Incase you missed out, here's Barack's speach from earlier today!
Simple and sweet.
---
I want to thank all the speakers and performers for reminding us,
through song and through words, just what it is that we love about
America. And I want to thank all of you for braving the cold and the
crowds and traveling in some cases thousands of miles to join us here
today. Welcome to Washington, and welcome to this celebration of
American renewal.
In the course of our history, only a handful of generations have been
asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now.
Our nation is at war. Our economy is in crisis. Millions of Americans
are losing their jobs and their homes; they're worried about how
they'll afford college for their kids or pay the stack of bills on
their kitchen table. And most of all, they are anxious and uncertain
about the future -- about whether this generation of Americans will be
able to pass on what's best about this country to our children and
their children.
I won't pretend that meeting any one of these challenges
will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. Along the way there will be setbacks and false starts and days that test our fundamental resolve as a nation.
But despite all of this -- despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead
-- I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.
What gives me hope is what I see when I look out across this mall. For in
these monuments are chiseled those unlikely stories that affirm our
unyielding faith -- a faith that anything is possible in America.
Rising before us stands a memorial to a man who led a small band of
farmers and shopkeepers in revolution against the army of an Empire,
all for the sake of an idea.
On the ground below is a tribute to a generation that withstood war and
depression -- men and women like my grandparents who toiled on bomber
assembly lines and marched across Europe to free the world from tyranny's grasp. Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King, and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character's content. And
behind me, watching over the union he saved, sits the man who in so many ways made this day possible.
And yet, as I stand here today, what gives me the greatest hope of all is
not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the
spaces in between. It is you -- Americans of every race and region and
station who came here because you believe in what this country can be
and because you want to help us get there.
It is the same thing that gave me hope from the day we began this campaign
for the presidency nearly two years ago; a belief that if we could just
recognize ourselves in one another and bring everyone together --
Democrats, Republicans, independents; Latino, Asian and Native
American; black and white, gay and straight, disabled and not -- then
not only would we restore hope and opportunity in places that yearned
for both, but maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the
process.
This is what I believed, but you made this belief real. You proved once more
that people who love this country can change it. And as I prepare to
assume the presidency, yours are the voices I will take with me every
day when I walk into that Oval Office -- the voices of men and women
who have different stories but hold common hopes; who ask only for what
was promised us as Americans -- that we might make of our lives what we
will and see our children climb higher than we did.
It is this thread that binds us together in common effort; that runs
through every memorial on this mall; that connects us to all those who
struggled and sacrificed and stood here before.
It is how this nation has overcome the greatest differences and the
longest odds -- because there is no obstacle that can stand in the way
of millions of voices calling for change.
That is the belief with which we began this campaign, and that is how we
will overcome what ails us now. There is no doubt that our road will be
long, that our climb will be steep. But never forget that the true
character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and
ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard. I ask you to help
reveal that character once more, and together, we can carry forward as
one nation, and one people, the legacy of our forefathers that we
celebrate today.
Thank you, America. God bless you.
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