[Rhodes22-list] Reading Matter for Return Trip

[Bill Effros]

That's what I was afraid of.

I'll send you 3 speeches back-channel.  It's a lot to read, even the cut 
down portions, but it's really instructive about all 3 men.

Especially now that Senator Obama has renounced his speech and left his 
church.  (Does this make him a Muslim again?)

If anyone else wants the marked version, just let me know and I'll send 
it back-channel.

Bill Effros



Bill Effros wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Following are 3 speeches on race.
>
> I have put some portions in red and underlined others so you can get 
> through the speeches by Hawaii.  If the red portions don't come through, 
> I'll go to plan B.
>
> Bill
>
>
>   
>> *President Bill Clinton.  October 16, 1995
>> Minister Louis Farrakhan  October 16, 1995
>> Senator Barack Obama  March 18, 2008
>> *
>>
>>
>>   Transcript of President Clinton's speech on race relations:
>>
>>
>>   One America
>>
>> October 16, 1995, Austin, Texas*
>>
>> *_*My fellow Americans, I want to begin by telling you that I am 
>> hopeful about America. *_When I looked at Nicole Bell up here 
>> introducing me and I shook hands with these other young students, I 
>> looked into their eyes, I saw the Americorps button on that 
>> gentleman's shirt ...
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> I was reminded, as I talk about this thorny subject of race today, I 
>> was reminded of what Winston Churchill said about the United States. 
>> When President Roosevelt was trying to pass the Lend Lease Act so that 
>> we could help Britain in their war against Nazi Germany before we 
>> ourselves were involved. And for a good while the issue was hanging 
>> fire. And it was unclear whether the Congress would permit us to help 
>> Britain, who at that time was the only bulwark against tyranny in Europe.
>>
>> And Winston Churchill said, "I have great confidence in the judgment 
>> and the common sense of the American people and their leaders. They 
>> invariably do the right thing, after they have examined every other 
>> alternative."
>>
>> (LAUGHTER)
>>
>> _*So, I say to you, let me begin by saying, that I can see in the eyes 
>> of these students and in the spirit of this moment, we will do the 
>> right thing.*_
>>
>> *In recent weeks every one of us has been made aware of a simple 
>> truth. White Americans and black Americans often see the same world in 
>> drastically different ways.** Ways that go beyond and beneath the 
>> Simpson trial and its aftermath, which brought these perceptions so 
>> starkly into the open.*
>>
>> *The rift we see before us, that is tearing at the heart of America, 
>> exists in spite of the remarkable progress black Americans have made 
>> in the last generation since Martin Luther King swept America up in 
>> his dream, and President Johnson spoke so powerfully for the dignity 
>> of man and the destiny of democracy in demanding that Congress 
>> guarantee full voting rights to blacks.*
>>
>> _*The rift between blacks and whites exists still in a very special 
>> way in America, in spite of the fact that we have become much more 
>> racially and ethnically diverse and that Hispanic Americans, 
>> themselves no strangers to discrimination, are now almost ten percent 
>> of our national population.* _
>>
>> _*The reasons for this divide are many. Some are rooted in the awful 
>> history and stubborn persistence of racism. Some are rooted in the 
>> different ways we experience the threats of modern life to personal 
>> security, family values and strong communities.*_
>>
>> _*Some are rooted in the fact that we still haven't learned to talk 
>> frankly, to listen carefully, and to work together across racial lines. *_
>>
>> _*Almost 30 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King took his last march with 
>> sanitation workers in Memphis. They marched for dignity, equality and 
>> economic justice. Many carried placards that read simply, "I am a 
>> man." The throngs of men marching in Washington today, almost all of 
>> them are doing so for the same stated reason, but there is a profound 
>> difference between this march today, and those of 30 years ago.*_
>>
>> _*Thirty years ago, the marchers were demanding the dignity and 
>> opportunity, the dignity and opportunity they were due, because in the 
>> face of terrible discrimination they had worked hard, raised their 
>> children, paid their taxes, obeyed the laws and fought our wars.* _
>>
>> _*Today's march is also about pride and dignity and respect.** But 
>> after a generation of deepening social problems that 
>> disproportionately impact black Americans, it is also about black men 
>> taking renewed responsibility for themselves, their families and their 
>> communities.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *It's about saying "no" to crime and drugs and violence. It's about 
>> standing up for atonement and reconciliation. It's about insisting 
>> that others do the same and offering to help them. It's about the 
>> frank admission that, unless black men shoulder their load, no one 
>> else can help them or their brothers, their sisters and their children 
>> escape the hard, bleak lives that too many of them still face.*
>>
>> *Of course, some of those in the March do have a history that is far 
>> from its message of atonement and reconciliation. One million men are 
>> right to be standing up for personal responsibility. *_*But one 
>> million men do not make right, one man's message of malice and 
>> division.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*No good house was ever built on a bad foundation. Nothing good ever 
>> came of hate*. *So let us pray today that all who march and all who 
>> speak will stand for atonement, for reconciliation, for responsibility.* _
>>
>> *_Let us pray that those who have spoken for hatred and division in 
>> the past will turn away from that past and give voice to the true 
>> message of those ordinary Americans who march. _If that happens ...*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *If that happens, the men and the women who are there with them, will 
>> be marching into better lives for themselves, and their families, and 
>> they could be marching into a better future for America.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *Today, we face a choice. One way leads to further separation and 
>> bitterness and more lost futures. The other way -- the path of courage 
>> and wisdom -- leads to unity, to reconciliation, to a rich opportunity 
>> for all Americans to make the most of the lives God gave them.*
>>
>> *This moment, in which the racial divide is so clearly out in the open 
>> need not be a setback for us. It presents us with a great opportunity 
>> and we dare not let it pass us by.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *In the past, when we've had the courage to face the truth about our 
>> failure to live up to our own best ideals, we've grown stronger, moved 
>> forward, and restored proud American optimism. At such turning points, 
>> America moved to preserve the Union and abolish slavery, to embrace 
>> women's suffrage, to guarantee basic legal rights to America without 
>> regard to race under the leadership of President Johnson.*
>>
>> *At each of these moments, we looked in the national mirror, and were 
>> brave enough to say, this is not who we are. We're better than that.*
>>
>> *Abraham Lincoln reminded us that "a house divided against itself, can 
>> not stand." When divisions have threatened to bring our house down, 
>> somehow we have always moved together to shore it up.*
>>
>> *My fellow Americans, our house is the greatest democracy in all human 
>> history. And with all its racial and ethnic diversity it has beaten 
>> the odds of human history. But we know that divisions remain. And we 
>> still have work to do.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *The two worlds we see now, each can contain both truth and 
>> distortion. Both black and white Americans must face this, for honesty 
>> is the only gateway to the many acts of reconciliations that will 
>> unite our worlds at last into one America.*
>>
>> *White America must understand and acknowledge the roots of black 
>> pain. It began with unequal treatment, first in law, and later in 
>> fact. African Americans, indeed, have lived too long with a justice 
>> system that in too many cases has been and continues to be, less than 
>> just.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> The record of abuses extends from lynchings and trumped up charges to 
>> false arrests and police brutality. *The tragedies of Emmett Till and 
>> Rodney King are bloody markers on the very same road.* Still today too 
>> many of our police officers play by the rules of the bad old days. It 
>> is beyond wrong when law abiding black parents have to tell their law 
>> abiding children to fear the police whose salaries are paid by their 
>> own taxes.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> And blacks are right to think something is terribly wrong when African 
>> American men are many times more likely to be victims of homicide than 
>> any other group in this country; when there are more African American 
>> men in our correction system than in our colleges; when *almost one in 
>> three African American men, in their twenties, are either in jail, on 
>> parole, or otherwise under the supervision of the criminal system. 
>> Nearly one in three.*
>>
>> *And that is a disproportionate percentage in comparison to the 
>> percent of blacks who use drugs in our society. **Now I would like 
>> every white person here and in America to take a moment to think how 
>> he or she would feel if one in three white men were in similar 
>> circumstances.*
>>
>> And there is still unacceptable economic disparity between blacks and 
>> whites. *_It is so fashionable to talk, today, about African 
>> Americans, as if they had been some sort of protected class. Many 
>> whites think blacks are getting more than their fair share, in terms 
>> of jobs and promotions. _
>> *
>>
>> *_That is not true. _
>> *
>>
>> _*That is not true.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> The truth is that African Americans still make on average about 60 
>> percent of what white people do. And more than half of African 
>> American children live in poverty and at the very time our young 
>> Americans need access to college more than ever before, black college 
>> enrollment is dropping in America.
>>
>> _*On the other hand, blacks must understand and acknowledge the roots 
>> of white fear in America.* _
>>
>> *There is a legitimate fear of the violence that is too prevalent in 
>> our urban areas and often, by experience, or at least what people see 
>> on the news at night, violence for those white people too often has a 
>> black face.*
>>
>> _*It isn't racist for a parent to pull his or her child close when 
>> walking through a high crime neighborhood.* _Or, to wish to stay away 
>> from neighborhoods where innocent children can be shot in school or 
>> standing at bus stops by thugs driving by with assault weapons or 
>> toting handguns like old west desperadoes.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Is isn't racist for parents to recoil in disgust when they read about 
>> a national survey of gang members saying that two thirds of them feel 
>> justified in shooting someone simply for showing them disrespect.
>>
>> It isn't racist for whites to say they don't understand why people put 
>> up with gangs on the corner or in the projects or with drugs being 
>> sold in the schools or in the open.
>>
>> _*It's not racist for whites to assert that the culture of welfare 
>> dependency, out of wedlock pregnancy and absent fatherhood cannot be 
>> broken by social programs, unless there is first more personal 
>> responsibility.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *The great potential for this march today, beyond the black community, 
>> is that whites will come to see a larger truth: That blacks share 
>> their fears and embrace their convictions, and openly assert that, 
>> without changes in the black community and within individuals, real 
>> change for our society will not come.*
>>
>> _*This march should remind white people that most black people share 
>> their old fashioned American values.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> For most black Americans still do work hard, care for their families, 
>> pay their taxes and obey the law. Often, under circumstances which are 
>> far more difficult than those their white counterparts face.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Imagine how you would feel if you were a young parent in your twenties 
>> with a young child living in a housing project, working somewhere for 
>> $5 an hour with no health insurance, passing every day, people on the 
>> street selling drugs, making one hundred times what you make. *Those 
>> people are the real heroes of America today and we should recognize 
>> that.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> And white people too often forget that they are not immune to the 
>> problems black Americans face. Crime, drugs, domestic abuse and teen 
>> pregnancy. They are too prevalent among whites as well, and some of 
>> those problems are growing faster in our white population than in our 
>> minority population.
>>
>> *So, we all have a stake in solving these common problems together.* 
>> It is, therefore, wrong for white Americans to do what they have done 
>> too often, simply to move further away from the problems and support 
>> policies that will only make them worse.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*Finally, both sides seem to fear, deep down inside, that they'll 
>> never quite be able to see each other as more than enemy faces, all of 
>> whom carry at least a sliver of bigotry in their hearts.* _
>>
>> Differences of opinion rooted in different experiences are healthy, 
>> indeed essential for democracies. But differences so great and so 
>> rooted in race, threaten to divide the house Mr. Lincoln gave his life 
>> to save. *As Dr. King said, we must learn to live together as 
>> brothers, or we will perish as fools.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Recognizing one another's real grievances is only the first step. We 
>> must all take responsibility for ourselves, our conduct and our 
>> attitudes.
>>
>> _*America, we must clean our house of racism!*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> To our white citizens, I say I know most of you everyday do your very 
>> best by your own lights, to live a life free of discrimination. 
>> Nevertheless, too many destructive ideas are gaining currency in our 
>> midst. The taped voice of one policeman should fill you with outrage.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> So I say we must clean the house of white America of racism. Americans 
>> who are in the white majority should be proud to stand up and be heard 
>> denouncing the sort of racist rhetoric we heard on that tape -- so 
>> loudly and clearly denouncing it that our black fellow citizens can 
>> hear us.
>>
>> _*White racism may be black people's burden, but it's white people's 
>> problem. We must clean our house.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*To our black citizens,*_ I honor the presence of hundreds of 
>> thousands of men in Washington today, committed to atonement and to 
>> personal responsibility. And the commitment of millions of other men 
>> and women who are African Americans to this cause. I call upon you to 
>> build on this effort, to share equally in the promise of America. But 
>> to do that, _*your house also must be cleaned of racism.*_ There are 
>> too many today...
