"What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this…than the belief that America is not yet finished."
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) March 7, 2015
Transcript of the prepared speech, via the Washington Post:
… There are places, and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. Many are sites of war — Concord and Lexington, Appomattox and Gettysburg. Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America’s character — Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.
Selma is such a place.
In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history — the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher — met on this bridge.
It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the meaning of America.
And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. King, and so many more, the idea of a just America, a fair America, an inclusive America, a generous America — that idea ultimately triumphed…
If anyone can find a video of President Obama’s speech, put a link in the comments and I’ll move it to the top here.
EETA: Thank you, commentors LAMH36 and trollhattan:
Baud
There are several links in the prior thread from people responding to my request.
lamh36
Anne I posted a CSPAN link in the last thread
The speech President Barack Obama just gave at Selma is posted at C-SPAN: http://www.c-span.org/video/?324607-3/president-obama-representative-john-lewis-selma-50th-anniversary
gogol's wife
I love Barack Obama.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
I have always appreciated that the president invariably closes his speeches with “God bless the United States of America,” not just “God bless America.” It’s a subtle but important difference from what other politicians do.
trollhattan
Just heard the speech on the radio–well done by the only person who could have delivered it.
Utterly unrelated: how many more of these do we need?
mai naem mobile
Was Condi there or was she busy golfing somewhere?
David Koch
A photo of the crowd (people as far as the eye can see)
Parfigliano
He clearly doesn’t love his country.
ruemara
@trollhattan: Are these the “safe” cars too? It seems there’s nothing remotely safe about any of this, but I doubt our ineffective Congress will do anything besides cut regulations.
David Koch
(Photo) President OBama leading massive march across the bridge
Mike J
You can see in one of the pics in this report how much the military hate Obama.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
There are certain risks of industrialization. Just like there were risks of living in a cave and hunting wild animals. That said industrialization also can give us answers on how to avoid and minimize many of those risks. Seat belts/airbags, train warning systems, etc. However those protective things need to take priority over profit. And in our current corporate climate I fear they don’t. CA is ahead of the game for the most part and it sure hasn’t seemed to hurt our economy here but we have lost several types of business that I feel could be done safely here to areas that are not so concerned about health and safety.
rikyrah
@David Koch:
Not just him, but the entire First Family.
And the President holding Mrs. Boynton’ s hand. When she was getting beaten 50 years ago, she could not have imagined this moment.
David Koch
@Mike J: Camera don’t lie: they detest him. Especially the generals
beltane
President Obama is an incredible leader and human being, many magnitudes of class above the Republicans’ shadow POTUS who addressed Congress last week.
mai naem mobile
Bbbutt Mayor Noun Verb 9/11 told me President Obama doesn’t lurv America like we do?
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@David Koch:
For once, W did something his father might be proud of. His mother, not so much.
(He’s in the front row on the right-hand side of the photo.)
donnah
The photo of him leading the crowd brought tears to my eyes. I wish he could have been able to lead the country as he saw fit right from the start.
J R in WV
I cried too. How amazing to see that crowd stretching out of sight into the distance!
mai naem mobile
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Can I do an imitation of Jen Rubin and say that W wasn’t applauding enthusiastically for Dear Leader?
~jk~
Belafon
@Mnemosyne (tablet): At least this one wasn’t staged like the photo from France.
lamh36
The Presiden’ts speech went a long way to make my day end better than my morning. That damn dude from the inspection place really pissed me off.
In case you missed my comment from the previous thread:
Hildebrand
I love the way that President Obama can bring both hope and the hammer in his speeches. He righteously whacks those needing it, but never allows those negative people to get in the way of his hopes for the country.
ruemara
@lamh36: After I got my tags, I would have told him he was an idiot.
muddy
@Mnemosyne (tablet): After Obama spoke and gave GWB the partial bro hug (or whatever that handshake shoulder bump thing is called) GWB looked genuinely thrilled for a second like he was crushing on the prez too.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Tears. So much beauty and poignance today.
Montysan0
As I said in the other Selma thread: we live in Alabama, and have gone to Selma for the annual march. It’s something that all Americans should put on their bucket list. It was one of my best days ever.
