2013.08.29
白宫
新闻秘书办公室
2013年8月28日
总统在纪念华盛顿大游行50周年
“让自由之声回响”仪式上发表讲话
林肯纪念堂(Lincoln Memorial)
下午3:07 东部夏令时间
总统:金博士的家人们,他们做出了如此大的牺牲,具有如此激励人心的力量;克林顿总统(President Clinton)、卡特总统(President Carter)、拜登副总统(Vice President Biden)和吉尔(Jill);美国同胞们。
50年前的今天,美国人来到这个令人尊崇的地方,要求兑现我们的建国承诺: “我们认为以下真理不言而喻:人人生而平等,造物主赋予他们某些不可剥夺的权利,其中包括生命、自由和追求幸福的权利。”
1963年,在这些话语付诸文字近200年后,在一场伟大的战争结束和解放宣言公布整整一个世纪后,这项承诺——这些真理——仍未兑现。因此,成千上万的男女老少、渴望自由的黑人以及无法再接受自己享有自由而目睹其他人受压抑的白人从全国各个角落汇聚在这里。
在全国各地,为他们送行的会众们端出食物,虔诚祝祷。夜阑时分,整个哈莱姆(Harlem)区的居民走出家门向他们表示祝福。一些人从自己的血汗钱中省下为数不多的金钱买车票登上巴士,即使他们不能总是坐在他们想坐的位置。更穷苦的人则搭上便车或者步行。他们中间有女裁缝和炼钢工人、学生和教师、女佣和搬运工人。他们一起省吃俭用,席地同眠。然后,在一个炎热的夏天,他们聚集在这里,在我们国家的首都,在伟大的解放者(Great Emancipator)的身影下——为存在不公正的现象作证,要求他们的政府补偏救弊,同时唤醒美国人长期沉睡的良知。
金博士(Dr. King)在那一天慷慨激扬的演讲言犹在耳,永世难忘;他为数百万人默默的期望发出了强有力的声音;他为被压迫者和压迫者都提供了救赎的途径。他的话语亘古永存,具有我们这个时代无可比拟的力量和高瞻远瞩的眼光。
但我们应当记得,那一天还属于那些普通的民众——他们的名字从未载入史册,也从未出现在电视上。许多人进入了种族隔离的学校,在实行种族隔离的午餐桌上用餐。在他们居住的城镇,他们自己不能参加投票;在他们居住的城市,他们的选票无足轻重。他们是热恋的情侣,却无法成婚。他们是在国外为自由而战的军人,却在家乡遭到否定。他们目睹了所爱之人遭到殴打,孩子们受到消防水管冲击。他们有充足的理由发泄愤怒的情绪,或者屈从悲苦的命运。
但他们选择了另一条道路。面对仇恨,他们为伤害他们的人祈祷。面对暴力,他们挺身而出,发挥非暴力的道德力量静坐抗议。他们心甘情愿身陷囹圄,对不公正的法律表示抗议,他们的牢房回荡着自由的歌声。一生的屈辱教他们懂得,没有人可以剥夺上帝赋予我们的尊严和恩典。他们从痛苦的经历中明白了弗雷德里克·道格拉斯(Frederick Douglass)曾经教给他们的道理——自由不是别人的赐予,自由必须争取,需要进行斗争,需要不辞劳苦,需要坚持不懈,需要恪守信念。
这就是他们在那一天带到这里的精神。这就是像约翰·刘易斯(John Lewis)那样的年轻人带给那一天的精神。这就是他们像传递火炬一般带回他们的城市和社区的精神。一团代表良知和勇气的烈火继续为他们今后发起的各种运动熊熊燃烧——通过抵制行动和选民登记运动,也包括远离人们视线的小型游行;通过伯明翰市(Birmingham)四个小女孩生命丧失的悲剧和埃德蒙·佩特斯桥(Edmund Pettus Bridge)大屠杀以及达拉斯(Dallas)、加利福尼亚(California)和孟菲斯城(Memphis)遭受的痛苦。通过饱受挫折和磨难的经历、令人疑惑不安的痛苦,这团正义的火焰熠熠发光,永不熄灭。
由于他们坚持奋勇挺进,美国发生了变化。由于他们奋勇挺进,一部民权(Civil Rights)法律得以通过。由于他们奋勇挺进,一部投票权(Voting Rights)法律得以签署。由于他们奋勇挺进,机会和教育之门得以开启,使他们的儿女们终于能够憧憬自己今后的生活,不再限于为别人洗衣服或给别人擦皮鞋。(掌声)由于他们奋勇挺进,市议会发生了变化,州议会发生了变化,国会发生了变化,而且,是的,白宫最终也发生了变化。(掌声)