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _...*There are too many today, white and black, on the left and the 
>> right, on the street corners and the radio waves, who seek to sow 
>> division for their own purposes. *_
>>
>> _*To them I say, NO MORE!  We must be one.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps 
>> but family -- white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different 
>> -- who share basic American values and are willing to live by them.* _
>>
>> When a child is gunned down in the street in the Bronx, no matter what 
>> our race, he is our American child. When a women dies from a beating, 
>> no matter what our race or hers, she is our American sister.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> And every time drugs course through the veins of another child, it 
>> clouds the future of all our American children.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*Whether we like it or not, we are one nation, one family, 
>> indivisible. And for us, divorce or separation are not options.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Here, in 1995, on the edge of the 21st century, we dare not tolerate 
>> the existence of two Americas. Under my watch, I will do everything I 
>> can to see that, as soon as possible, there is only one, one America 
>> under the rule of law. _*One social contract, committed, not to winner 
>> take all, but to giving all Americans a chance to win together -- one 
>> America.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Well, how do we get there? First, today *_I ask_ every governor, every 
>> mayor, every business leader, every church leader, every civic leader, 
>> every union steward, every student leader -- most important, _every 
>> citizen _-- in every work place and learning place and meeting place 
>> all across America _to take personal responsibility for reaching out 
>> to people of different races, for taking time to sit down and talk 
>> through this issue, to have the courage to speak honestly and frankly, 
>> and then to have the discipline to listen quietly with an open mind 
>> and an open heart as others do the same._*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*This may seem like a simple request, but for tens of millions of 
>> Americans this has never been a reality. They have never spoken and 
>> they have never listened --
>> *_
>>
>> _*Not really,
>> *_
>>
>> _*Not really.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*I am convinced, based on a rich lifetime of friendships and common 
>> endeavors with people of different races, that the American people 
>> will find out they have a lot more in common than they think they do.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *The second thing we have to do is to defend and enhance real 
>> opportunity. I'm not talking about opportunity for black Americans or 
>> opportunity for white Americans, I'm talking about opportunity for all 
>> Americans.*
>>
>> *(APPLAUSE)*
>>
>> Sooner or later, all our speaking, all our listening, all our caring 
>> has to lead to constructive action together for our words and our 
>> intentions to have meaning.
>>
>> We can do this first by truly rewarding work and family in government 
>> policies, in employment policies, in community practices. We also have 
>> to realize that there are some areas of our country whether in urban 
>> areas or poor rural areas like South Texas or Eastern Arkansas, where 
>> these problems are going to be more prevalent just because there is no 
>> opportunity. There is only so much temptation some people can stand 
>> when they turn up against a brick wall day after day after day.
>>
>> And if we can spread the benefits of education and free enterprise to 
>> those who have been denied them too long and who are isolated in 
>> enclaves in this country, then we have a moral obligation to do it.
>>
>> It will be good for our country.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *Third, and perhaps most important of all, we have to give every child 
>> in this country and every adult, who still needs it, the opportunity 
>> to get a good education.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *President Johnson understood that and now that I am privileged to 
>> have this job, and to look back across the whole sweep of American 
>> history, I can appreciate how truly historic his commitment to the 
>> simple idea that every child in those country ought to have an 
>> opportunity to get a good, safe, decent, fulfilling education was.*
>>
>> *It was revolutionary then, and it is revolutionary today.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Today that matters more than ever. I am trying to do my part. I am 
>> fighting hard against efforts to roll back family security, aid to 
>> distressed communities, and support for education. I want it to be 
>> easier for poor children to get off to a good start in school. I want 
>> it to be easier for everybody to go to college and stay there, not 
>> harder.
>>
>> *_I want to mend affirmative action but I do not think America is at a 
>> place today where we can end it._ *The evidence of the last several 
>> weeks shows that.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*But let us remember the people marching in Washington today are 
>> right about one fundamental thing. At its base, this issue of race is 
>> not about government, or political leaders. It is about what is in the 
>> heart and minds and life of the American people. *_There will be no 
>> progress in the absence of real responsibility on the part of all 
>> Americans. Nowhere is that responsibility more important than in our 
>> efforts to promote public safety. And preserve the rule of law.
>>
>> Law and order is the first responsibility of government. Our citizens 
>> must respect the law and those who enforce it.
>>
>> Police have a life and death responsibility, never, never to abuse the 
>> power granted them by the people. We know, by the way, what works in 
>> fighting crime, also happens to improve relationships between the races.
>>
>> What works in fighting crime is community policing. We have seen it 
>> working all across America. The crime rate is down. The murder rate is 
>> down. Where people relate to each other across the lines of police and 
>> community in an open, honest, respectful, supportive way.
>>
>> We can lower crime and raise the state of race relations in America if 
>> we will remember this simple truth.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> But if this is going to work, police departments have to be fair. And 
>> engaged with, not estranged from, their communities. I am committed to 
>> making this kind of community policing a reality all across our country.
>>
>> But you must be committed to making it a reality in your communities. 
>> We have to root out the remnants of racism in our police departments. 
>> We've got to get it out of our entire criminal justice system. But 
>> just as the police have a sacred duty to protect the community fairly, 
>> all of our citizens have a sacred responsibility to respect the 
>> police, to teach our young people to respect them, and then to support 
>> them and work with them so that they can succeed in making us safer.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> Let's not forget most police officers, of whatever race, are honest 
>> people who love the law and put their lives on the lines so that the 
>> citizens they're protecting can lead decent, secure lives.
>>
>> So that their children can grow up to do the same.
>>
>> *Finally, I want to say on the day of this march a moment about a 
>> crucial area of responsibility. The responsibility of fatherhood. *The 
>> single biggest social problem in our society may be the growing 
>> absence of fathers from their children's homes because it contributes 
>> to so many other social problems. One child in four grows up in a 
>> fatherless home without a father to help guide, without a father to 
>> care, without a father to teach boys to be men, and to teach girls to 
>> expect respect from men. It's harder.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *There are a lot of mothers out there doing a magnificent job alone. A 
>> magnificent job alone, but it is harder.*
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> *This, of course, is not a black problem or a Latino problem. Or a 
>> white problem. It is an American problem, but it aggravates the 
>> conditions of the racial divide.*
>>
>> I know from my own life it is harder because my own father died before 
>> I was born and my stepfather's battle with alcohol kept him from being 
>> the father he might have been. But for all fathers, parenting is not 
>> easy and every parent makes mistakes. I know that too from my own 
>> experience. The point is that we need people to be there for their 
>> children. Day after day. Building a family is the hardest job a man 
>> can do, but it's also the most important.
>>
>> To those who are neglecting their children, I say it is not too late. 
>> Your children still need you. To those who only send money in the form 
>> of child support, I say, keep sending the checks. Your kids count on 
>> them.
>>
>> And we'll catch you and enforce the law, if you stop.
>>
>> But, the message of this march today, one message is that your money 
>> is no replacement for your guiding, your caring, your loving the 
>> children you brought into this world.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*We can only build strong families when men and women respect each 
>> other, when they have partnerships, when men are as involved in the 
>> homeplace as women have become involved in the workplace.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> It means, among other things, that we must keep working until we end 
>> domestic violence against women and children.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> I hope those men in Washington today pledge, among other things, to 
>> never, never raise their hand in violence against a woman.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*So today, my fellow Americans, I honor the black men marching in 
>> Washington to demonstrate their commitment to themselves, their 
>> families and their communities. I honor the millions of men and women 
>> in America, the vast majority of every color, who without fanfare or 
>> recognition, do what it takes to be good fathers and good mothers, 
>> good workers and good citizens. They all deserve the thanks of America.*_
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*But, when we leave here today, what are you going to do?
>> *_
>>
>> _*What are you going to do?
>> *_
>>
>> _*Let all of us who want to stand up against racism do our part to 
>> roll back the divide.
>> *_
>>
>> Begin by seeking out people in the workplace, the classroom, the 
>> community, the neighborhood across town, the places of worship, to 
>> actually sit down and have those honest conversations I talked about. 
>> Conversations where we speak openly and listen and understand how 
>> others view this world of ours.
>>
>> Make no mistake about it, we can bridge this great divide. This is, 
>> after all, a very great country and we have become great by what we 
>> have overcome. We have the world's strongest economy and it's on the 
>> move, but we've really lasted because we have understood that our 
>> success could never be measured solely by the size of our gross 
>> national product.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> I believe the march in Washington today spawned such an outpouring 
>> because it is a reflection of something deeper and stronger that is 
>> running throughout our American community. I believe that in millions 
>> and millions of different ways our entire country is reasserting our 
>> commitment to the bedrock values that made our country great and that 
>> make life worth living.
>>
>> The great divides of the past call for and were addressed by legal and 
>> legislative changes. They were addressed by leaders like Lyndon 
>> Johnson, who passed the civil rights act and the voting rights act.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> And, to be sure, this great divide requires a public response by 
>> democratically elected leaders, but today we are really dealing, and 
>> we know it, with problems that grow in large measure out of the way 
>> all of us look at the world with our minds and the way we feel about 
>> the world with our hearts.
>>
>> And therefore while leaders and legislation may be important, this is 
>> work that has to be done by every single one of you.
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>> _*And this is the ultimate test of our democracy, for today the house 
>> divided exists largely in the minds and hearts of the American people.
>> *_
>>
>> _*And it must be united there, in the minds and hearts of our people.* _
>>
>> _*Yes, there are some who would poison our progress by selling short 
>> the great character of our people and our enormous capacity to change 
>> and grow. *_
>>
>> _*But they will not win the day.
>> *_
>>
>> *_We will win the day._
>> *
>>
>> (APPLAUSE)
>>
>>
>>     Text of Minister Louis Farrakhan's Speech at the "Million Man March"
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Minister Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam
>> Christopher Farrakhan, son of Louis Farrakhan
>>
>> October 16, 1995, Washington, D.C.
>>
>> *Christopher Farrakhan:* In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the 
>> Merciful, I bear witness that there is no god but Allah who came in 
>> the person of Master Farad Muhammad. And I bear witness that The 
>> Honorable Elijah Muhammad is his true servant. And I further bear 
>> witness that Minister Louis Farrakhan is his divine reminder in our 
>> midst. On behalf of my family, my mother, my wife at home, and my 
>> children, we have been the brunt of a whole lot of attacks. And those 
>> of you who know the plight of my father knows that whenever any black 
>> man is in trouble, he always comes to your aid. _*Never be ashamed to 
>> stand up and say that Farrakhan is a friend of the black man. *_And I 
>> want all- and I challenge all of the leaders that when you are asked 
>> by your enemies and those who oppressed us.  _*My father is no bigot.  
>> He is no racist.  He is no anti-Semite. *_And we have the history in 
>> our archives that will prove everything that I'm telling you. So from 
>> the president on down to everybody who's under him, Farrakhan is in 
>> your midst today. You don't have to think about what he said or listen 
>> to anybody about what he said. Call him yourself and ask him what he 
>> said. I present to you the man that God has given this vision to, for 
>> without the vision the people will perish. And I say to you that my 
>> father is here to speak to you, so listen to him very carefully. I 
>> bring to you my leader, my teacher, my guide, my father, your brother, 
>> The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Let us receive him. Brother 
>> Farrakhan.
>>
>> - * -
>>
>> *Minister Louis Farrakhan:* Thank you. In the name of Allah the 
>> Beneficent, the Merciful, we thank him for his prophets and the 
>> scriptures which they brought. We thank him for Moses and the Torah. 
>> We thank him for Jesus and the Gospel. We thank him for Mohammed and 
>> the Koran. Peace be upon these worthy servants of Allah.
>>
>> I am so grateful to Allah for his intervention in our affairs in the 
>> person of Master Farad Muhammad, the great mahdi [sp] who came among 
>> us and raised from among us a divine leader, teacher and guide, his 
>> messenger to us, The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad [sp]. I greet all 
>> of you, my dear and wonderful brothers, with the greeting words of 
>> peace. We say it in the Arabic language, a salaam aleykum.
>>
>> I would like to thank all of those known and unknown persons who 
>> worked to make this day of atonement and reconciliation a reality. My 
>> thanks and my extreme gratitude to The Reverend Benjamin Chavis and to 
>> all of the members of the national organizing committees, to all of 
>> the local organizing committees, to Dr. Dorothy Hyde [sp] and the 
>> National Council of Negro Women, and all of the sisters who were 
>> involved in the planning of the Million Man March. Of course, if I 
>> named all those persons whom I know helped to make this event a 
>> reality, it would take a tremendous amount of time.
