democracyforcalifornia.com

THE SURGE IS WORKING! (cont'd)

Five years after we won, that pesky war in Eye-Rack just won't stop raining on our parade. I mean, how are we supposed to enjoy our SUVs and Hummers when we can't afford to fill the tank with $4 gallons of gas? Goodness knows, it's hard enough to buy a loaf of bread or a hot dog. What's next? Collapsing airlines? Bankrupt truckers? Dollars shrinking into Monopoly money? Hey! We won!

Those Deadenders over there better start getting it right. We did them a bunch of favors. All those ugly buildings in their cities and towns; didn't we blow 'em up so they could pay us to build 'em new ones? And all that oil they're sitting on; didn't we bring in our guys to show 'em the right way to suck it outta the ground? And that nasty president of theirs; didn't we hang him for 'em? Right after we gave 'em some real democracy? Damn right!

An' after all that, they have the gall to kill 50 more of our soldiers last month, bringing back memories of the bad ol' days of last summer. You'd think it's our fault that they have a shitload of mini-civil wars on their hands. I mean, come on! Didn't anyone tell 'em about the surge?

Whatta buncha ingrates.

Deaths in Iraq

American Military Deaths:

Since war began (3/19/03): 4,065

Since “Mission Accomplished” (5/1/03): 3,926

Since Democrats took over Congress (1/4/07): 1,053

Our "coalition" allies: 309 (source: Antiwar.com)

"Independent" contractors (up to 12/31/07): 1,123 (source: Associated Press)

Americans Wounded, Maimed and/or Driven Insane:

Since war began: 29,911

Since Democrats took over Congress: 6,843

(source: Antiwar.com)

Iraqis Killed:

Since the war began: 83,221-90,762

Since Democrats took over Congress: 31,332+

(source: Iraq Body Count)

or

1,205,025

(source: Antiwar.com)

Refugees Fleeing Iraq:

2.7 million

Internally Displaced Persons:

2,299,425

(source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

The Price Tag of War

Military and imperial spending since war began: $528 billion and climbing (source: zFacts.com)

Crude oil: $113.79/barrel today on the New York Mercantile Exchange (source: New York Times),

. . . up from about $30.00/barrel when the war began (source: Ctr for Contemporary Conflict)

Gasoline (self-serve regular nationwide): $3.30/gallon

. . . (California): $3.63/gallon (source: zFacts.com)

. . . Diesel: $4.17/gallon (source: Energy Information Administration)

Percentage increase in food prices, March 2007 to March 2008

(source: Los Angeles Times)

After all we done for 'em.

THE WRIGHT MESSAGE. . . THE WRONG CONCLUSION

What in the world is going on?

I just got back from five days in the Eastern Sierra, and here we are again, going 'round and 'round, working ourselves into a lather over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Hillary, McCain and the news media generally profess to be outraged by Rev. Wright's beliefs that the U.S. contributed to 9/11 through its aggressive foreign policy in Muslim lands, that American soldiers often behave like Roman legionnaires, that Rev. Louis Farakhan has credibility in black America, etc. (even though anyone with common sense would acknowledge at least the possibility of truth in these assertions)

Hillary, McCain and the news media continue to insist that discussing Rev. Wright is "important," as if it somehow confirms that Obama is an America-bashing, white-hating, black nationalist & separatist & street thug.

I can see why they're doing this. It's a lot easier to throw shit into the air than to discuss this horrendous war in Iraq (especially since Hill and McCain helped launch it and the media promoted it). It's also easier to smear Obama through Wright than to confront $125 barrels of oil, $4/gallon gasoline and $20 loaves of bread and how these catastrophes are the direct result of their precious war. The Wright shitstorm is the perfect smokescreen to obscure their own culpability.

Hill McMedia is the status quo. . . no more, no less. They're all just different faces of the same vested interests that got us into this predicament in the first place.

But don't expect to hear that from the media.

FOOTNOTE: Sad casualties of this circus are the issues Rev. Wright brings up. By acting the egocentric, hardheaded fool, Rev. Wright has made it that much more difficult to question foreign policy towards Muslim lands, American military atrocities, racism at home and so on. Who would want to be dismissed as "just like Rev. Wright"? And dismissed they most certainly will be.