由于他们奋勇挺进,美国变得更自由、更公正——不仅对美国非洲裔,而且对妇女和拉美裔、亚裔及美国原住民(Native American),对天主教徒、犹太教徒和穆斯林,对同性恋者和美国残疾人都如此。美国为了你我发生了变化,整个世界都从这个事例中汲取了力量,不论是在铁幕(Iron Curtain)另一边注视这一切并最终推倒这堵墙的年轻人,还是南非境内最终消除了种族隔离祸害的年轻人。(掌声)
这些是他们心怀钢铁般的意志和热切的希望取得的胜利。这是他们筚路蓝缕,一步一步推动的转变。这是我和数百万美国人对人们欠下的债务,对那些女佣、那些劳工、那些搬运工人、那些秘书;对那些如果得到机会本可以经营一家公司的人们;对那些将自己置于险境的白人学生,尽管他们不必如此;对那些记得他们自己遭到拘禁的美国日裔;对那些在大屠杀(Holocaust)中幸存的美国犹太裔;对那些本可以放弃和屈服但不断在坚持的人们,他们知道“哭泣可能持续一夜,但喜悦会在清晨降临”。(掌声)
在为公正而奋斗的战场上,没有地位、财富、头衔、名望的男女斗士解放了我们所有的人,如今我们的孩子们已经对此习以为常,所有肤色和信念的人在地球上这个最伟大的国家一起生活,一起学习,一起行走,并肩作战,彼此关爱并以我们的品格为标准彼此做出判断。(掌声)
否认已取得巨大的进步——如某些人所说,改变微乎其微——就对不起那些年付出代价奋勇挺进的人表现的勇气和做出的牺牲。(掌声)梅加·埃弗斯(Medgar Evers)、詹姆斯·钱尼(James Chaney)、安德鲁·古德曼(Andrew Goodman)、迈克尔·施沃纳(Michael Schwerner)、马丁·路德·金(Martin Luther King Jr.)——他们没有白白牺牲。(掌声)他们取得了巨大的胜利。
但我们如果认为这个国家的工作多少已经完成,也对不起这些英雄们。道德的曲线可能向公正的方向弯曲,但不会自行弯曲。为了维持这个国家已经取得的进步,必须时刻保持警惕,不可意得自满。无论是挑战那些给投票设立新壁垒的人,还是确保正义的天平对所有的人一视同仁及及刑事司法系统不单纯是从资金不足的学校到人满为患的监狱之间的通道,都须要保持警惕。(掌声)
而且,我们有时会遭遇挫折。但我们将赢得这些斗争。这个国家发生了如此巨大的变化。(掌声)无论属于哪个党派,有着良好意愿的人远远压倒了心怀邪念妄图改变历史潮流的人。(掌声)
但是,在某些方面,保障公民权利、投票权及消除合法化的歧视——在这些方面取得胜利的重要意义可能使华盛顿大游行的第二个目标朦胧不清。 50年前,人们聚集到那里并非为了寻求一些抽象的理想。他们聚集到那里是为了寻求就业机会和公正——(掌声)——不仅仅是消除压迫,而且是获得经济机会。(掌声)
金博士会发出这样的疑问:如果一个人坐在没有种族隔离的午餐桌旁却吃不起午餐,那又有何益处?这种观念——即人的自由与生计息息相关;追求幸福需要有工作的尊严,拥有找到工作的技能,获得体面的薪酬和某种程度的物质安全——这并不是什么新观念。林肯本人对《独立宣言》(Declaration of Independence)的理解是——一种希望,假以时日 “所有的人肩上的重负都应该被卸除,所有的人都应该拥有平等的机会”。
金博士指出,美国非洲裔的目标和各族裔劳动者的目标是相同的:“体面的薪酬、公平的工作条件、宜居的住房、养老保障、健康和福利措施、家庭可以成长并可以让子女接受教育的环境,以及在社区获得尊重。”
金博士描述的始终是每一位美国人的梦想。几百年来,这个梦想陆续吸引新移民来到美国。正是这第二个目标——经济机会,通过诚实的劳动提升自己地位的机会——50年前的目标大多尚未实现。