>>
>> But suffice it to say that we are grateful to all who made this day 
>> possible. We are grateful to those who put up the sound and the 
>> screens. We are grateful to all of the technical people who have made 
>> this possible, to all of the security personnel. My heartfelt thanks 
>> to Mr. Robert Johnson, the CEO of BET, for having The Reverend Chavis, 
>> Dr. Cornell West [sp], and myself with Bev Smith on our voices to help 
>> inform our people of the purpose for the Million Man March and for 
>> taking out a full-page endorsing the march in the USA Today newspaper. 
>> We thank all of the black newspapers, radio stations, commentators, 
>> disc jockeys who really talked up the Million Man March.
>>
>> The mass media did not get involved until the last minute, and it 
>> seemed as though they got involved with another agenda in mind. But to 
>> all of you- and we thank you, mass media, too, because even though you 
>> planned it for mischief, God planned it for good. So we thank you very 
>> much for helping to make this day successful. And to all who 
>> participated in the program and who helped to formulate the program, 
>> to all the singers, the dancers, the performers, the speakers, to all 
>> of the celebrities, to the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
>> to all of the religious leaders who are present, to all of the state 
>> legislators, to everyone that made this day possible, words are 
>> inadequate to express our heartfelt thanks.
>>
>> But really, in truth, all thanks, all praise, all honor, all glory 
>> belongs to God, for this is the day that the Lord has made. So we are 
>> here rejoicing in this day. Certainly, to all of the members of the 
>> Nation of Islam, to all of the ministers, captains, secretaries, and 
>> sister captains, to all of the foot soldiers who worked to raise money 
>> that this day could be produced, and hopefully all of our vendors be 
>> paid, it is not adequate to express our deep sense of personal 
>> gratitude, so all I can say is thanks, thanks, thanks. Thank you.
>>
>> Now, where are we gathered? We're standing at the steps of the United 
>> States Capitol. I'm looking at the Washington Monument and beyond it 
>> to the Lincoln Memorial and beyond that, to the left, to your right, 
>> the Jefferson Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of 
>> these United States, and he was the man who allegedly freed us. 
>> Abraham Lincoln saw in his day what President Clinton sees in this 
>> day. He saw the great divide between black and white. Abraham Lincoln 
>> and Bill Clinton see what the Kerner Commission saw 30 years ago when 
>> they said that this nation was moving toward two Americas, one black, 
>> one white, separate and unequal. And the Kerner Commission revisited 
>> their findings 25 years later and saw that America was worse today 
>> than it was in the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. There's still two 
>> Americas, one black, one white, separate and unequal. Abraham Lincoln, 
>> when he saw this great divide, he pondered a solution of separation. 
>> Abraham Lincoln said he never was in favor of our being jurors or 
>> having equal status with the whites of this nation. Abraham Lincoln 
>> said that if there were to be a superior or inferior, he would rather 
>> the superior position be assigned to the white race.
>>
>> There in the middle of this mall is the Washington Monument, 555 feet 
>> high. But if we put a 1 in front of that 555 feet, we get 1555, the 
>> year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, 
>> Virginia, as slaves. In the background is the Jefferson and Lincoln 
>> Memorial. Each one of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham 
>> Lincoln, the 16th president, Thomas Jefferson the third president, and 
>> 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so deep about this number 19? Why are 
>> we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19, when you have 
>> a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant, and when you have a one 
>> standing by the nine, it means that there's something secret that has 
>> to be unfolded. Right here on this mall where we are standing, 
>> according to books written on Washington, D.C., slaves used to be 
>> brought right here on this mall in chains, to be sold up and down the 
>> eastern seaboard. Right along this mall, going over to the White 
>> House, our fathers were sold into slavery. But George Washington, the 
>> first president of the United States, said he feared that before too 
>> many years passed over his head, this slave would prove to become a 
>> most troublesome species of property. Thomas Jefferson said he 
>> trembled for this country when he reflected that God was just and that 
>> his justice could not sleep forever. Well, the day that these 
>> presidents feared has now come to pass, for on this mall here we stand 
>> in the capital of America, and the layout of this great city, laid out 
>> by a black man, Benjamin Banneker, this is all placed and based in a 
>> secret Masonic ritual, and at the core of the secret of that ritual is 
>> the black man. Not far from here is the White House, and the first 
>> president of this land, George Washington, who was a grand master of 
>> the Masonic Order, laid the foundation, the cornerstone, of this 
>> Capitol building where we stand. George was a slave-owner. George was 
>> a slave-owner.
>>
>> Now, the president spoke today and he wanted to heal the great divide. 
>> But I respectfully suggest to the president, you did not dig deep 
>> enough at the malady that divides black and white in order to affect a 
>> solution to the problem. And so today we have to deal with the root so 
>> that perhaps a healing can take place.
>>
>> Now, this obelisk at the Washington Monument is Egyptian, and this 
>> whole layout is reminiscent of our great historic past, Egypt. And if 
>> you look at the original seal of the United States, published by the 
>> Department of State in 1909, Gaylord Hunt wrote that late in the 
>> afternoon of July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that Dr. 
>> Benjamin Franklin, Mr. John Adams and Mr. Thomas Jefferson be a 
>> committee to prepare a device for a seal of the United States of 
>> America. In the design proposed by the first committee, the face of 
>> the seal was a coat of arms measured in six quarters. That number is 
>> significant. Six quarters with emblems representing England, Scotland, 
>> Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland, the countries from which the 
>> new nation had been peopled. The eye of Providence in a radiant 
>> triangle and the motto 'E Pluribus Unum' were also proposed for the 
>> face of the seal. Even though the country was populated by so-called 
>> Indians and black slaves were brought to build the country, the 
>> official seal of the country was never designed to reflect our 
>> presence, only that of the European immigrants. The seal and the 
>> Constitution reflect the thinking of the Founding Fathers that this 
>> was to be a nation by white people and for white people. Native 
>> Americans, blacks, and all other non-white people were to be the 
>> burden-bearers for the real citizens of this nation.
>>
>> For the back of the seal, the committee suggested a picture of a 
>> pharaoh sitting in an open chariot with a crown on his head and a 
>> sword in his hand passing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in 
>> pursuit of the Israelites. And hovering over the sea was to be shown a 
>> pillar of fire in a cloud, expressive of the divine presence and 
>> command. And raised from this pillar of fire were to be shown beaming 
>> down on Moses standing on the shore extending his hand over the sea 
>> causing it to overwhelm the pharaoh. The motto for the reverse was 
>> 'Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.' Let me say it again, 
>> 'Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.' Now, why did they mention 
>> pharaoh? I heard the president say today E Pluribus Unum, out of many, 
>> one. But in the past out of many comes one meant out of many Europeans 
>> come one people. The question today is out of the many Asians, the 
>> many Arabs, the many Native Americans, the many blacks, the many 
>> people of color who populate this country, do you mean for them to be 
>> made into the one? If so, truth has to be spoken to justice. We can't 
>> cover things up, cover them over, give it a pretty sound to make 
>> people feel good. We have to go to the root of the problem.
>>
>> Now, why have you come today? You came, not at the call of Louis 
>> Farrakhan, but you have gathered here at the call of God, for it is 
>> only the call of Almighty God, no matter whom- through whom that call 
>> came, that could generate this kind of outpouring. God called us here 
>> to this place at this time for a very specific reason.
>>
>> And now I want to say, my brothers, this is a very pregnant moment, 
>> pregnant with the possibility of tremendous change in our status in 
>> America and in the world. And although the call was made through me, 
>> many have tried to distance the beauty of this idea from the person 
>> through whom the idea and the call was made. Some have done it 
>> mistakenly, and others have done it in a malicious and vicious manner. 
>> Brothers and sisters, there is no human being through whom God brings 
>> an idea that history doesn't marry the idea with that human being no 
>> matter what defect was in that human being's character. You can't 
>> separate Newton from the law that Newton discovered, nor can you 
>> separate Einstein from the theory of relativity. It would be silly to 
>> try to separate Moses from the Torah or Jesus from the Gospel or 
>> Mohammed from the Koran. Well, you said, ' Farrakhan, you ain't no 
>> Moses. You ain't no Jesus, and you're not no Mohammed. You have a 
>> defect in your character.' Well, that certainly may be so. However, 
>> according to the way the Bible reads, there is no prophet of God 
>> written of in the Bible that did not have a defect in his character. 
>> But I have never heard any member of the faith of Judaism separate 
>> David from the Psalms because of what happened in David's life, and 
>> you never separated Solomon from the building of the temple because 
>> they say he had 1,000 concubines. And you never separated any of the 
>> great servants of God. So today, whether you like it or not, God 
>> brought the idea through me. And he didn't bring it through me because 
>> my heart was dark with hatred and anti-Semitism. He didn't bring it 
>> through me because my heart was dark and I'm filled with hatred for 
>> white people and for the human family of the planet. If my heart were 
>> that dark, how is the message so bright, the message so clear, the 
>> response so magnificent?
>>
>> And so we stand here today at this historic moment. We are standing in 
>> the place of those who could not make it here today. We are standing 
>> on the blood of our ancestors. We are standing on the blood of those 
>> who died in the middle passage, who died in the fields and swamps of 
>> America, who died hanging from trees in the South, who died in the 
>> cells of their jailers, who died on the highways and who died in the 
>> fratricidal conflict that rages within our community. We are standing 
>> on the sacrifice of the lives of those heroes, our great men and 
>> women, that we today may accept the responsibility that life imposes 
>> upon each traveler who comes this way. We must accept the 
>> responsibility that God has put upon us not only to be good husbands 
>> and fathers and builders of our community, but God is now calling up 
>> the despised and the rejected to become the cornerstone and the 
>> builders of a new world.
>>
>> And so our brief subject today is taken from the American Constitution 
>> and these words, 'Toward a more perfect union.' Toward a more perfect 
>> union. Now, when you use the word more with perfect, that which is 
>> perfect is that which has been brought to completion. So when you use 
>> more perfect, you're either saying that what you call perfect is 
>> perfect for that stage of its development, but not yet complete. When 
>> Jefferson said, 'Toward a more perfect union,' he was admitting that 
>> the union was not perfect, that it was not finished, that work had to 
>> be done. _*And so we are gathered here today not to bash somebody 
>> else. We're not gathered here to say all of the evils of this nation, 
>> but we are gathered here to collect ourselves for a responsibility 
>> that God is placing on our shoulders to move this nation toward a more 
>> perfect union.*_
>>
>> Now, when you look at the word toward, toward, it means in the 
>> direction of, in furtherance or partial fulfillment of, with a view to 
>> obtaining or having, shortly before, coming soon, imminent, going on, 
>> in progress. Well, that's right. We're in progress toward a perfect 
>> union. Union means bringing elements or components into unity. It is 
>> something formed by uniting two or more things. It is a number of 
>> persons, states, et cetera, which are joined or associated together 
>> for some common purpose. _*We're not here to tear down America. 
>> America is tearing itself down. We are here to rebuild the wasted 
>> cities. *_What we have in the word toward is motion. The Honorable 
>> Elijah Mohammed taught us that motion is the first law of the 
>> universe. This motion which takes us from one point to another shows 
>> that we are evolving and we are a part of a universe that is ever 
>> evolving. We are on an evolutionary course that will bring us to 
>> perfection or completion of the process toward a perfect union with 
>> God. In the word toward, there is a law, and that law is everything 
>> that is created is in harmony with the law of evolution, change. 
>> Nothing is standing still. It is either moving toward perfection or 
>> moving toward disintegration or under certain circumstances doing both 
>> things at the same time. The word for this evolutionary changing, 
>> affecting stage after stage until we reach perfection, in Arabic it is 
>> called rab, and from the word rab, you get the word rabbi, or teacher, 
>> one who nourishes a people from one stage and brings them to another 
>> stage.
>>
>> Well, if we are in motion, and we are, motion toward perfection, and 
>> we are, there can be no motion toward perfection without the lord who 
>> created the law of evolution and is the master of the changes. Our 
>> first motion then must be toward the god who created the law of the 
>> evolution of our being. And if our motion toward Him is right and 
>> proper, then our motion toward a perfect union with each other and 
>> with government and with the peoples of the world will be perfected. 
>> So let us start where the process leading to the perfect union must 
>> first be seen.
>>
>> Now, brothers and sisters, the day of atonement is established by God 
>> to help us achieve a closer tie with the source of wisdom, knowledge, 
>> understanding and power, for it is only through a closer union or tie 
>> with Him who created us all, with Him who has power over all things, 
>> that we can draw power, knowledge, wisdom and understanding, from Him 
>> that we may be enabled to change the realities of our life. A perfect 
>> union with God is the idea at the base of atonement.