FOOTNOTE2: Where's Ken Starr when we really need him?

FOOTNOTE3: Just joking. No need to jump into the shit ourselves.

THE SOUL OF THE NATION: "MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY..."

Hillary Clinton's latest round of attacks on Barack Obama is the final confirmation that race is the snake coiled in the corner of this election. Never mind the spectacle of a former First Lady and Yale Law School graduate with $100 million+ in her purse drinking shots in a bar and calling someone else an elitist. That's just silly.

It's the subtext that's telling. By calling Obama an “elitist," Hillary is speaking in thinly veiled code to white Americans that he is a black man who thinks he is "better" than they are.

The Clinton campaign has been race-baiting ever since Hillary was derailed as Presumptive Nominee at the Iowa caucuses. Either directly or by proxy, she has been trying to incite whites, Jews, latinos and who knows who else against Obama by consistently playing on racial fears, resentments or outright hostility.

But why would a self-professed progressive Senator, former First Lady and current Presidential candidate use such a strategy? And why would a former President (husband Bill), a former Vice Presidential candidate (Geraldine Ferraro) and a renowned feminist (Gloria Steinem) join the chorus? Could it be that none of them (or their followers) can see what they're doing? That hardly seems likely.

What we're looking at is the mindset that has helped perpetuate American racism. Few people will openly admit to endorsing in-your-face racism a la the Klan. That kind of behavior has rightly been relegated to the grossly hateful and ignorant. Nowadays what we're dealing with is coded racism--subtle innuendo, misdirection or obfuscation that hides what we do under a different name. And in this case, the name is everything. “Racist” is a bad word today; no one wants to be called one. But the benefits of racism, that's something else. And so we use code to get the self-aggrandizement and perks without having to admit to being racists.

Self-aggrandizement is still a strong motivator when it comes to racism—that feeling of superiority that comes with being part of the “elite.” It's great for the ego to be “better” than someone else, and with racism, it's easy. Even the worst fuck-up can consider himself superior to Obama, Colin Powell, Michael Jordan or Wynton Marsalis just by definition.

Taking it to the next step, with superiority comes entitlement to privilege. It's only logical that superiority should entitle one to better schools, better neighborhoods, better jobs. . . a better life. It's equally logical that if any member of the superior group doesn't have the ideal life, it MUST be The Other's fault. It's the perfect scam for the scammer: offer unlimited perks and benefits, then blame it on the “nigger” when you don't deliver.

And that's what Hillary's doing when she stirs the pot. She's given up on selling her skills and achievements; the harsh spotlight of the campaign has shown her to be quite mediocre. Now it's just false dreams. In return for your vote, she'll let you hang on to your superiority.

This sort of thing didn't begin with Hillary—in truth, she's a bumbler compared to masters like Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan—but maybe she will be the beginning of the end. Her willingness to be a "progressive" race-baiter has shown that anyone can do it; it's not just something confined to racists on the fringe, the uneducated or the poor. Hillary and her brain trust are none of the above, but they're doing it anyway. Race for them is just a tool to manipulate, a way for the "elite" to stay in power.

It's been that way since the earliest days of this nation. Indentured servants, sharecroppers, sweatshop workers, child laborers and disenfranchised women could all feel superior to slaves (or any black, for that matter). It eased their own suffering in some ways, but it also perpetuated it by distracting from real causes and solutions. Doing it long enough made it a habit.

The elite back then knew that they had the ideal tool to manipulate their countrymen, a built-in bogeyman guaranteed to scare or piss off those beneath them. That's why they've never done anything about it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

We can expect that the campaign against McCain, if it comes to pass, will sooner or later degenerate into more of the same. He signalled as much by jumping on the "elitist" bandwagon. The real elite will not let go easily.

But that's actually good. Racism has persisted for so long because we haven't confronted it fully. No one admits to racism in polite society, but too many people have grown comfortable with it. Maybe we don't understand that the hater suffers as much as the hated the way we do things now. Maybe we don't want someone to call what we have ill-gotten gains. Maybe we're afraid that we will be diminished if we can't diminish another. Maybe. . . but maybe not.