是的,在美国黑人群体内已有成功的例子,半个世纪前简直不可想象。但是,正如已经指出的那样,黑人的失业率仍然几乎是白人失业率的两倍,拉美裔的失业率紧随其后。族裔之间的贫富差距并没有缩小,而是扩大了。正如克林顿总统所指出的,全体美国劳动者的地位,不论何种肤色如何均受到侵蚀,使金博士描述的梦想更难以实现。
十多年来,美国所有族裔的劳动者看到他们的薪酬和收入停滞不前,即使企业利润飙升,即使少数幸运者薪酬暴涨。过去几十年,不平等现象始终稳步增多。向上的流动性更加困难。在这个国家的很多社区,在城市、郊区和乡村,贫困的阴影笼罩着我们的年轻人,他们上的学校不合标准,个人前途暗淡,缺乏医疗护理,无法摆脱暴力,犹如被困樊笼。
因此,在华盛顿大游行纪念日到来之际,我们必须提醒自己,为了衡量50年前参加大游行的人们取得的进步,不仅需要看有多少黑人能够加入百万富翁的行列,而且需要看这个国家能否使所有愿意努力工作的人,无论族裔背景如何,都迈入中产阶级的行列。(掌声)
检验标准不是,也从来不是,机会之门是否仅为少数人多打开了一点, 而是我们的经济体系是否为许多人——为黑人管理员和白人钢铁工人、移民洗碗工和美国原住民退伍军人——提供公平的机会。赢得这场斗争,响应这个召唤——仍然是我们未竟的伟大事业。
我们不应自欺欺人,这项任务不可能轻而易举。自1963年以来,经济已经发生了变化。技术和全球竞争的双重力量已经削减了曾经为人们迈入中产阶级行列提供立足点的工作——降低了美国劳工的谈判能力。同时,我们的政治也已深受其害。既得利益集团,那些受益于不公正现状的人,抵制政府为工薪家庭获得公平待遇付出的努力——动员了大批说客和舆论制造者,声称提高最低工资标准,或制定更严格的劳工法,或向能够负担得起的富人征税以资助摇摇欲坠的学校,所有这一切违反了健全的经济原则。有人告诉我们,所谓日益严重的不平等是经济增长的代价,是这个自由市场的检验标准;所谓贪婪是好事,同情心不起作用,那些没有工作或医疗保健的人只能怪他们自己。
还有,一些民选官员认为重操昔日政治分化的故技会奏效,竭尽全力要让美国中产阶级相信一个巨大的谎言,即政府本身反倒是造成他们日益缺少经济保障的原因;冷漠的官僚在将他们的辛苦所得用于让福利骗子或非法移民受益。
还有,如果我们坦诚扪心自问,我们会承认,在过去50年里,有时候,我们中一些自称努力推动变革的人迷失了方向。暗杀事件造成的悲痛引发了自我伤害的骚乱。对警察暴行产生的合理不满转化为犯罪的借口。种族政治是一把双刃剑,包含团结和兄弟情谊的变革信息被淹没在相互间的斥责声中。曾经呼吁机会平等、让所有美国人能够通过努力工作取得成功的号召,往往被说成不过是想获得政府的扶持——好像我们没有解放自己的动力,好像贫穷是不抚养孩子的借口,而他人的偏见成为你自暴自弃的理由。
所有这些经历都说明进步为何停滞,希望为何转向,我们的国家为何继续分化。但好消息是,如1963年一样,我们现在有一个选择。我们可以继续沿着当前的道路走下去,而这将使这一伟大民主政体的车轮停止不前,使我们的后代降低对生活的期望;将使政治成为零和游戏,只有极少人飞黄腾达,而每一个种族难以为生的家庭要为分得一块不断缩小的经济蛋糕苦苦挣扎——这是一条道路。然而我们可以鼓起勇气进行变革。
华盛顿大游行告诉我们,我们不受历史错误的禁锢,我们是主宰自己命运的主人。但它同时告诫我们,只有在我们携手共进时,才能兑现这个国家的承诺。我们将必须重新点燃同情心和手足情,以及于50年前在此处展示的共同的良知。
我相信这种精神的存在,真理的力量存在于我们每一个人的心中。 当一位白人母亲能在一个贫苦黑孩子的脸上看见自己的女儿时,我看到了这种精神。 当一个黑人青年能够通过一位老年白人有尊严的步履联想到他自己的祖父时,我看到了这种精神。 当本地出生的人能够认识到新移民的奋斗精神时,当跨族通婚的夫妇理解被歧视的同性恋伴侣的痛苦并视之为切身之痛时,我看到了这种精神。
