++To honor the marches in Selma, President Obama delivered one of his best speeches today. Read the text. It was a primer of change, patriotism and a vision of America that has been too often discarded in recent years.
++The speech was set up perfectly with a description of what John Lewis was doing to prepare for the day of the march and then segued into a discussion of race,protest, love of country and the meaning of America. James Baldwin and Langston Hughes got quoted as well as the lyrics of gospel hymns and the words of the prophet Isaiah.He wove the fierce urgency of now with the best lines of his past campaigns.
++He talked about the DOJ report on Ferguson, the gutting of the Voting Act and the passage of Voter ID laws. But,"to deny progress (since Selma) is to deny us our agency."
++" But we know the march is not done. We must run so our children can soar."
++Superficially, segments of the speech felt like a refutation of the complaint that President obama himself doesn't love America.At one point he referred to "feeble attempts to define someone as more American than others."
++He said that the civil rights movement was not just for blacks but that Asian-Americans,Latinos,gay-americans,immigrants,women and unions had marched through the doors it opened.
++He invoked a wider moral imagination for a just,more equitable and open America.
++"What they did here will reverberate through the age…because they proved that nonviolent change is possible;that love and hope can conquer hate."
++On America as a constant work in progress,"It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right. That's America. To shake up the status quo."
++I found the most intriguing line of the speech to be about the work toward a more perfect union--"we know the work is not done but we are soon there." Then he segued into his thoughts on the most diverse and educated generation in our history who will lead the country.
++Soon we will be there. Interesting. Let's hope. Bravo, President Obama.
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