United We Stand
My fellow Americans.
Ours is a young nation; 12 score and 8 years.
In that time we have forever altered the course of history. And even today amid tensions and triumphs we remain the most powerful and creative nation in the history of the planet.
In this election we will decide if we shall remain so.
United, we have achieved what no civilization before us has because of the strength of our ideals and tireless efforts to see them through. We make the ideal real. We create American Dreams.
The determination of our character echoes through all time, from the Declaration of Independence to suffrage and civil rights, the war to end them all, to our nations first black president.
Our integrity is buttressed by the accruing wisdom of ages. We have not always gotten it right. In fact sometimes we have been terribly wrong. But we always adapt. We always learn. We always grow stronger through the gauntlet, through the fire and dusk. It has always been that on the other side of our darkest nights is a brighter dawn than we have yet seen.
We meet our challenges by drawing on the past, yes. But our mettle is forged in sensitive appraisal of the present met with an intrepid rise to the possibilities of the future.
At our best we don't lie. We tell the truth and make good on our promises, even if it takes time. When we mess up, we own it, address it, make amends, do the right thing and move on changed in needed ways, wiser and less tarried by our weaker selves.
We live in a perilous world. One that is rapidly changing and one that has always been unkind to those walking into the wilderness alone and unprepared.
We live in a world where everything is connected to everything else. And with the aid of our most advanced technologies, with science, sometimes we can even say exactly how. But more often we are awed by life's mysteries and unresolved dramas if not harried by its sometimes daunting uncertainties.
We live in a world where life always finds a way even if we struggle in advance to predict just how.
Even in this time where the world looks upon us wondering how it all could end I am here to affirm that our American way of life is poised to grow with the light and conditions needed to flourish. But such fostering conditions do not come of their own accord. They are made to happen by ordinary Americans who, standing united, take extraordinary action.
In America, the extraordinary happens every day. Every day Americans lookout for their neighbors. Every day in America someone is offering some small welcome kindness that eases another's burden. Every day an American has another American's back in some trying yet admirable endeavor. Every day somebody in America comes home after a hard day's work at their 9 to 5 and hits the books, or the track, or feels the beat, or takes that early leap of faith that keeps their particular dream alive and on the right heading ...One that in America, will eventually ensure they reach their destination.
When we all pitch in, when we all step up with resolve, we are unstoppable. America is alive and kicking. We argue. We parade. We sometimes even lose our way. But we always find our way again, ever alighted by our north stars. And no one does it like us.
Yes we are unique, each of us, as individuals. Yes we have our differences and valorous determination for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But in the home of the brave our ballast is our band, and rhythm. United we stand, and for good reason. Nothing great has ever been achieved alone. Nothing enduring in society has been met without challenge and demand upon a wary peoples steadfast in unison. All credence is earned through the trials and vary of life in motion, and our American way of life moves with the spirit of a peoples from all walks of life. It enlivens our shared experiences, brings boundless meaning and vibrancy to our sense of self and benefits our hard fought, hard earned traditions with a multitudinous and mighty perspective no homogenous peoples could muster solely.
Freedom's responsibility is not to ourselves alone, but to each other. We look out for loved ones, for our communities because we are a part of a democratic spirit that is larger than ourselves. Our vows are shared, sacred and solemn. We have an obligation to all those who came before, all those now, and all to follow, to live up to the immense possibilities of our current moment.
Every weft and warp of this american fabric matters and moves as part of a journey, one that like the mighty mississippi has its origins and destination in a broader cycle of change, of transformation, encompassing vast reaches of time and space.
Our journey as a people will have setbacks, obstacles and all the hard things of life in a living world. And yet to create the prosperous problem solving nation we must achieve to meet the many challenges facing us today, we must not succumb to the strickening fear of a darkened and diminishing road to perdition. We must reject the shallow and slovenly ruse: the manufactured smog of supposed inevitability. Rather we must summon the courage and creativity to chart and then see a course of illuminating and growing tendency toward a better world. A breathing and lively world of promise and possibility undaunted by life's passing ills.
Generations from all over the world have invested their best faiths, efforts, hopes and dreams in the idea and everyday extraordinary of America, from George Washington to the Dreamers. America has in turn invested in us, the aspiring leaders who must face the era of climate and technology with grace, good ideas, and ability to intelligently see them through even beyond the horizon line. So it is that we must honor our nation in legacy and life.
Ours is a young nation. This living America has its fits and starts. And so do we as people. But hard working Americans figure it out at any rate. And by God right now there's a lot to figure out. But we can do it. Without the exhausting burden of fret about getting it wrong, or whatever else may ale our most earnest zeal we may yet rise to starling heights amid dawning twilight.