这就是勇气的来源——当我们不是背离彼此或攻击彼此,而是接近彼此时,我们会发现,我们并非踽踽独行。这就是勇气的来源。(掌声)
依靠这种勇气,我们能共同争取良好的工作和公平的工资。依靠这种勇气,我们能共同在全球最富裕的国家为每位公民争取医疗保健权利。(掌声)依靠这种勇气,我们能共同为每个孩子——从阿纳科斯蒂亚(Anacostia)的角落到阿巴拉契亚(Appalachia)的山间——争取接受教育的权利,启迪心灵,注入精神,帮助他们作好迎来未来世界的准备。 (掌声)
依靠这种勇气,我们能让食不果腹的人有饭吃,让无家可归者有房住,将贫穷的荒原改造成商业和希望的良田。
美国,我知道道路将会漫长,但我知道我们能够到达。是的,我们会有磕绊,但我知道,我们会重新站起。运动就是这样出现,历史就是这样转弯,当一个人感到怯弱时,其他人就是这样携腕而上说,来吧,让我们向前进。(掌声)
这就是为什么在那天,以及在后来的岁月里,那么多游行者是年轻人——因为年轻人不受恐惧的约束,不受习俗惯例的约束。他们敢于有不同的梦想,憧憬更美好的景象。我坚信,同样的想像力,对目标的同样渴求,在激励着这一代人。
我们可能不会面临与1963年相同的危险,但是强烈的紧迫感依然存在。我们可能永远不会复制那么多年前涌动的人群和耀眼的游行队伍——没有人能堪比金博士的辉煌,但是同样的火焰——它曾将所有愿意为争取正义迈出第一步的人的内心点燃,我知道那团火焰依然存在。(掌声)
一位不知疲倦的老师早出晚归,用自己的钱为学生购买学习用品,因为她认为每一个孩子都是自己的责任——她就是走在游行队伍中。(掌声)
一位成功的企业家虽本无须如此,但为员工支付公平的工资并为一个人提供了机会——那人也许是曾有前科,身陷逆境——他就是走在游行队伍中。(掌声)
一位母亲为女儿倾注全部爱心,使她可以自信地成长,像任何人的儿子一样走入同样的机会大门——她就是走在游行队伍中。(掌声)
一位父亲认识到自己最重要的工作就是正确地将儿子抚养成人,尽管他不曾有过父亲——特别是他父亲不曾在家中——他就是走在游行队伍中。(掌声)
那些身经百战的老兵不仅致力于帮助战友重新站立,重新行走,重新跑起来,而且在回到家乡后继续报效国家——他们就是在游行队伍中。(掌声)
每一个认识到那些光荣的爱国之士在那天懂得的道理的人,即变革不是来自华盛顿,而是带到华盛顿;变革始终以我们——“我们人民”——愿意承担公民职责作基础——你们就是走在游行队伍中。(掌声)
这就是我们历史的借鉴,这就是明天的希望——面对艰难险阻,热爱国家的人可以群起转变之。当每一种族和地区,每一信仰和岗位的千百万美国人能够情同手足携起手来时,高山将会低头,沟壑将化作平原,歧路将变成通向荣光的坦途,我们将证明那些付出巨大代价恪守我们理念的真正含义的人所持有的信念,即作为一个在上帝庇护下的国家,不可分割,人人享有自由和正义。 (掌声)
结束 下午3:36 东部夏令时间
28 August 2013
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
August 28, 2013
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE “LET FREEDOM RING” CEREMONY
COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON
Lincoln Memorial
3:07 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: To the King family, who have sacrificed and inspired so much; to President Clinton; President Carter; Vice President Biden and Jill; fellow Americans.
