I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. It is the story of Ashley Baia, a young, white, Obama volunteer from South Carolina, whose family was so poor she convinced her mother that her favorite meal was a mustard and relish sandwich. 0000000016 00000 n Allusion Part of what made Dr. King's speech resonate, not just for black people, but for some whites, was its framing of racial equality in familiar patriotic terms: "This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, 'My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. 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. For we have a choice in this country. Although some northern states had already started to outlaw the practice, they went along with the southern states insistence that slavery was an issue for individual states to decide and should be kept out of the Constitution. 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. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. 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. 0000004160 00000 n And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pickup, building code enforcement all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us. 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. Once you establish that, everything said has to reinforce the message. 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. Barack Obamas A More Perfect Union speech was widely viewed as a key rhetorical moment in the 2008 presidential campaign. Third, some in the audience were inherently biased against Obama as he was not the typical candidate since he was African-American. Soon after America won its independence from Great Britain with its 1783 victory in the American Revolution, it became increasingly evident that the young republic needed a stronger central government in order to remain stable. And they are part of America, this country that I love. 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. Clock is ticking and inspiration doesn't come? Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Many of uswondered if America was ready to elect an African-American president (a man with the middle name Hussein). What follows, of course, is King's great litany of iconic topography that carries listeners across the American landscape: "Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!", In this tradition, Obama begins with "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union," a quote from the Constitution that becomes a recurring refrain linking the parts of the speech. 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. 1206 Words5 Pages. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. 0000001614 00000 n Now, Ashley might have made a different choice. . These questions matter for us today as there are always situations, especially political ones, where we need to defend our own credibility in a competent manner. ", Parallelism At the risk of calling to mind the worst memories of grammar class, I invoke the wisdom that parallel constructions help authors and orators make meaning memorable. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. Jeremiah Wright, an unpaid campaign adviser and pastor at Obama's Chicago church. But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. Through all the changes, the Constitution has endured and adapted. ", "embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. His implied audience are American voters, including those present physically at the speech and those at home. To date, there are 27 constitutional amendments. That is one option. Reporters and other visitors were barred from the convention sessions, which were held in secret to avoid outside pressures. WebA More Perfect Union Summary BACK NEXT Brief Summary The Setup Barack Obama believed we could persevere and overcome hundreds of years of racial tensions and inequalities. The framers knew it wasnt a perfect document. Get the Poynter newsletter that's right for you. That has been my experience at Trinity. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress had 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 the anger is real; it is powerful. By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. Inside the fallout of Twitters decision to strip verified Twitter users of their legacy blue checks. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. He chose very targeted examples that allowed him to come across as an expert on racial issues, an intelligent person in general, and as someone with the purest of goals. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well. And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. And it means taking full responsibility for our 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. Under Americas first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the national government was weak and states operated like independent countries. 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. The audience also resonated with the speech and it was generally well received, so it seems that they agree as well. After intensive debate, which continued throughout the summer of 1787 and at times threatened to derail the proceedings, they developed a plan that established three branches of national governmentexecutive, legislative and judicial. Of the 55 delegates, a total of 39 signed; some had already left Philadelphia, and threeGeorge Mason (1725-92) and Edmund Randolph (1753-1813) of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry (1744-1813) of Massachusettsrefused to approve the document. For his contributions to the drafting of the Constitution, as well as its ratification, Madison became known as Father of the Constitution.. He states that for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible (Obama P8), which makes it clear that he still thinks America is the greatest country, even with all the hardships he has overcome. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." 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. 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. Home / Essay Samples / Government / Presidents of The United States / Barack Obama, Presidents of The United States, Political Science & Theory, Federal Government. There is a young, 23-year-old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, S.C. 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. During most of the 20th century, demagogues, especially in the South, gained political traction by pitting working class whites and blacks against each other. In 1774, Great Britain's North American At age 81, Pennsylvanias Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was the oldest delegate, while the majority of the delegates were in their 30s and 40s. Fair or not, this perception has produced a hope that our next president will be a more powerful communicator, a Kennedy or Reagan, perhaps, who can use language less as a way to signal ideology and more as a means to bring the disparate parts of the nation together. Please visit our FAQs. Did you know? Clark makes references and comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. Theodor Horydczak Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. He also states that I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveownersan inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters (Obama P8), further connecting him to the African-American population. My Rights!" This is where we are right now. Born in Maasin, he is from a Nowadays, Trends have dominated the world. We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism. The delegates (who also became known as the framers of the Constitution) were a well-educated group that included merchants, farmers, bankers and lawyers. Barack Obama, a black man with an African father and an American mother, took the stage and delivered a speech that would paint the racial He supports these reasons with some anecdotal evidence, but not much else, as is typical in speeches. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Rhode Island, the last holdout of the original 13 states, finally ratified the Constitution on May 29, 1790. Much has been said about the power and brilliance of Barack Obama's March 18 speech on race, even by some of his detractors. I chose to run for president 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 toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren. We strive for accuracy and fairness. His major methods of development are narration and logical analysis. Introduction. The Preamble to the US Constitution We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Obama gave the speech in response to the release of videotaped comments from his former pastor Rev. The Number of Representatives shall not Not this time. No plagiarism guarantee. DuBois. Support responsible news and fact-based information today! The delegates had been tasked by Congress with amending the Articles of Confederation; however, they soon began deliberating proposals for an entirely new form of government. (People who supported the Constitution became known as Federalists, while those opposed it because they thought it gave too much power to the national government were called Anti-Federalists.). They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.