>>
>> Now, atonement demands of us eight steps. In fact, atonement is the 
>> fifth step in an eight-stage process. Look at our division, not here, 
>> out there. We, as a people who have been fractured, divided and 
>> destroyed because of our division, now must move toward a perfect 
>> union. Let's look at a speech, delivered by a white slave holder on 
>> the banks of the James River in 1712, 68 years before our former slave 
>> masters permitted us to join the Christian faith. Listen to what he 
>> said. He said, 'In my bag, I have a foolproof method of controlling 
>> black slaves. I guarantee every one of you, if installed correctly, it 
>> will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple. 
>> Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined 
>> a number of differences among the slaves, and I take these differences 
>> and I make them bigger. I use fear, distrust and envy for control 
>> purposes.' I want you to listen. What are those three things? Fear, 
>> envy, distrust. For what purpose? Control. To control who? The slave. 
>> Who is the slave? Us. Listen. He said, 'These methods have worked on 
>> my modest plantation in the West Indies, and they will work throughout 
>> the South. Now, take this simple little list, and think about it. On 
>> the top of my list is Age, but it's only there because it starts with 
>> an A, and the second is color or shade. There's intelligence, sex, 
>> size of plantation, status of plantation, attitude of owners, whether 
>> the slaves live in the valley or on a hill, north, east, south or 
>> west, have fine hair or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you 
>> have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action. But 
>> before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust, 
>> and envy is stronger than adulation, respect or admiration. The black 
>> slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry it on and will 
>> become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe 
>> thousands of years. Now, don't forget, you must pitch the old black 
>> male against the young black male and the young black male against the 
>> old black male. You must use the female against the male, and you must 
>> use the male against the female. You must use the dark-skinned slave 
>> against the light-skinned slave and the light-skinned slave against 
>> the dark-skinned slave. You must also have your white servants and 
>> overseers distrust all blacks. But it is necessary that your slaves 
>> trust and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust only us. 
>> Gentlemen, these keys are your keys to control. Use them. Never miss 
>> an opportunity. And if used intensely for one year, the slaves 
>> themselves will remain perpetually distrustful. Thank you, gentlemen.' 
>> End of quote.
>>
>> So spoke Willy Lynch [sp] 283 years ago. And so, as a consequence, we, 
>> as a people, now have been fractured, divided, and destroyed, filled 
>> with fear, distrust, and envy. Therefore, because of fear, envy, and 
>> distrust, of one another, many of us as leaders, teachers, educators, 
>> pastors, and persons, are still under the control mechanism of our 
>> former slave masters and their children.
>>
>> And now, in spite of all that division, in spite of all that 
>> divisiveness, we responded to a call, and look at what is present here 
>> today. We have here those brothers with means and those who have no 
>> means, those who are light and those who are dark, those who are 
>> educated, those who are uneducated; those who are business people, 
>> those who don't know anything about business; those who are young, 
>> those who are old; those who are scientific, those who know nothing of 
>> science; those who are religious, and those who are irreligious; those 
>> who are Christian, those who are Muslim, those who are Baptist, those 
>> who are Methodist, those who are Episcopalian, those of traditional 
>> African religion. We've got them all here today. And why did we come? 
>> We came because we want to move toward a more perfect union.
>>
>> And if you notice, the press triggered every one of those divisions. 
>> 'You shouldn't come, you're a Christian; that's a Muslim thing. You 
>> shouldn't come, you're too intelligent to follow hate. You shouldn't 
>> come, look at what they did, they excluded women, you see?' They 
>> played all the cards. They pulled all the strings. Oh, but you better 
>> look again, Willie. There's a new black man in America today, a new 
>> black woman in America today, a new black woman in America today.
>>
>> Now, brothers, there's a social benefit of our gathering here today, 
>> and that is that from this day forward we can never again see 
>> ourselves through the narrow eyes of the limitation of the boundaries 
>> of our own fraternal, civic, political, religious, street organization 
>> or professional organization. We are forced by the magnitude of what 
>> we see here today that whenever you return to your cities and you see 
>> a black man, a black woman, don't ask him, 'What is your social, 
>> political or religious affiliation, or what is your status.' Know that 
>> he is your brother, and if he needs help, you are obligated to help 
>> your brother because he is your brother. You must live beyond the 
>> narrow restrictions of the divisions that have been imposed upon us.
>>
>> Well, some of us are here because it's history-making. Some of us are 
>> here because it's a march through which we can express anger and rage 
>> with America for what she has and is doing to us. So we're here for 
>> many reasons. But the basic reason that this was called was for 
>> atonement and reconciliation. So it is necessary for me, in as short a 
>> time as possible, to give as full an explanation of atonement as possible.
>>
>> As I said earlier, atonement is the fifth stage in an eight-stage 
>> process. So let's go back to the first stage of the process that 
>> brings us into perfect union with God. And the first stage is the most 
>> difficult of all, because when we are wrong and we are not aware of 
>> it, someone has to point out the wrong. I want to say this again, but 
>> I want to say it slowly, and I really want each one of these points to 
>> sink in. How many of us in this audience at some time or another have 
>> been wrong? Will we just raise our hands?
>>
>> OK. Now, when we are wrong, Lord knows we want to be right. The most 
>> difficult thing is when somebody points it out. Do we accept it? Do we 
>> reject it? Do we hate the person who pointed out our wrong? How do we 
>> treat the person who points out our wrong?
>>
>> Now, I want you to follow me. When you go to a doctor, you're not 
>> feeling well. The doctor says, 'What's wrong?' 'Well, I don't know, 
>> Doc.' 'Well, where's the pain? Tell me something about the symptoms.' 
>> You want the doctor to make a correct diagnosis. You don't smack the 
>> doctor when he points out what's wrong. You don't hate the doctor when 
>> he points out what's wrong. You say, 'Thank you, Doctor. What's my 
>> prescription for healing?' Are we all right?
>>
>> Now, look. Whoever is entrusted with the task of pointing out wrong, 
>> depending on the nature of the circumstances, is not always loved. In 
>> fact, more than likely, that person is going to be hated and 
>> misunderstood. Such persons are generally hated because no one wants 
>> to be shown as being wrong, particularly, when you're dealing with 
>> governments, with principalities, with powers, with rulers, with 
>> administrations; when you're dealing with forces which have become 
>> entrenched in the evil, intractable and unyielding, their power 
>> produces an arrogance, and their arrogance produces a blindness. And 
>> out of that evil state of mind, they will do all manner of evil to the 
>> person who points out their wrong, even though you're doing good for 
>> them by pointing out where America went wrong.
>>
>> Now Martin Luther King, Jr., was probably one of the most patriotic 
>> Americans, more patriotic than George Washington, more patriotic than 
>> Thomas Jefferson, more patriotic than many of the presidents, because 
>> he had the courage to point out what was wrong in this society. And 
>> because he pointed out what was wrong, he was evil spoken of, 
>> vilified, maligned, hated, and eventually murdered.
>>
>> Brother Malcolm had that same road to travel. He pointed out what was 
>> wrong in the society, and he had to suffer for pointing out what was 
>> wrong, and he ultimately died on the altar for pointing out what was 
>> wrong inside the nation, outside the nation, to the greater nation and 
>> to the smaller nation.
>>
>> We're talking about moving toward a perfect union. Well, pointing out 
>> fault, pointing out our wrongs, is the first step. The second step is 
>> to acknowledge. 'Oh, thank you. Oh, man, I'm wrong.' To acknowledge 
>> means to admit the existence, the reality, or the truth of some 
>> reality. It is to recognize as being valid or having force and power. 
>> It is to express thanks, appreciation or gratitude. So in this 
>> context, the word 'acknowledgement' means to be in a state of 
>> recognition of the truth of the fact that we have been wrong. This is 
>> the second step.
>>
>> Well, the third step is that after you know you're wrong and you 
>> acknowledge it to yourself, who else knows it except you confess it? 
>> You say well, yeah, all right, but who should I confess to, and why 
>> should I confess? The Bible says confession is good for the soul. Now, 
>> brothers, I know I don't have a lot of time, but the soul is the 
>> essence of a person's being, and when the soul is covered with guilt 
>> from sin and wrong-doing, the mind and the actions of the person 
>> reflect the condition of the soul. So, to free the soul or the essence 
>> of man from its burden, one must acknowledge one's wrong, but then one 
>> must confess. The Holy Koran says it like this, 'I have been greatly 
>> unjust to myself and I confess my faults. So grant me protection 
>> against all my faults, for none grants protection against faults but 
>> thee.' It is only through confession that we can be granted protection 
>> from the consequences of our faults, for every deed has a consequence. 
>> And we can never be granted protection against a fault that we refuse 
>> to acknowledge or that we are unwilling to confess.
>>
>> So, look, who should you confess to? 'I don't want to confess.' Who 
>> should you confess to? Who should I confess to? Who should we confess to?
>>
>> First, you confess to God. And every one of us that are here today 
>> that know that we have done wrong, we have to go to God and speak to 
>> Him in the privacy of our room and confess. He already knows, but when 
>> you confess, you're relieving your soul of the burden that is there.
>>
>> But then, the hardest part is to go to the person or persons whom your 
>> fault has ill affected and confess to them. That's hard. That's hard.
>>
>> But, if we want a perfect union, we have to confess the fault. But 
>> what happens after confession? There must be repentance. When you 
>> repent, you feel remorse of contrition or shame for the past conduct 
>> which was and is wrong and sinful. It means to feel contrition or 
>> self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do. And it is the 
>> experiencing of such regret for past conduct that involves the 
>> changing of our mind toward that sin. So until we repent and feel 
>> sick, sorry, over what we have done, we can never, never change our 
>> mind toward that thing. And if you don't repent, you'll do it over and 
>> over and over again. But to stop it where it is- and black men, we've 
>> got to stop what we're doing where it is. We cannot continue the 
>> destruction of our lives and the destruction of our community. But 
>> that change can't come until we feel sorry.
>>
>> I heard my brother from the West Coast say today, 'I atone to the 
>> mothers for the death of the babies caused by our senseless slaughter 
>> of one another.' See, when he feels sorry deep down inside, he's going 
>> to make a change. That man has a change in his mind. That man has a 
>> change in his heart. His soul has been unburdened and released from 
>> the pain of that sin. But you've got to go one step further, because 
>> after you've acknowledged it, confessed it, repented, you come to the 
>> fifth stage. Now you've got to do something about it.
>>
>> Now, look, brothers, sisters, some people don't mind confessing. Some 
>> people don't mind making some slight repentance. But when it comes to 
>> doing something about the evil that we've done, we fall short. But 
>> atonement means satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury. It 
>> means to make amends. It means penance, expiation, compensation, and 
>> recompense made or done, for an injury or wrong. So atonement means we 
>> must be willing to do something in expiation of our sins. *_So we 
>> can't just have a good time today and say we made history in 
>> Washington. We've got to resolve today that we're going back home to 
>> do something about what's going on in our lives and in our families 
>> and in our communities. _
>> *
>>
>> [Applause.]
>>
>> Now, are we all right? Can you hang with me a few more? Now, brothers 
>> and sisters, if we make atonement, it leads to the sixth stage, and 
>> the sixth stage is forgiveness. Now, so many of us want forgiveness, 
>> but we don't want to go through the process that leads to it, and so 
>> when we say we forgive, we forgive from our lips, but we have never 
>> pardoned in the heart, so the injury still remains.
>>
>> My dear family, my dear brothers, we need forgiveness. God is always 
>> ready to forgive us for our failures. Forgiveness means to grant 
>> pardon for, or remission of, an offense or sin. It is to absolve, to 
>> clear, to exonerate and to liberate. Boy, that's something. _*See, 
>> you're not liberated until you can forgive.*_ You're not liberated 
>> from the evil effect of our own sin until we can ask God for 
>> forgiveness and then forgive others. And this is why in the Lord's 
>> Prayer you say, 'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who 
>> trespass against us.' So it means to cease to feel offense and 
>> resentment against another for the harm done by an offender. It means 
>> to wipe the slate clean.
>>
>> And then that leads to the seventh stage. You know, I like to liken 
>> this to music, because in music, the seventh note is called a leading 
>> tone - [singing] do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti - you can't stop there - 
>> ti - it leaves you hung up - ti - what you got to get back to? - do. 
>> So, whatever you started with, when you reach the eighth note, you're 
>> back to where you started, only at a higher vibration.
>>
>> Now, look at this. The seventh tone, the leading tone, that leads to 
>> the perfect union with God, is reconciliation and restoration, because 
>> after forgiveness, now, we are going to be restored to what? To our 
>> original position. To restore, to reconcile means to become friendly, 
>> peaceable again, to put hostile persons into a state of agreement or 
>> harmony, to make compatible or to compose or settle what it was that 
>> made for division. It means to resolve differences. It can mean to 
>> establish or reestablish a close relationship between previously 
>> hostile persons. So restoration means the act of returning something 
>> to an original or unimpaired condition.