Five decades ago today, Americans came to this honored place to lay claim to a promise made at our founding: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In 1963, almost 200 years after those words were set to paper, a full century after a great war was fought and emancipation proclaimed, that promise -- those truths -- remained unmet. And so they came by the thousands from every corner of our country, men and women, young and old, blacks who longed for freedom and whites who could no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of others.
Across the land, congregations sent them off with food and with prayer. In the middle of the night, entire blocks of Harlem came out to wish them well. With the few dollars they scrimped from their labor, some bought tickets and boarded buses, even if they couldn’t always sit where they wanted to sit. Those with less money hitchhiked or walked. They were seamstresses and steelworkers, students and teachers, maids and Pullman porters. They shared simple meals and bunked together on floors. And then, on a hot summer day, they assembled here, in our nation’s capital, under the shadow of the Great Emancipator -- to offer testimony of injustice, to petition their government for redress, and to awaken America’s long-slumbering conscience.
We rightly and best remember Dr. King’s soaring oratory that day, how he gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions; how he offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors alike. His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time.
But we would do well to recall that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names never appeared in the history books, never got on TV. Many had gone to segregated schools and sat at segregated lunch counters. They lived in towns where they couldn’t vote and cities where their votes didn’t matter. They were couples in love who couldn’t marry, soldiers who fought for freedom abroad that they found denied to them at home. They had seen loved ones beaten, and children fire-hosed, and they had every reason to lash out in anger, or resign themselves to a bitter fate.
And yet they chose a different path. In the face of hatred, they prayed for their tormentors. In the face of violence, they stood up and sat in, with the moral force of nonviolence. Willingly, they went to jail to protest unjust laws, their cells swelling with the sound of freedom songs. A lifetime of indignities had taught them that no man can take away the dignity and grace that God grants us. They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught -- that freedom is not given, it must be won, through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith.
That was the spirit they brought here that day. That was the spirit young people like John Lewis brought to that day. That was the spirit that they carried with them, like a torch, back to their cities and their neighborhoods. That steady flame of conscience and courage that would sustain them through the campaigns to come -- through boycotts and voter registration drives and smaller marches far from the spotlight; through the loss of four little girls in Birmingham, and the carnage of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and the agony of Dallas and California and Memphis. Through setbacks and heartbreaks and gnawing doubt, that flame of justice flickered; it never died.
And because they kept marching, America changed. Because they marched, a Civil Rights law was passed. Because they marched, a Voting Rights law was signed. Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else’s laundry or shining somebody else’s shoes. (Applause.) Because they marched, city councils changed and state legislatures changed, and Congress changed, and, yes, eventually, the White House changed. (Applause.)
Because they marched, America became more free and more fair -- not just for African Americans, but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans; for Catholics, Jews, and Muslims; for gays, for Americans with a disability. America changed for you and for me. and the entire world drew strength from that example, whether the young people who watched from the other side of an Iron Curtain and would eventually tear down that wall, or the young people inside South Africa who would eventually end the scourge of apartheid. (Applause.)
Those are the victories they won, with iron wills and hope in their hearts. That is the transformation that they wrought, with each step of their well-worn shoes. That’s the debt that I and millions of Americans owe those maids, those laborers, those porters, those secretaries; folks who could have run a company maybe if they had ever had a chance; those white students who put themselves in harm’s way, even though they didn't have; those Japanese Americans who recalled their own internment; those Jewish Americans who had survived the Holocaust; people who could have given up and given in, but kept on keeping on, knowing that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Applause.)
