Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:11 pm
Obama’s speech at the memorial for the slain Dallas police officers was bold, emotional, and deeply moving.
Video:
The President said:
We turn on the TV or surf the internet and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners. Politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this and it’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won’t hold. And that things might get worse. I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But, Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair.”
“I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds. I know we’ll make it because of what I’ve experienced in my own life. What I’ve seen of this country and its people, their goodness and decency as president of the United States.
Obama took on the societal problem:
As a society, we choose to underinvest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs. We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.
And then we tell the police, you’re the social worker, you’re the parent. You’re the teacher. You’re the drug counselor. We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs, and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience. Don’t make a mistake that might disturb our own peace of mind. And then we feign surprise when periodically the tensions boil over. We know those things to be true. They have been true for a long time. We know it. Police, you know it. Protesters, you know it.”
If there was an underlying theme to the President’s speech, it was that there is too little common understanding. The President asked Americans to try to understand each other’s experiences, and said, “Can we do this? Can we find the character as Americans to open our hearts to each other? Can we see in each other a common humanity and a shared dignity and recognize how our different experiences have shaped us? And it doesn’t make anybody perfectly good or perfectly bad; it just makes us human. I don’t know. I confess, I sometimes, too, experience doubt. I have been to too many of these things. I’ve seen too many families go through this.”
The President ended his remarks with a message of hope:
President Obama’s speech was bold. The speech was brave, and most importantly, it spoke to all Americans. Obama did what a president is supposed to do in times of tragedy. He led. Obama viewed the landscape of the country in total and crafted a message that spoke directly to our times and challenges.
Those who saw political division in his speech are the same people who do nothing but attempt to divide the country during Obama’s presidency. The Americans who claim that Obama is divisive are the same conservatives who have been trying to use Obama as a wedge to split our nation apart for since 2008.
President Obama delivered a speech for history books. It also revealed the conscience that voters should demand from their president.
When compared to Obama, Donald Trump has never looked like a more absurd option. All Americans should be grateful that President Obama is the man who sheparding their country through this difficult time.
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