Roger Moore
@mai naem mobile:
He doesn’t love it the way Rudy Giuliani and his buddies do, but that’s a compliment, not an insult. Barack Obama loves America the way a decent person loves his family, not the way a gourmand loves a steak.
lamh36
@ruemara: mahn, you get so used to it, living here, I was just happy to get the tags and go. My temp tags were gonna expire tomorrow
But I did make sure to tell my friends and family in the area to avoid the business at all cost.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@lamh36:
There was a raid recently here in So Cal because of a company promoting “birth tourism” to the U.S. Not surprisingly, it’s actually aimed at rich people willing to pay up to $60,000 to give birth here and then return to their home country (usually, but not exclusively, China):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/04/390594357/federal-agents-carry-out-search-for-evidence-of-illegal-support-for-birth-touris
So, no, it’s not poor foreigners trying to leach off our country — it’s rich ones.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
And you just know the Republicans are REALLY conflicted over that dichotomy.
“If they are rich are they not therefore, worthy? But what if they’re too furrin’ and not the good English-speakin’?”
BubbaDave
@Roger Moore:
I am going to use that phrase until I wear my vocal cords out. Well done, sir.
Davis X. Machina
I looked at all those one-young people, who thought they were about to get killed 50 years ago.
I remember my mother trying to explain to third-grade me what those pictures in Life magazine meant.
I thought back to the prophet Simeon, waiting, waiting, waiting at the Temple.
These people been waiting a looooong time.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
The battle’s not over, there’s backsliding — looking at you, Justice Roberts — and the risk of backsliding, but some things cannot be un-done.
But babies cannot be un-born, bells un-rung, and presidents cannot be unelected
BubbaDave
@gogol’s wife:
He’s disappointed me a few times, but I see something like that speech and I remember why I was wandering around rural Ohio knocking on doors in the fall of 2008. Also, in an unrelated note I may have gotten something in my eye a few times during that speech.
WaterGirl
@David Koch: I am struck by how strong and powerful and unburdened President Obama looks in that photo as he strides forward, leading the march.
What a great day for a great man. I’m very happy to see our president looking so much like himself, not tired or worn down.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
This. Himself. What a fine thing for a good man to be.
sharl
Yowza, I got a whole bunch of links to catch up on, once I get settled in. Sounds like the Selma 50th has been a wonderful remembrance.
@trollhattan: Did you see this video posted in early February of a Canadian freight train plowing through heavy snow in New Brunswick? The whole thing runs just over three minutes, with the first minute or so being the most impressive part. But after reading your news quote, I re-watched that, and saw a whole bunch of tanker cars in that long train. I suppose they could could cooking oil or some low-flammability industrial fluid, but it could also be something more dangerous. So now I’m wondering what precautions they take in NB or North Ontario or anywhere to ensure their tracks are hazard-free before sending trains at such high speed in such conditions of poor visibility. [I read somewhere that passenger trains there don’t move like that, so at least there’s that…]
Mnemosyne (tablet)
Also, if the Democratic power structure is smart enough to pick it up, Obama just gave them a great theme for 2016: keep moving forward.
WaterGirl
@BubbaDave: Exactly. The way he looked striding across that bridge today reminded me very much of the Barack Obama I worked my heart out for in 2007/2008.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: That’s what scares them the most, I think. He is so comfortable in his own skin, he knows exactly who he is and what matters to him, and he’s perfectly comfortable being president of the united states.
The rethugs are frightened cowards and frauds, and I suspect that seeing Obama so at ease being president makes them very uncomfortable when they look in the mirror every day, and I think they hate the hell out of him for that. Not to mention.. A black man! As president!
Davis X. Machina
@WaterGirl: It’s not just that. It could be a white guy. RFK freaked them out the same way.
It’s that they don’t really believe all those big words. Oh, they’ll say them, with their mouths. But with their hearts?
It’s a shuck, and a fraud, and a grift, at least for them. Surely it must be so for everyone? Surely everyone feels that way?
Suddenly there’s a possibility that they’re wrong. That their premises and priors are wrong. That it’s not a shuck. They can see the abyss beneath their feet. For a second.
Then it passes.
BubbaDave
@WaterGirl:
“Never send to know for whom the ni-CLANG tolls; he tolls for thee.”
john fremont
@Roger Moore: Or as GK Chesterton said about Rudyard Kipling, ” He loves England because she is strong, not because it home.”
Complete paraphrase from the cobwebs in my memory.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I always think of it as foam-finger patriotism, they love America like a face-painted idiot screaming WHOOOOOO! at the top of his lungs loves his sports franchise and talks about what “we” did on Monday morning.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, too, this
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I don’t think he always was. I think that’s part of why he had Ramn as his COS. Look how much he has loosened up since Ramn left. I started getting this feeling after reading about what Ramn has done for Chicago. Or to Chicago depending on your point of view. I know at one time I was thinking how does one even run the country and of course it requires a right hand, someone who has your agendas in mind as they carry out the orders necessary to make such a giant octopus work. Looking back I don’t think Ramn had that.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
foam-finger patriotism
A great way to say it. Their sum total of participation was to buy a ticket, and yet they won. Is a franchise owner any different?