>>
>> Now, when you're back to an unimpaired position, you have reached the 
>> eighth stage, which is perfect union. And when we go through all these 
>> steps, there is no difference between us that we can't heal. There's a 
>> balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. There is a balm in Gilead to 
>> make the wounded whole. We are a wounded people, but we are being healed.
>>
>> _*But, President Clinton, America is also wounded, and there's 
>> hostility now in the great divide between the people. Socially, the 
>> fabric of America is being torn apart, and it's black against black, 
>> black against white, white against white, white against black, yellow 
>> against brown, brown against yellow. **We are being torn apart, and we 
>> can't gloss it over with nice speeches, my dear Mr. President.*_
>>
>> _*Sir, with all due respect, that was a great speech you made today. 
>> And you praised the marchers, and they are worthy of praise. You 
>> honored the marchers, and they are worthy of honor. But, of course, 
>> you spoke ill, indirectly, of me as a purveyor of malice and hatred. I 
>> must hasten to tell you, Mr. President, that I'm not a malicious 
>> person, and I'm not filled with malice. But I must tell you that I 
>> come in the tradition of the doctor who has to point out, with truth, 
>> what's wrong. And the pain is that power has made America arrogant. 
>> Power and wealth has made America spiritually blind. And **the power 
>> and the arrogance of America makes you refuse to hear a child of your 
>> slaves pointing out the wrong in your society.*_
>>
>> But I think if you could clear the scales from your eyes, sir, and 
>> give ear to what we say, perhaps, oh, perhaps, what these great 
>> speakers who spoke before me said, and my great and wonderful brother, 
>> the Reverend Jesse Jackson said; and perhaps, just perhaps, from the 
>> children of slaves might come a solution to this pharaoh and this 
>> Egypt, as it was with Joseph, when they had to get him out of prison 
>> and wash him up and clean him up because Pharaoh had some troubling 
>> dreams that he didn't have any answer to. And he called his 
>> soothsayers, and he called the people that read the stars, and he 
>> called all his advisers, but nobody could help him to solve the 
>> problem. But he had to go to the children of slaves, because he heard 
>> that there was one in prison who knew the interpretation of dreams. 
>> And he said, 'Bring him. Bring him, and let me hear what he has to say.'
>>
>> God has put it for you in the Scriptures, Mr. President. Belshazzar 
>> and Nebuchadnezzar couldn't read the handwriting on the wall. But 
>> Daniel had to read the handwriting for him. [quotes in Hebrew.] 'Your 
>> kingdom has been weighed in the palace and has been found wanting.'
>>
>> _*Do you want a solution to the dilemma that America faces? Then don't 
>> look at our skin color, because racism will cause you to reject 
>> salvation if it comes in the skin of a black person. Don't look at the 
>> kinkiness of our hair and the broadness of our nose and the thickness 
>> of our lips, but listen to the beat of our hearts and the pulsating 
>> rhythm of the truth. Perhaps, perhaps, you might be as wise as the 
>> pharaoh and save this great nation.*_
>>
>> And so the eighth stage is perfect union with God. And in the Koran it 
>> reads, 'Oh, soul that is at rest, well pleased with thy Lord, and well 
>> pleasing.' Oh, brothers, brothers, brothers, you don't know what it's 
>> like to be free. Freedom can't come from white folks. Freedom can't 
>> come from staying here and petitioning this great government. We're 
>> here to make a statement to the great government, but not to beg them. 
>> Freedom cannot come from no one but the God who can liberate the soul 
>> from the burden of sin. And this is why Jesus said, 'Come unto me,' 
>> not 'some' who are heavy laden, but 'all' that are heavy laden, and I 
>> will give you rest.
>>
>> But, listen, all of these eight steps take place in a process called 
>> time. And whenever a nation is involved in sin, to the point that God 
>> intends to judge and destroy that nation, He always sends someone to 
>> make that nation or people know their sins, to reflect on it, to 
>> acknowledge, to confess, to repent, and to atone, that they might find 
>> forgiveness with God.
>>
>> America, oh America. This great city of Washington is like Jerusalem. 
>> And the Bible says, 'Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, you that stoneth and 
>> killeth the prophets of God.' Right from this beautiful Capitol and 
>> from the beautiful White House have come commands to kill the 
>> prophets. Garvey's trouble came from this house. Martin Luther King's 
>> trouble came from this house. Malcolm's trouble came from this house. 
>> W.E.B. Dubois' trouble came from this house. And from this house, you 
>> stoned and killed the prophets of God that would have liberated black 
>> people, liberated America. But I stand here today, knowing, knowing 
>> that you are angry, that my people have validated me. I don't need you 
>> to validate me.
>>
>> [crowd responds]
>>
>> I don't need to be in any mainstream. I want to wash in the river of 
>> Jordan. And the river that you see, and the sea that is before us and 
>> behind us and around us is validation. That's the mainstream.
>>
>> You're out of touch with reality. A few of you in a few smoke-filled 
>> rooms, calling that the mainstream, while the masses of the people, 
>> white and black; red, yellow and brown; poor and vulnerable are 
>> suffering in this nation.
>>
>> Well, America, great America, like Jerusalem that stoned and killed 
>> the prophets of God, that a work has been done in you today unlike any 
>> work that's ever been done in this great city. I wonder what you'll 
>> say tomorrow. I wonder what you'll write in your newspapers and 
>> magazines tomorrow. Will you give God the glory? Will you give God the 
>> glory? Will you respect the beauty of this day? All of these black men 
>> that the world sees as savage, maniacal and bestial, look at them - a 
>> sea of peace, a sea of tranquility, a sea of men ready to come back to 
>> God, settle their differences and go back home to turn our communities 
>> into decent and safe places to live.
>>
>> _*AMERICA, AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL! There's no country like this on the 
>> Earth.* *And certainly if I lived in another country, I might never 
>> have had the opportunity to speak as I speak today. I probably would 
>> have been shot outright, and so would my brother Jesse, and so would 
>> Maolana Karenga [sp], and so would Dr. Ben Chavis and Reverend Al 
>> Sampson and all the wonderful people that are here. **But because this 
>> is America, you allow me to speak even though you don't like what I 
>> may say. Because this is America, that provision in the Constitution 
>> for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and freedom of religion, 
>> that is your saving grace, because what you're under right now is 
>> grace, and grace is the expression of divine love and protection which 
>> God bestows freely on people.*_
>>
>> _*God is angry, America. He's angry, but his mercy is still present.*_
>>
>> *Brothers and sisters, look at the afflictions that have come upon us 
>> in the black community. Do you know why we're being afflicted? God 
>> wants us to humble ourselves to the message that will make us atone 
>> and come back to him and make ourselves whole again.*
>>
>> *Well, why is God afflicting America? Why is God afflicting the world? 
>> Why did Jesus say there would be wars and rumors of wars and 
>> earthquakes in diverse places and pestilence and famine? And why did 
>> he say that these were just the beginning of sorrows? In the last 10 
>> years America has experienced more calamities than at any other time 
>> period in American history. Why, America? God is angry. He's not angry 
>> because you're right, he's angry because you're wrong and you want to 
>> stone and kill the people who want to make you see you're wrong.*
>>
>> *And so the Bible says Elijah must first come. Why should Elijah come? 
>> Elijah has the job of turning the hearts of the children back to their 
>> fathers and the father's heart back to the children. Elijah becomes an 
>> axis upon which people turn back to God and God turns back to the 
>> people. And that's why they said Elijah must first come.*
>>
>> *And so here we are, 400 years fulfilling Abraham's prophecy. Some of 
>> our friends in the religious community have said why should you take 
>> atonement? That was for the children of Israel. I say yes, it was. But 
>> atonement for the children of Israel prefigured our suffering here in 
>> America.*
>>
>> *Israel was in bondage to Pharaoh 400 years. We've been in America 440 
>> years. They were under affliction. We're under affliction. They're 
>> under oppression. We're under oppression. God said, 'That nation which 
>> they shall serve I will judge.'*
>>
>> _*Judgment means God is making a decision against systems, against 
>> institutions, against principalities and powers, *_*and that's why 
>> Paul said, 'We war not against flesh and blood, but against 
>> principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world 
>> and spiritual wickedness in high places.'*
>>
>> *God is sending His decision. I can't help it if I've got to make the 
>> decision. No. You don't understand me. My people love me, and yet - *
>>
>> [crowd responds]
>>
>> _- *and yet I point out the evils of black people like no other leader 
>> does.* *But my people don't call me anti-black, because they know I 
>> must love them in order to point out what's wrong, so we can get it 
>> right, to come back into the favor of God.*_
>>
>> _*But let me say, in truth, you can't point out wrong with malice.* 
>> *You can't point out wrong with hatred, because if we point out wrong 
>> with bitterness and hatred, then the bitterness and the hatred becomes 
>> a barrier between you and the person whom you hope to get right, that 
>> they might come into the favor of God.*_
>>
>> _*So we, as Muslims, who, in our first stage - yeah, we pointed out 
>> the wrong of America, but we didn't point it out with no love. We 
>> pointed it out with the pain of our hurt, the pain of our suffering, 
>> the bitterness of our life story. *_
>>
>> [crowd responds] *
>> *
>>
>> *_But we have grown beyond our bitterness. We have transcended beyond 
>> our pain. Why? It's easy for us to say, 'The white man did this. The 
>> white man did that. The white man did the other. The white man did 
>> this. He deprived us of that. He killed the Indians. He did this.' 
>> Yes, he did all of that. But, why did God let him do that?  __That's 
>> the bigger question._*_ _
>>
>> _*And since we are not man enough to question God, we start beating up 
>> on the agent who is fulfilling prophecy.*_
>>
>> *But if we can transcend our pain to get up into God's mind and ask 
>> God, 'God, why did you let our fathers come into bondage? God, why did 
>> you let is die in the middle passage? God, why did you suffer us to be 
>> in the hulls of ships? God, why did you let him lash us? Why did you 
>> let him beat us? Why did you let him castrate us? Why did you let him 
>> hang us? Why did you let him burn us? Why, God? Why? Why? Why'? We've 
>> got a right to question God. That's the only way we can become wise. 
>> And if we question him like Job, God may bring you up into His own 
>> thinking.*
>>
>> *And if God were to answer us today, He would say to black people, 
>> 'Yes, I allowed this to happen, and I know you suffered. But Martin 
>> King, my servant, said undeserved suffering is redemptive. A whole 
>> world is lost, not just you black people. A whole world has gone out 
>> of the way, not just you black people.' You're the lost sheep, but the 
>> whole world is lost. You're the bottom rail but the one that put you 
>> on the bottom has been in the bottom with you holding you down. He's 
>> in the bottomless pit himself. He said, 'Black man, I love you.' He 
>> said, 'But God, I mean, that's a heck of a way to show me you love 
>> me.' He said, 'But I love my son. I love Jesus more than I love any of 
>> my servants. But I had a cross for Him. I had nails for Him. I had him 
>> to be rejected and despised. I had Him falsely accused and brought 
>> before the courts of men. I had them spit on Him. I had them to pierce 
>> His side, but I loved Him more than anybody else.'*
>>
>> *Why God? Why did you do it? Why? He said, 'I did it that I might be 
>> glorified because like Job no matter what I did to Him he never cursed 
>> me. He never said, my God ain't no good.' He said, 'Whatever your will 
>> is.' And that's what I want to do and that's why. Even though he 
>> descended into hell, I have raised him to the limitless heights of 
>> heaven because only those who know the depths of hell can appreciate 
>> the limitless heights of heaven. And so, my children, I cause you to 
>> suffer in the furnace of affliction so that I might purify you and 
>> resurrect you from a grave of death and ignorance.*
>>
>> *I, God, put in your soul not a law written on stone, but I have 
>> written a law on the tablets of your heart. So I'm going to make a new 
>> covenant with you. *Oh, black man, the secret of the Masonic order is 
>> the secret of Hiram of [unintelligible]. The secret of the Masonic 
>> order is a master builder that was hit in the head. The secret of the 
>> Masonic order is a master that ruffians roughed up. I think one of the 
>> ruffians was named Jubelo [sp] Fuhrman. And another one was named 
>> Jubala Bilbo [sp]. And another was named Jubulum [sp] Jesse Helms. 
>> These racists, hit him in His head and carried Him on a westerly 
>> course and buried Him in the north country, in a shallow grave. Many 
>> tried to raise Him up but they didn't have the master grip. It take a 
>> master to come after Him.