On the battlefield of justice, men and women without rank or wealth or title or fame would liberate us all in ways that our children now take for granted, as people of all colors and creeds live together and learn together and walk together, and fight alongside one another, and love one another, and judge one another by the content of our character in this greatest nation on Earth. (Applause.)
To dismiss the magnitude of this progress -- to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little has changed -- that dishonors the courage and the sacrifice of those who paid the price to march in those years. (Applause.) Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Martin Luther King Jr. -- they did not die in vain. (Applause.) Their victory was great.
But we would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete. The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn’t bend on its own. To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency. Whether by challenging those who erect new barriers to the vote, or ensuring that the scales of justice work equally for all, and the criminal justice system is not simply a pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails, it requires vigilance. (Applause.)
And we'll suffer the occasional setback. But we will win these fights. This country has changed too much. (Applause.) People of goodwill, regardless of party, are too plentiful for those with ill will to change history’s currents. (Applause.)
In some ways, though, the securing of civil rights, voting rights, the eradication of legalized discrimination -- the very significance of these victories may have obscured a second goal of the March. For the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search of some abstract ideal. They were there seeking jobs as well as justice -- (applause) -- not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity. (Applause.)
For what does it profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can’t afford the meal? This idea -- that one’s liberty is linked to one’s livelihood; that the pursuit of happiness requires the dignity of work, the skills to find work, decent pay, some measure of material security -- this idea was not new. Lincoln himself understood the Declaration of Independence in such terms -- as a promise that in due time, “the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.”
And Dr. King explained that the goals of African Americans were identical to working people of all races: “Decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community.”
What King was describing has been the dream of every American. It's what's lured for centuries new arrivals to our shores. And it’s along this second dimension -- of economic opportunity, the chance through honest toil to advance one’s station in life -- where the goals of 50 years ago have fallen most short.
Yes, there have been examples of success within black America that would have been unimaginable a half century ago. But as has already been noted, black unemployment has remained almost twice as high as white unemployment, Latino unemployment close behind. The gap in wealth between races has not lessened, it's grown. And as President Clinton indicated, the position of all working Americans, regardless of color, has eroded, making the dream Dr. King described even more elusive.
For over a decade, working Americans of all races have seen their wages and incomes stagnate, even as corporate profits soar, even as the pay of a fortunate few explodes. Inequality has steadily risen over the decades. Upward mobility has become harder. In too many communities across this country, in cities and suburbs and rural hamlets, the shadow of poverty casts a pall over our youth, their lives a fortress of substandard schools and diminished prospects, inadequate health care and perennial violence.
And so as we mark this anniversary, we must remind ourselves that the measure of progress for those who marched 50 years ago was not merely how many blacks could join the ranks of millionaires. It was whether this country would admit all people who are willing to work hard regardless of race into the ranks of a middle-class life. (Applause.)
The test was not, and never has been, whether the doors of opportunity are cracked a bit wider for a few. It was whether our economic system provides a fair shot for the many -- for the black custodian and the white steelworker, the immigrant dishwasher and the Native American veteran. To win that battle, to answer that call -- this remains our great unfinished business.
We shouldn’t fool ourselves. The task will not be easy. Since 1963, the economy has changed. The twin forces of technology and global competition have subtracted those jobs that once provided a foothold into the middle class -- reduced the bargaining power of American workers. And our politics has suffered. Entrenched interests, those who benefit from an unjust status quo, resisted any government efforts to give working families a fair deal -- marshaling an army of lobbyists and opinion makers to argue that minimum wage increases or stronger labor laws or taxes on the wealthy who could afford it just to fund crumbling schools, that all these things violated sound economic principles. We'd be told that growing inequality was a price for a growing economy, a measure of this free market; that greed was good and compassion ineffective, and those without jobs or health care had only themselves to blame.
And then, there were those elected officials who found it useful to practice the old politics of division, doing their best to convince middle-class Americans of a great untruth -- that government was somehow itself to blame for their growing economic insecurity; that distant bureaucrats were taking their hard-earned dollars to benefit the welfare cheat or the illegal immigrant.