Haven't we spent enough time and energy on this already? I was a kid when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, and the Civil War and slavery ended almost 100 years before that. Why are we still talking about this? Aren't we sick and tired of hating each other, of blaming each other, of fearing each other? Wouldn't life just be that much better if we could finally move beyond this bullshit? “If it itches, scratch it.”

Race is on the table. The race-baiters put it there. Let's fix it.

Obama Gains On Clinton'S Superdelegate Lead, Raises More Money

From Yahoo News

Key Points:

• Obama has cut Hillary Clinton's superdelegate lead with endorsements from Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and former Montana Sen. John Melcher. She has 250 to his 220.
• Obama raised more than $40 million in March:

Clinton is expected to have raised about $20 million in March, but her campaign has not announced any totals.

Obama raised a record $55 million in February; Clinton raised $34.5 million.

Clinton fundraisers say she relied too much on large donors early in the cycle.

"That pool is reduced," said Larry Stone, a Clinton fundraiser in Silicon Valley who also is the Santa Clara County assessor. "Hillary came really late to the game in effective fundraising on the Internet as compared to Barack Obama ... Many of the solid enthusiastic Clinton supporters were maxed out."

Clinton said as first lady she had forcefully battled the agreement President Clinton labored hard to win.

"I did speak out and oppose NAFTA," she said. "I raised a big yellow flag and said, 'I don't think this will work.'"

Teamsters president James P. Hoffa, who is backing Obama, disputed her claim.

"No one who was around in the time of NAFTA remembers her doing that," Hoffa told The Associated Press during a telephone interview. "Let's face it, she's tied to NAFTA no matter what she says."

Will she also make the claim she spoke out against the sanctions on Iraq that killed 500,00 children? Why has no one in the media asked her about this?

THE SURGE IS WORKING! THE SURGE IS WORKING!! THE SURGE IS WORKING!!!

So many achievements we can all be proud of, so many milestones surpassed as we surge forward to a brighter tomorrow: 4,000 American dead in Iraq, 1,000,000 Iraqis killed, $100 for a barrel of crude oil, $4.00 for a gallon of gas, $5.00 for a loaf of bread, $500 billion for the "War on Terror."

Let's take a closer look.

Deaths in Iraq

American Military Deaths:

Since war began (3/19/03): 4,000

Since “Mission Accomplished” (5/1/03): 3,861

Since Democrats took over Congress (1/4/07): 988

Our "coalition" allies: 308

"Independent" contractors (up to 6/30/07): 1,001

Americans Wounded, Maimed and/or Driven Insane:

Since war began: 29,451

Since Democrats took over Congress: 6,383

(source: Antiwar.com)

Iraqis Killed:

Since the war began: 82,349-89,867

Since Democrats took over Congress: 30,449+

(source: Iraq Body Count)

or

1,191,216

(source: Antiwar.com

Refugees Fleeing Iraq:

2.2 million

Internally Displaced Persons:

2,299,425

(source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

The Price Tag of War

Military and imperial spending since war began: $514 billion and climbing (source: zFacts.com

Crude oil: $100.02/barrel today (source: Bloomberg.com),

. . . up from about $30.00/barrel when the war began (source: Ctr for Contemporary Conflict)

Gasoline (self-serve regular nationwide): $3.26/gallon

. . . (San Francisco): $3.68/gallon

. . . Diesel: $4.06/gallon (source: Reuters)

"Food Prices Soaring Worldwide" (source: The Associated Press)

Life seems to get cheaper as the cost of everything else skyrockets, but never mind. Just repeat after me:

The surge is working, and we are better off now than we were back then. . .
The surge is working, and we are better off now than we were back then. . .
The surge is working, and we are better off now than we were back then. . .
The surge is working, and we are better off now than we were back then. . .
The surge is working, and we are better off now than we were back then. . .
The surge is working, and we are better off now than we were back then. . .

A More Perfect Union...

Once every 50 to 100 years or so America is blessed with a great leader, one who transcends the rubble of the past and leads the country to new and higher ground. That was true of Washington, of Jefferson, of Lincoln and of Kennedy. It is now true of Barack Obama.

Transcript of the speech destined to be read by school children for generations to come:

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

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.