>>
>> And this is why Matthew said, 'As lightening shines from the East even 
>> unto the West, so shall the coming of the son of man be, for 
>> wheresoever the eagles are gathered together, there shall the carcass 
>> speak.' Here's the carcass, the remains of a once mighty people, dry 
>> bones in the valley. And people slain from the foundation of the 
>> world. But God has sent the winds to blow on the bones. One of those 
>> winds is named Gingrich. And the companion wind is named Dole. And the 
>> other is called Supreme Court decision. The other is fratricidal 
>> conflict - drugs and dope and violence and crime.
>>
>> But we've had enough now. This is why you're in Washington today. 
>> We've had enough. We've had enough distress, enough affliction. We're 
>> ready to bow down now. 'If my people who are called by my name will 
>> just humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their 
>> wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins, heal 
>> their land.'
>>
>> You are ready now to come out of your furnace of affliction. You are 
>> ready now to accept the responsibility, oh, not just of the ghetto. 
>> God wants to purify you and lift you up, that you may call America and 
>> the world to repentance. Black man, you are a master builder, but you 
>> got hit in the head. Black man, you are the descendants of the 
>> builders of the pyramids, but you have amnesia now. You can't remember 
>> how you did it. But the master has come.
>>
>> You know, pastors, I love that scripture where Jesus told his 
>> disciples, go there and you'll see an ass and a colt tied with her. 
>> Untie them and bring them to me. If anybody asks you what you're 
>> doing, because it may look like you're stealing, and you know they 
>> love to accuse you of stealing, tell them the master got need of 
>> these. And Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass. The Democratic Party 
>> has for its symbol a donkey. The donkey stands for the unlearned 
>> masses of the people. But the Democratic Party can't call the masses 
>> no more. You got them all tied up, but you're not using them. The 
>> donkey's tied up. But can you get off today? No, I can't get off, I 
>> tied up. Somebody on your donkey? Well, yeah. I got a master, he rides 
>> me like the master rode Balaam's ass, you know? But, hell, the ass is 
>> now talking with a man's voice, and the ass want to throw the rider 
>> off 'cause he got a new rider today. If anybody ask you, tell them the 
>> master has need.
>>
>> Look at you. Well, I don't know what the number. It's too much for me 
>> to count. But I think they said it's a million-and-a-half or two. I 
>> don't know how many. But you know I called for a million. When I saw 
>> the word go out my mouth I looked at it. I said, 'Oh, my God.' It just 
>> came out of my mouth. I didn't know. And after it came out, I said, 
>> 'Well, I got to go with it.' And I'm so glad I did. People told me, 
>> 'You better that figure to one more realistic.' And I should have 
>> changed to the Three Million Man March. [applause]
>>
>> Now, we almost finished. I want to take one last look at the word 
>> atonement. The first four letters of the word form the foundation 
>> a-t-o-n, aton. Aton. Since this obelisk in front of us is 
>> representative of Egypt and the 18th dynasty, a pharaoh Akhenaton was 
>> the first man of this history period to destroy the pantheon of many 
>> gods and bring the people of the worship of one god, and that one god 
>> was symboled by a sun disk with 19 rays coming out of that sun with 
>> hands holding Egyptian ankh, the cross of life. Aton. The name for the 
>> one god in ancient Egypt.
>>
>> Aton, the one god, 19 rays Look at your scripture. A woman, remember 
>> the nine? Means somebody pregnant with an idea. But in this case, it's 
>> a woman pregnant with a male child destined to rule the nations where 
>> they're all divine. God is standing over her womb, and this child will 
>> be like the day's sun. And he will say I am the light of the world. 
>> Hands coming out of that sun - come unto me, all ye that are heavy 
>> laden. I'm gonna give you respite. I'm going to give you life because 
>> I am the resurrection and the life, and if you believe in me, though 
>> you are dead, yet shall you live again.
>>
>> You're dead, black man. But if you believe in the God who created this 
>> sun of truth and of light with 19 rays meaning he's pregnant with 
>> God's spirit, God's light, God's wisdom. Abraham Lincoln's statue, 19 
>> feet high, 19 feet wide. Jefferson, 19 feet high, and the third 
>> president, 19, standing on the steps of the Capitol in the light of 
>> the sun, offering life to a people who are dead. Black man, be atoned, 
>> represents the one God.
>>
>> In the Koran, Muhammad is called a light-giving sun. So if you look at 
>> the aton, add an E to it, and separate the A from the next four 
>> letters and you get the word atone. Tone means sound and A, the first 
>> letter of the alphabet. And the first letter of the numerical system 
>> is one, so A equals one. So A sound means when you hear the A tone you 
>> will hear the right sound. And when you hear the right sound from the 
>> one God calling you to divine light, you will respond.
>>
>> So what is the A tone? In music, A equals 440 vibrations. How long 
>> have we been in America? Four hundred and forty years. Well, in the 
>> 440th year from the one God, the aton, will come the atone, and all of 
>> us got to tune up our lives by the sound of the A tone because we've 
>> got to atone for all that we have done wrong. And when you atone, if 
>> you take the T and couple it with the A and hyphenate it, you get 
>> at-one. So when you atone you become at-one. At-one with who? The 
>> aton, or the one God. Because you heard the A tone and you tuned up 
>> your life, and now you're ready to make a new beginning. So when you 
>> get at-one you get the next two letters, it is ME. Me. *_
>> _*
>>
>> _*Louis Farrakhan: *_*_Who is it that has to atone? Who?_*
>>
>> _*Audience: Me.*_
>>
>> _*Louis Farrakhan: Who went wrong?*_
>>
>> _*Audience: Me.*_
>>
>> _*Louis Farrakhan: Who got to fix it?*_
>>
>> _*Audience: Me*_
>>
>> _*Louis Farrakhan: Who should we look to?*_
>>
>> _*Audience: Me*_
>>
>> _*Louis Farrakhan: Yes. And then if you add, if you add another letter 
>> to m-e, you get an N. What does that say?*_
>>
>> _*Audience: Men!*_
>>
>> _*Louis Farrakhan: Men. So, Farrakhan called men. Why did you call 
>> men? Because in the beginning, God made man and if we are at a new 
>> beginning, we gotta make a man all over again, but make him in the 
>> image and the likeness of God.*_
>>
>> [applause]
>>
>> Now if you add the T on, you get the suffix ment. Ment means action, 
>> process, the instrument or agent of an action or process. So when you 
>> say, I'm atoning, you gotta act on it. You gotta get in the process. 
>> You go to acknowledge your own, confess your own, repent of your own, 
>> atone for your own. Huh? Then you'll get forgiveness, then 
>> reconciliation and restoration and then you're back to the A-tone. Oh 
>> Lord. Now brothers, let's close it out. Don't move. Don't move.
>>
>> Now, you know, the bible says in the 430th of their sojourn, they went 
>> out. That's in a book called Exodus. Now, the word exodus means 
>> departure, a going our, a way out. What did we come to Washington for? 
>> We didn't come to Washington to petition the government for a way out 
>> of hurt. But to find a way out of our affliction. But a way out from 
>> something bigger then our affliction. Oh man. When you say, come out, 
>> what do you mean? You've got to come out from under the mind of a 
>> slave. We've got to come out from a mind that is self afflicted with 
>> the evil of black inferiority. We gotta come in to a new way thinking. 
>> Now, brothers, sisters, I want to close this lecture with a special 
>> message to our President and to the Congress. There is a great divide. 
>> But the real evil in America is not white flesh or black flesh. The 
>> real evil in America is the idea that undergirds the set up of the 
>> Western world and that idea is called white supremacy. Now, wait, 
>> wait, wait before you get angry, those of you listening by television. 
>> You don't even know why you behave the way you behave. I'm not telling 
>> you I'm a psychiatrist. But I do want to operate on your head. *_White 
>> supremacy is the enemy of both white people and black people._ 
>> *Because the idea of white supremacy means you should rule because 
>> your white-That makes you sick. And you produce the sick society and a 
>> sick world.
>>
>> The founding fathers meant well, but they said, 'Toward a more perfect 
>> union.' So the Bible says, 'We know in part; we prophecy in part; but 
>> when that which is perfect has come that which is in part, you'll be 
>> done away with.'
>>
>> _*So either, Mr. Clinton, we're going to do away with the mind-set of 
>> the founding fathers. You don't have to repudiate them like you've 
>> asked my brothers to do me. You don't have to say they were malicious, 
>> hate-filled people. But you must evolve out of their mind set. You see 
>> their mind was limited to those six European nations out of which this 
>> country was founded.*_
>>
>> _*But you got Asians here. How you going to handle that?*_* *_*
>> *_
>>
>> _*You got children of Africa here; how you going to handle that?*_* *_*
>> *_
>>
>> _*You got Arabs here.*_
>>
>> _*You got Hispanics here. I know you call them 'illegal aliens,' but, 
>> hell, you took Texas from them by flooding Texas with people that got 
>> your mind - *_
>>
>> [laughs].
>>
>> _*And now they're coming back, across the border, to what is northern 
>> Mexico: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. They don't see 
>> themselves as illegal aliens. I think they might see you as an illegal 
>> alien.
>> *_
>>
>> _*You have to be careful how you talk to people.*_* *_*
>> *_
>>
>> _*You have to be careful how you deal with people.*_
>>
>> _*The Native American is suffering today.
>> *_
>>
>> _*He's suffering almost complete extinction.
>> *_
>>
>> _*Now he learned about bingo. You taught him. He learned about 
>> blackjack. You taught him. He learned about playing roulette. You 
>> taught him. Now he's making a lot of money. You're upset with him 
>> because he's adopted your ways. What makes you like this? See, you're 
>> like this because you're not well. *_
>>
>> [crowd responds]
>>
>> *_You're not well. And in the light of today's global village, you can 
>> never harmonize with the Asians, you can't harmonize with the islands 
>> of the Pacific, you can't harmonize with the dark people of the world, 
>> who out-number you 11 to 1, if you're going to stay in the mind of 
>> white supremacy. _
>> *
>>
>> _*White supremacy has to die in order for humanity to live.*_
>>
>> _*Now, all- I know, I know, I know. I know it's painful, but we have 
>> to operate now. Just take a little of this morphine and you won't feel 
>> the pain as much. You just need to bite down on something as I start 
>> this last few minutes. Just bite down on your finger.*_
>>
>> *_Listen._
>> *
>>
>> *_Listen._
>> *
>>
>> *_Listen._
>> *
>>
>> _*Listen.*_
>>
>> *_White supremacy caused you all - not you all, some white folk--to 
>> try to rewrite history and write us out. __White supremacy caused 
>> Napoleon to blow the nose off of the Sphinx because it reminded you 
>> too much of the black man's majesty. White supremacy caused you to 
>> take Jesus, a man with hair like lamb's wool and feet like burnished 
>> brass, and make Him white so that you could worship Him because you 
>> could never see yourself honoring somebody black because of the state 
>> of your mind. You see, you really need help. _*
>>
>> [crowd responds]
>>
>> _*You'll be all right. You WILL be all right!*_
>>
>> Now, now, now. You painted the 'Last Supper.' Everybody there [is] 
>> white. My mother asked the man that came to bring her the Bible, she 
>> said, 'Look, there are pictures in the Bible. You see? Jesus and all 
>> his disciples at the last supper.' My mother, in her West Indian 
>> accent, said, "You mean, ain't nobody black was at the last supper'? 
>> And the man said, 'Yes; but they was in the kitchen.' So now you've 
>> whitened up everything. Any great invention that we make, you put 
>> white on it because you didn't want to admit that a black person had 
>> that intelligence, that genius. You try to color everything to make it 
>> satisfactory to the sickness of your mind. So you whitened up 
>> religion. Farrakhan didn't do that. You locked the Bible from us. 
>> Farrakhan didn't do that. Your sick mind wouldn't even let you bury us 
>> in the same ground that both of us came out of; we had to be buried 
>> somewhere else. That's sick.
>>
>> Some of us died just to drink water out of a fountain marked 'White.' 
>> That's sick. Isn't it sick? You poisoned religion. And in all the 
>> churches until recently, the master was painted white. So you had us 
>> bowing down to your image, which ill-affected our minds. You gave us 
>> your version of history, and you whitened that up. Yes, you did. Yes, 
>> you did. Yes, you did. You are a white shriner. The black shriner 
>> don't integrate the shrine. Why don't you black shriners integrate the 
>> shrine? Because in the shrine you're the essence of the secret. They 
>> don't want you there. They'll have to tell the world it's you we've 
>> been thinking about all along.
>>
>> _*Now, white folks, see, the reason you could look at the O.J. Simpson 
>> trial in Harlem and the reason black folk rejoiced had nothing to do 
>> with the horror of the tragedy. Black folk would never rejoice over 
>> the slaughter of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. Black folk saw 
>> that with compassion. Many black folk grieved over that reality. *_
>>
>> [crowd responds]
>>
>> _*You say 'O.J. sold out.' No, he didn't sell out. He was drawn out.*_
>>
>> *_Black folk, they've got talent.
