although there has been a lot of racism in full display, I believe that Obama would want us to move on and not get stuck here.

OK?

'A more perfect union'


PHILADELPHIA -
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."
(speech's closing)
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

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. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23690567/page/3/

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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 06:24 AM
Response to Original message
1. Here's the video, for those who missed it......
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 06:35 AM
Response to Original message
2. Ok....keep on bickering and keep "race" on the forefront
and see if that helps Barack, and by extension, us.


It won't.
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glowing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 06:36 AM
Response to Original message
3. I'm glad you are finally maturing... thank God.. its so much more productive.
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 01:48 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. ?
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anonymous171 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
5. NOT THIS TIME!
:kick:
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quantass Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 01:52 PM
Response to Original message
6. Frenchie is right. Enufs enuf. A shame Hillary & some supporters are incapable of doing the same
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Adelante Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 02:37 PM
Response to Original message
7. Thank you, Frenchie
I've been on the verge of writing an OP exactly like yours. I've also been exhausted with it and on the verge of tears. We have got to stop the slicing and dicing. It's exactly what Obama's campaign has NOT been about and yet as supporters we have become obsessed with it.

I love you, sis :hug:
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 02:52 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Love you back.......
As Obama would say. :pals:
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2rth2pwr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-10-08 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
9. What he said-"But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. .."
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