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I sent out a message to my group of friends today with the link to the speech, and added my own thoughts, and just felt the need to share this evening :
"Today Barack Obama delivered a quietly powerful and important speech on race in America, prompted by the public discussion of controversial statements by his pastor at the United Church of Christ in Chicago (same church my father has proudly preached at for over 25 years in various congregations on the east coast). Instead of reacting to the issue, Obama faced the issue head on, and by expanding the conversation shows that, as a nation, we need to get beyond so much of the past in order to move forward. In wasn't a speech about one race, about black people being victims of racism, but how ALL races, each and every one of us, are victims of the ugliness racism brings in one form or another. We must no longer fall into this fear trap, we must confront it to move on as one people. As is his political background of appealing to and working with both sides of the aisle, as his personal background of having a white mom and black father, here he is again, being able to understand race and its promise and its barriers from two different perspectives. This is what we need to move ahead, an openness and understanding that there is always another voice to be heard, another side to the story, and another solution outside one's own thinking. We need honesty and transparency, not the distraction of the status quo in order to tackle the social, economic and political problems we face, and Obama shows it something he may be able to bring to the White House. A president who can take a negative and turn it into a positive, not just for himself, but for our country and its people. This is what leadership is all about, and we have sorely lacked in the past 8 years. Today he risked his candidacy in order to do whats right, not doing what is politically expedient for himself, but is right for the country, to say what needs to be heard and dealt with. If he doesn't win, he still sees that sparking the conversation, even if just a little bit, then that is what important."
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