>> _*
>>
>> *_They all grew up in the 'hood.
>> _*
>>
>> *_When we sing, we sing in these old raunchy nightclubs in the 'hood.
>> _*
>>
>> *_When we play sandlot ball, we play it in the 'hood.
>> _*
>>
>> *_But when you spot us, you draw us out. You say, 'That negro can 
>> run.' 'Look at how high he jumps.' So you give us a scholarship to 
>> your university. __
>> _*
>>
>> *_But the blacks who are in college who play basketball for you, who 
>> play football for you, who run track for you, you disallow them to get 
>> involved with black students and the suffering of black students on 
>> all-white campuses. You hide them away, give them privileges, then 
>> they find themself with your daughter.
>> _*
>>
>> *_Then you take them into the NBA, the NFL, and they become mega-stars 
>> or in the entertainment field. And when they become mega-stars, their 
>> association is no longer black. They may not have a black manager, a 
>> black agent, a black accountant. They meet in parties in posh 
>> neighborhoods that black folk don't come into, so their association 
>> becomes white women, white men, and association breeds assimilation.
>> _*
>>
>> *_And if you have a slave mentality, you feel you have arrived now 
>> because you can jump over cars running in airports, or play in films._*
>>
>> _*I'm not degrading my brother; I love him.
>> *_
>>
>> _*But he was drawn out.
>> *_
>>
>> _*He didn't sell out, he was drawn out.
>> *_
>>
>> _*Michael Jackson is drawn out.
>> *_
>>
>> _*Most of our top stars are drawn out.
>> *_
>>
>> _*And then when you get them, you imprison them with fear and 
>> distrust. You don't want them to speak out on the issues that are 
>> political, that are social. They must shut their mouths, or you 
>> threaten to take away their fame, take away their fortune, because 
>> you're sick.*_
>>
>> And the president is not going to point this out. He's trying to get 
>> well, but he's a physician that can't heal himself.
>>
>> I'm almost finished.
>>
>> White supremacy has poisoned the bloodstream of religion, education, 
>> politics, jurisprudence, economics, social ethics and morality. And 
>> there is no way that we can integrate into white supremacy and hold 
>> our dignity as human beings, because if we integrate into that, we've 
>> become subservient to that, and to become subservient to that is to 
>> make the slave master comfortable with his slave.
>>
>> So we've got to come out of her, my people. Come out of a system and a 
>> world that is built on the wrong idea, an idea that never can create a 
>> perfect union with God. The false idea of white supremacy prevents 
>> anyone from becoming one with God. White people have to come out of 
>> that idea, which has poisoned them into a false attitude of 
>> superiority based on the color of the skin. The doctrine of white 
>> supremacy disallows whites to grow to their full potential. It forces 
>> white people to see themselves as the law or above the law. And that's 
>> why Fuhrman could say that he is like a god. See, he thinks like that. 
>> But that idea is pervasive in police departments across the country, 
>> and it's getting worse and not better, because white supremacy is not 
>> being challenged. And I say to all of us who are leaders, all of us 
>> who are preachers, we must not shrink from the responsibility of 
>> pointing out wrong so that we can be comfortable and keep white people 
>> comfortable in their alienation from God.
>>
>> And so, white folks are having heart attacks today because their world 
>> is coming down. And if you look at the Asians, the Asians have the 
>> fastest-growing economies in the world. The Asians are not saying - 
>> bashing white people. You don't find the Asians saying, 'The white man 
>> is this. The white man is the that. The white man is the other.' He 
>> don't talk like that. You know what he does? He just relocates the top 
>> banks from Wall Street to Tokyo. He don't say, 'I'm better than the 
>> white man.' He just starts building his world and building his economy 
>> and challenging white supremacy. I saw a young, 14-year-old Chinese 
>> girl the other day play the violin; Sara Chang [sp] is her name. She 
>> was magnificent. I saw a young Japanese girl, Midori [sp], play the 
>> violin. She was magnificent. They don't have to say to white people, 
>> 'I'm better than you.' They just do their thing, and white folk have 
>> to readjust their thinking because they thought they could master all 
>> these instruments and nobody else could. But the Chinese are mastering 
>> it, the Japanese are mastering it. All these things are breaking up 
>> the mind of white supremacy.
>>
>> _*Black man, you don't have to bash white people.
>> *_
>>
>> _*All we've got to do is go back home and turn our communities into 
>> productive places.
>> *_
>>
>> _*All we've got to do is go back home and make our communities a 
>> decent and safe place to live.
>> *_
>>
>> _*And if we start dotting the black community with businesses, opening 
>> up factories, challenging ourselves to be better than we are, white 
>> folk, instead of driving by using the 'n' word, they'll say, 'Look, 
>> look at them. Oh, my god. They're marvelous. They're wonderful. We 
>> can't- we can't say they're inferior anymore.'*_
>>
>> But every time we drive by shooting, every time we car-jack, every 
>> time we use foul, filthy language, every time we produce culturally 
>> degenerate films and tapes, putting a string in our women's backside 
>> and parading them before the world, every time we do things like this 
>> we are feeding the degenerate mind of white supremacy. And I want us 
>> to stop feeding that mind and let that mind die a natural death.
>>
>> And so to all the artists that are present, you wonderful, gifted 
>> artists, remember that your gift comes from God. And David the 
>> psalmist said, 'Praise him on the timbrel, praise him on the lute, 
>> praise him on the harp, praise him in the psaltry, praise him in the 
>> song, praise him in the dance, let everything be a praise of God.' So 
>> when you sing, you don't have to get naked to sing. Demonstrate your 
>> gift, not your breast. Demonstrate your gift, not what is between your 
>> legs. Clean up, black man, and the world will respect and honor you.
>>
>> But you have fallen down like the prodigal son and you're husking corn 
>> and feeding swine. Filthy jokes. We can't bring our children to the 
>> television, we can't bring our families to the movies because the 
>> American people have an appetite like a swine. And you are feeding the 
>> swine with the filth of degenerate culture. We got to stop it.
>>
>> We're not putting you down, brothers. We want to pick you up, so with 
>> your rap you can pick up the world, with your song you can pick up the 
>> world, with your dance, with your music you can pick up the world.
>>
>> And so, America, if your conscience is afflicted because God is 
>> lashing you, don't just start with the Constitution, Mr. President, 
>> start with the evil of slavery, because that's the root of the 
>> problem. And you can't solve the problem, Mr. President, unless we 
>> expose the root; for when you expose the root to the light, then the 
>> root will die. The tree will die, and something new can come to birth.
>>
>> And so to the whites of this nation, 'Except you be born again, you 
>> cannot see the kingdom of God.' But can I return back into my mother's 
>> womb for the second time? No, you can't do that. But this old mind of 
>> white supremacy has to die in order that a new mind might come to birth.
>>
>> Black men, you can't see the kingdom of God unless we born again. Must 
>> I enter back into my mother's womb for a second time? No, you can't do 
>> that, black man. But the mind of white supremacy is repulsive to God, 
>> and the mind of black inferiority is repulsive to God. And any mind of 
>> black supremacy is repulsive to God. But the only mind that God will 
>> accept is a mind stayed on Him and on righteousness. [crowd responds]
>>
>> Black had to be taught to give us root and love in ourselves again. 
>> But that was a medicine, a prescription. But after health is restored, 
>> we can't keep taking the medicine. We got to move on to something 
>> else, higher and better.
>>
>> So, my beloved brothers and sisters, here's what we would like you to 
>> do. Everyone of you, my dear brothers, when you go home, here's what I 
>> want you to do. We must belong to some organization that is working 
>> for, and in the interests of, the uplift and the liberation of our 
>> people. Go back, join the NAACP if you want to. Join the Urban League. 
>> Join the all African People's Revolutionary Party. Join us; join the 
>> Nation of Islam. Join PUSH. Join the Congress of Racial Equality. Join 
>> SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But we must become 
>> a totally organized people, and the only way we can do that is to 
>> become a part of some organization that is working for the uplift of 
>> our people. We must keep the local organizing committees that made 
>> this event possible, we must keep them together. Go back and join the 
>> local organizing committee. And then all of us as leaders must stay 
>> together and make the National African-American Leadership Summit 
>> inclusive of all of us.
>>
>> _*I know that the NAACP did not officially endorse this march; neither 
>> did the Urban League.
>> *_
>>
>> _*But so what?
>> *_
>>
>> _*So what? *_
>>
>> _*Many of the members are here anyway.*_* *_*
>> *_
>>
>> _*I know that Dr. Lyons [sp], of the National Baptist Association, 
>> USA, did not endorse the march. Nor did the Reverend Dr. B.W. Smith 
>> [sp], nor did Bishop Chandler Owens [sp].*_* *_*
>> *_
>>
>> _*But so what?
>> *_
>>
>> _*These are our brothers, and we're not going to stop reaching out for 
>> them simply because we feel there was a misunderstanding. We still 
>> want to talk to our brothers because we cannot let artificial barriers 
>> divide us.*_* *
>>
>> Remember the letter of Willie Lynch [sp], and let's not let Willie 
>> Lynch [sp] lynch our new spirit and our new attitude and our new mind.
>>
>> _*No, we must continue to reach out for those that have condemned this 
>> and make them to see that this was not evil.
>> *_
>>
>> _*It was not intended for evil.
>> *_
>>
>> _*It was intended for good.*_
>>
>> Now, brothers, moral and spiritual renewal is a necessity. Every one 
>> of you must go back home and join some church, synagogue, temple, or 
>> mosque that is teaching spiritual and moral uplift. I want you, 
>> brothers. There's no men in the church, in the mosque. The men are in 
>> the streets, and we got to get back to the houses of God.
>>
>> But, preachers, we have to revive religion in America. We have to 
>> revive the houses of God that they're not personal fiefdoms of those 
>> of us who are their preachers and pastors. But we've got to be more 
>> like Jesus, more like Mohammed, more like Moses, and become servants 
>> of the people in fulfilling their needs.
>>
>> Brothers, when you go home, we got to register 8 million eligible, but 
>> unregistered, brothers, sisters. So you go home and find eight more 
>> like yourself. You register and get them to-
>>
>> 'Well, how should I register? Should I register as a Democrat? Should 
>> I register as a Republican? Should I register as an independent'?
>>
>> If you're an independent, that's fine; if you're a Democrat, that's 
>> fine; if you're a Republican, that's okay, because in local elections 
>> you have to do that which is in the best interests of your local 
>> community. But what we want is not necessarily a third party, but a 
>> third force, which means that we're going to collect Democrats, 
>> Republicans, and independents around an agenda that is in the best 
>> interests of our people. And then all of us can stand on that agenda, 
>> and in 1996 whoever the standard bearer is for the Democratic Party, 
>> the Republican Party, or Independent Party, should one come into 
>> existence, they got to speak to our agenda.
>>
>> _*We're no longer going to vote for somebody just because they're black.
>> *_
>>
>> _*We've tried that.
>> *_
>>
>> _*We wish we could.
>> *_
>>
>> _*But we've got to vote for you if you are compatible with our agenda.*_
>>
>> *Now, many of the people that's in this house right here are put there 
>> by the margin of the black vote. So in the next election we want to 
>> see who in here do we want to stay, and who in here do we want to go. 
>> And we want to show them that never again will they ever disrespect 
>> the black community. We must make them afraid to do evil to us and 
>> think they can get away with it.* *_We must be prepared to help them 
>> if they're with us, or to punish them if they're against us. _
>> *
>>
>> And when they're against us, _*I'm not talking about color,*__* I'm 
>> talking about an agenda that's in the best interests of the black, the 
>> poor, and the vulnerable in this society.
>>
>> *_
>>
>> *_Now, atonement goes beyond us.
>> _*
>>
>> *_I don't like this squabble with the members of the Jewish community. _
>> *
>>
>> _*I don't like it. *_
>>
>> The Honorable Elijah Mohammed said in one of his writings that he 
>> believed that we would work out some kind of an accord. Maybe so. 
>> Reverend Jackson has talked to the 12 presidents of Jewish 
>> organizations, and perhaps in the light of what we see today maybe 
>> it's time to sit down and talk, not with any preconditions. You got 
>> pain, but we got pain, too. You hurt; we hurt, too. The question is, 
>> if the dialogue is proper, then we might be able to end the pain. And 
>> ending the pain may be good for both and ultimately good for the 
>> nation. We're not opposed to sitting down. I guess if you could sit 
>> down with Arafat, where there are rivers of blood between you, why 
>> can't you sit down with us, and there's no blood between us. You don't 
>> make sense not to dialogue. It doesn't make sense.