Patricia Kayden
@Montysan0: I didn’t know that it was an annual march. Would love to go one year. Love that President Obama is in the White House for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and the March in Selma.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/local/obamas-remembers-kings-legacy/2013/08/28/d6ac47d4-101b-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_video.html
I’m sure that both events would have been ignored by the White House under a Republican President. Rand Paul doesn’t even support the Civil Rights Act.
Elmo
When PBO gave GWB the shout-out for signing the VRA extension, and then called upon the Congressmen present to go back to DC and fix it, even GWB joined in the standing O.
What an amazing, amazing speech. How he must love this country.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The foam finger types are the ones at Tea Party rallies, not at $10K/plate party leadership brunches. The foam finger patriots may not be sophisticated in their love for their country, but it’s their home and they love it for that. Rudy and his ilk see the country as theirs in the sense of ownership, not membership.
trollhattan
White House web page for today’s speech and march is up.
catclub
@trollhattan: The safer alternatives are: a) pipelines b)using less oil.
Which combination of the two do you suggest?
trollhattan
@catclub:
Yes!
Alternative 3 is screw the tar sands extraction infrastructure, which is currently producing oil at a huge loss because they can’t “afford” to not run it (sunk costs and all that). And because it’s not ordinary crude, but a slurry in solvent, it’s far more dangerous to ship. We have no benefit in allowing the stuff to be transhipped across our country.
Elie
Late to the thread but just watched O’s speech….This is the mission of the last piece of his presidency… I was so honored and proud of him — but most of all, of US — as we struggle forward to make the vision of democracy and liberty real for all of us — He reminded me to embrace the vision again, and to accept the work of it — the profound work of it — with less complaint than I have. I am humbled by this reminder, but I know that many of our great leaders have needed the support and reminder. MLK used to have Mahalia Jackson call him and sing spirituals that would link him to the power of the spirit he needed to stay strong for the challenges.. he asked people to die and suffer for this cause he was leading them to, without knowledge of the final outcome.
So it is with us. We don’t know how our efforts will turn out. We have to stay on the march with the vision of our goal in our hearts — a diverse, just America with equal opportunity for all of us — welcoming citizens from all over the world, trusting in our energy, spirit and vision to sustain the meaning….and faith that we can sustain it… even as we battle for meaning…
Ruckus
@Elie:
I’ve been thinking about the president’s speech since hearing it. I commented that I liked the inclusiveness of it. And I watched an amazing PBS video called Craft in America. For the most part it is about veterans who have learned to express themselves through beautiful works in mediums like pottery, metalwork and papermaking. It has come around for me that President Obama’s speech was really my vision of what this country should be and still isn’t for so many. It wasn’t that he said it well (he did!) but that his words ring truer for me than the delivery.
BubbaDave
@Elmo:
I am damning with faint praise here, but I really don’t believe GWB is a bigot. For all his crimes– and they are legion — he also stood up after 9/11 and pronounced in an address to the nation “I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.” He appointed Condi Rice and Colin Powell to positions of power. I think he was the worst President in US history, narrowly edging James Buchanan — but he wasn’t as bad as the Republican leadership today.
Now I’m going to go throw up in my mouth a bit for having defended the Shrub.
dogwood
@BubbaDave
I never thought of GW as a bigot either. Being the worst president is not synonymous with being the worst person. The post obama republican party is run at every level by bad people who seem to enjoy inflicting pain on the powerless. I wouldn’t put Bush in that category.
Darkrose
Oh snap, Republicans. “Loving this country requires more than just singing its praises and avoiding uncomfortable truths.”
You have just been told.
Ruckus
@BubbaDave:
Now I’m going to go throw up in my mouth a bit for having defended the Shrub.
Had to do the same earlier. We get to give him credit for being the worst, we have to honest and give him positive credit where that’s due. Not thinking he’s a bigot is all I’ve got on the positive side though.
Cervantes
@dogwood:
The man is, in my view, a sociopath.
There are countless cases we could consider, most of them anonymous to us. Here is one case from an interview reported by Tucker Carlson years ago in Talk (September, 1999):
Incidentally, Bush was not quoting Ms. Tucker. The words and the whimper were entirely his own.