>>
>> Well, brothers, I hope Father Clements [sp] spoke today. Is Father 
>> Clements here? Father Clements?. Do you know Father Clements? He's one 
>> of the great pastors. Father Clements- I wanted him to speak today 
>> because he has a program that he wants every one of us, when we leave 
>> here, to go to some jail or prison and adopt one inmate for the rest 
>> of his and your life; to make them your personal friend, to help them 
>> through their incarceration, to be encouragement for them. The 
>> brothers who are locked down inside the walls need us on the outside, 
>> and we need them on the inside. So if every one of us will pick out 
>> one inmate, Father Clements will do the work of guiding this 
>> development, because it is his idea, and it is a good idea. And the 
>> National African-American Leadership Summit adopts that idea. Thank 
>> you, Father Clements.
>>
>> Will you do that, brothers? How many of you will adopt one black man 
>> in prison and make him your pal, your brother for life, help him 
>> through the incarceration. Well go to the chaplain of that jail and 
>> say you want to adopt one inmate, to start writing to that person, 
>> visiting that person, helping that person. So many of us have been 
>> there already, we know what they suffer. Let's help our brothers and 
>> sisters who are locked down.
>>
>> Did anybody mention the political prisons? Brother Conrad Waller [sp] 
>> mentioned our political prisoners - never forget them.
>>
>> And now, brothers, there are 25,000 black children in need of 
>> adoption. This is our brother Eson [sp], who is the president of 
>> Blacks in Government - I'm sorry, Brother Johnston [sp], the president 
>> of the Black Social Workers. He has 25,000 children in need of 
>> adoption. Out of this vast audience there must be 25,000 men who will 
>> take one of these children and take them through life and make life 
>> worth living for those children. In this vast audience, is there any 
>> one, two, 10, 25, 100, 1,000, 25,000 who would be willing to adopt a 
>> black brother or sister, bring them into your home and rear them 
>> properly? How many of you think you would like to do that? Would you 
>> just raise your hand, let me take a look. Raise them high. That's a 
>> wonderful expression. Where should they go? What should they do? Who 
>> should they see?
>>
>> *Mr. Johnston:* They should see Booth 26 North.
>>
>> *Louis Farrakhan:* Booth 26 North is where you should go. It is to my 
>> right, your left. Or you should call 1-800-419-1999.
>>
>> Now, brothers, the last thing we want to say, we want to develop an 
>> economic development fund. Suppose the nearly 2 million here and 10 
>> million more back home that support us gave $10 a month to a national 
>> economic development fund. Inside of one month, we would have over 
>> $100 million, and in one year we would have $1,200,000,000. What would 
>> we do with that?
>>
>> I would love for the leadership up here to form a board and call in 
>> Myrlie Evers-Williams and ask her, 'What is the budget of the NAACP 
>> for this year'? 'It's $13 million. It's $15 million.' 'Write a check.'
>>
>> Now, next year you have to become accountable to the board, and the 
>> members of the NAACP will be on the board, too, which means that no 
>> black organization will be accountable to anybody outside of us, but 
>> accountable to us, and we would free the NAACP, the Urban League, and 
>> all black organizations to work in the best interests of our people. 
>> How many of your would like to see all our black organizations free? 
>> [crowd responds]
>>
>> Now look, brothers, an economic development fund for $10 a month is 
>> not a big price to ask to begin to build an economic infrastructure to 
>> nurture businesses within the black community. Soon the leadership is 
>> going to meet and work out the details of an exodus - exodus economic 
>> fund. And we're going to get back to you. This is not a one-day thing. 
>> A task force will be formed right out of this leadership to make sure 
>> that the things that we say today will be implemented, so that next 
>> year, on the day of atonement, which - this will take place each and 
>> every year from now on until God says, 'Well done.'
>>
>> Now, you saw the money that was taken up today, didn't you? How many 
>> of you gave some money today? I see some hands that wanted to give, 
>> but didn't get that box to them. Well, let me tell you something, 
>> brothers, we want an outside accounting firm to come in and scrutinize 
>> every dollar that was raised from your pockets to make the Million Man 
>> March a success. And if there is any overage, it will not be spent. We 
>> will come back to this board of leadership, and we will account for 
>> every nickel, every dime, every dollar. Do you know why? We want 
>> Willie Lynch to die a natural death. And the only way we can kill the 
>> idea of Willie Lynch; we have to build trust in each other. And the 
>> only way we can build trust is to open up the coat and show that you 
>> don't have a hidden agenda. All of us will be looking at the same 
>> thing for the same purpose, and then we'll come back to you and make a 
>> full accounting for every nickel, every dime and every dollar so that 
>> you can trust. I put my life on this. To rob you is a sin. To use you 
>> and abuse you is a sin. To make mockery of your love and your trust is 
>> a sin, and we repent of all sins. And we refuse to do sin anymore.
>>
>> Is that agreeable, black man? [crowd responds]
>>
>> Now, brothers, in closing, I want you to take this pledge.
>>
>> When I say 'I,' I want you to say 'I,' and I'll say, 'your name.' I 
>> know that there's so many names, but I want you to shout your name out 
>> so that the ancestors can hear it. Take this pledge with me.
>>
>> _*Say with me, please,
>> *_
>>
>> _*'I - say your name - pledge that from this day forward I will strive 
>> to love my brother as I love myself.
>> *_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - from this day forward will strive to improve 
>> myself spiritually, morally, mentally, socially, politically, and 
>> economically for the benefit of myself, my family, and my people.
>> *_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - pledge that I will strive to build business, 
>> build houses, build hospitals, build factories, and enter into 
>> international trade for the good of myself, my family, and my people.
>> *_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - pledge that from this day forward I will never 
>> raise my hand with a knife or a gun to beat, cut, or shoot any member 
>> of my family or any human being except in self-defense.'*_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - pledge from this day forward, I will never abuse 
>> my wife by striking her, disrespecting her, for she is the mother of 
>> my children and the producer of my future.*_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - pledge that from this day forward, I will never 
>> engage in the abuse of children, little boys or little girls, for 
>> sexual gratification. But I will let them grow in peace to be strong 
>> men and women for the future of our people.*_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - will never again use the "B" word to describe 
>> any female, but particularly my own black sister.*_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - pledge from this day forward that I will not 
>> poison my body with drugs or that which is destructive to my health 
>> and my well-being.*_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - pledge from this day forward I will support 
>> black newspapers, black radio, black television. I will support black 
>> artists who clean up their acts to show respect for themselves and 
>> respect for their people and respect for the ears of the human family.*_
>>
>> _*I - say your name - will do all of this, so help me, God.*_
>>
>> Well, I think we all should hold hands now. And I want somebody to 
>> sing, "To God Be the Glory." And the reason I want this song sung is 
>> because I don't want anybody to take the credit for a day like this. I 
>> didn't do it. Reverend Chavis didn't do it. Reverend Jackson didn't do 
>> it. Reverend Sharpton didn't do it. Conrad Warrell (sp) and Mowlana 
>> Karenga (sp) didn't do it. Dr. Cornel West didn't do it. But all of us 
>> worked together to do the best that we could, but it's bigger than all 
>> of us. So since we can't take the praise, then we have to give all the 
>> glory,
>>
>> all the honor, all the praise to Him to Whom rightfully belongs.
>>
>> So, in closing, we want to thank Mayor Barry and Mrs. Barry -
>>
>> (calls of affirmation, scattered applause)
>>
>> - for opening this great city to us. And out of every dollar that was 
>> collected, 10 percent ofit we're going to leave here in Washington, 
>> that Mayor Barry may aid some institution, some good cause in the 
>> city. We want to set a good example.
>>
>> This was a beautiful and a peaceful meeting, probably one of the best 
>> that was ever held in Washington, held by black men -
>>
>> *Audience:* Yes, sir.
>>
>> *Louis Farrakhan:* - who want to atone to God and clear our slate. 
>> Beautiful black brothers, beautiful brothers, I'm going to say a 
>> prayer. And I want to thank Phi Beta Sigma -
>>
>> *Audience:* (Applauding.) That's right.
>>
>> *Louis Farrakhan:* - and its wonderful, wonderful president, and all 
>> the Greek letter organizations, but Phi Beta Sigma especially,because 
>> they opened their doors to the Million Man March and made it possible.
>>
>> Now, let us not be conformed to this world, but let us go on, 
>> transformed by the renewing of our minds. And let the idea of 
>> atonement ring throughout America; that America may see that the slave 
>> has come up with power. The slave is being restored, delivered and 
>> redeemed. And now, call this nation to repentance, to acknowledge her 
>> wrongs; to confess, not in secret documents called classified, but to 
>> come before the world and the American people, as the Japanese prime 
>> minister did, and confess her faults before the world, because her 
>> sins have affected the whole world. And, perhaps, she may do some act 
>> of atonement that you may forgive and those ill-affected may forgive; 
>> that reconciliation and restoration may lead us to the perfect union 
>> with Thee and with each other. We ask all of this in your holy 
>> andrighteous name. (Amen ?).
>>
>> (Rev. Farrakhan chants in Arabic.)
>>
>> That means God is great. And now, Gregory Hopkins to sing "To God Be 
>> the Glory." Keep holding each other's hands, brothers. And after the 
>> song is sung, let us embrace each other.
>>
>> (Singing of song.)
>>
>> (Applause.)
>>
>> *Louis Farrakhan:* _*Everybody turn to your brother, and hug your 
>> brother, and tell your brother you love him.
>> *_
>>
>> _*And let's carry this love all the way back to our cities and towns.
>> *_
>>
>> _*Never let it die, brothers.
>> *_
>>
>> _*Never let it die.*_
>>
>>
>> Following is a list of "participants" in the Million Man March event 
>> released by the organizers:
>>
>>
>> Rev. Jesse Jackson
>> Rev. Al Sharpton
>> Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
>> Rev. H. Beecher Hicks
>> Sheik Ahmend Tijani Ben-Omar
>> Rev. Fred Hayes
>> Melvin Deal
>> Min. Arief Muhammad
>> Rev Benjamin Chavis
>> Rev. Donad Hunter
>> Rev Terry Wingate
>> Rev. C. V. Smith
>> Rev. Kojo Nantambu
>> Rev. Robert Smith
>> Rev. John Wright
>> Matsemela Mfumo
>> Rev. Wayne Gadie
>> Dr. Oba T'Shaka
>> Imam Malick Sylia
>> Ron Hastic
>> Carter Womack
>> Ron Salior
>> Jawanza Kunjufu
>> Carl Upchurch
>> Shawn Barney
>> Rev.Johnny Yoiungblookd
>> Dr. Alim Muhammad
>> Congressman Kweisi Mfume
>> Ron Daniels
>> Haki Madhubuti
>> Rev. Wendell Anthony
>> Rev. James Bevel
>> Dr. Cornell West
>> Rev. Joseph Lowery
>> Rev. Jonathan Greer
>> Brother Ishmael Muhammad
>> Gregory Hopkins
>> Chuck D. (A Rap Star)
>> The Honorable Marion Barry
>> Betty Shabazz
>> Martin Luther King,Jr III
>> Tynetta Muhammad
>> Rev Wyatt T. Walker
>> Atty Faye Williams
>> Rosa Parks
>> Dr. Dortothy I Height
>> Queen Mother Moore
>> Bishop H.H. Brookins
>> Leonard Dunston
>> Father George Clements
>> Rev. Jeremiah Wright
>> Wintley Phipps
>> Rev. Clay Eveans
>> Bob Laws
>> Rev. Frank Madison Reid,III
>> Rev William Revely,Jr
>> Dr. Conrad Worrill
>> Danny Bakewell
>> Rock Newman
>> Bishop Jeff Banks
>> Oscar Eason
>> Henry Nicholas
>> Willie Wilson
>> Lavan Akbar
>> Dr. Thuman Evans
>> Earl King
>> Mwalima Shuja
>> Zachery Mcdaniels
>> Bishop George Augusts Stallings
>> Bill Crews
>> Brother Leonard Muhammad
>> Rev. Willie F. Wilson
>> Min Ismael Muhammad
>> Bishop W.C. Walker
>> Tony Powell
>> Linday Boyd
>> Dr. Dexter Allgood
>> Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye
>> Min. Akbar Muhammad
>> Congressman Donald Payne
>> Former Congressman Gus Savage
>> The Honorable Curt Schmoke
>>
>>
>> **OBAMA SPEECH IN FULL:
>> A MORE PERFECT UNION
>>
>> March 18th, 2008
>> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
>>
>>
>> ***_"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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     
>
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