And then, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that during the course of 50 years, there were times when some of us claiming to push for change lost our way. The anguish of assassinations set off self-defeating riots. Legitimate grievances against police brutality tipped into excuse-making for criminal behavior. Racial politics could cut both ways, as the transformative message of unity and brotherhood was drowned out by the language of recrimination. And what had once been a call for equality of opportunity, the chance for all Americans to work hard and get ahead was too often framed as a mere desire for government support -- as if we had no agency in our own liberation, as if poverty was an excuse for not raising your child, and the bigotry of others was reason to give up on yourself.
All of that history is how progress stalled. That's how hope was diverted. It's how our country remained divided. But the good news is, just as was true in 1963, we now have a choice. We can continue down our current path, in which the gears of this great democracy grind to a halt and our children accept a life of lower expectations; where politics is a zero-sum game where a few do very well while struggling families of every race fight over a shrinking economic pie -- that’s one path. Or we can have the courage to change.
The March on Washington teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history; that we are masters of our fate. But it also teaches us that the promise of this nation will only be kept when we work together. We’ll have to reignite the embers of empathy and fellow feeling, the coalition of conscience that found expression in this place 50 years ago.
And I believe that spirit is there, that truth force inside each of us. I see it when a white mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when the black youth thinks of his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white man. It’s there when the native-born recognizing that striving spirit of the new immigrant; when the interracial couple connects the pain of a gay couple who are discriminated against and understands it as their own.
That’s where courage comes from -- when we turn not from each other, or on each other, but towards one another, and we find that we do not walk alone. That’s where courage comes from. (Applause.)
And with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and just wages. With that courage, we can stand together for the right to health care in the richest nation on Earth for every person. (Applause.) With that courage, we can stand together for the right of every child, from the corners of Anacostia to the hills of Appalachia, to get an education that stirs the mind and captures the spirit, and prepares them for the world that awaits them. (Applause.)
With that courage, we can feed the hungry, and house the homeless, and transform bleak wastelands of poverty into fields of commerce and promise.
America, I know the road will be long, but I know we can get there. Yes, we will stumble, but I know we’ll get back up. That’s how a movement happens. That’s how history bends. That's how when somebody is faint of heart, somebody else brings them along and says, come on, we’re marching. (Applause.)
There’s a reason why so many who marched that day, and in the days to come, were young -- for the young are unconstrained by habits of fear, unconstrained by the conventions of what is. They dared to dream differently, to imagine something better. And I am convinced that same imagination, the same hunger of purpose stirs in this generation.
We might not face the same dangers of 1963, but the fierce urgency of now remains. We may never duplicate the swelling crowds and dazzling procession of that day so long ago -- no one can match King’s brilliance -- but the same flame that lit the heart of all who are willing to take a first step for justice, I know that flame remains. (Applause.)
That tireless teacher who gets to class early and stays late and dips into her own pocket to buy supplies because she believes that every child is her charge -- she’s marching. (Applause.)
That successful businessman who doesn't have to but pays his workers a fair wage and then offers a shot to a man, maybe an ex-con who is down on his luck -- he’s marching. (Applause.)
The mother who pours her love into her daughter so that she grows up with the confidence to walk through the same door as anybody’s son -- she’s marching. (Applause.)
The father who realizes the most important job he’ll ever have is raising his boy right, even if he didn't have a father -- especially if he didn't have a father at home -- he’s marching. (Applause.)
The battle-scarred veterans who devote themselves not only to helping their fellow warriors stand again, and walk again, and run again, but to keep serving their country when they come home -- they are marching. (Applause.)
Everyone who realizes what those glorious patriots knew on that day -- that change does not come from Washington, but to Washington; that change has always been built on our willingness, We The People, to take on the mantle of citizenship -- you are marching. (Applause.)
And that’s the lesson of our past. That's the promise of tomorrow -- that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. That when millions of Americans of every race and every region, every faith and every station, can join together in a spirit of brotherhood, then those mountains will be made low, and those rough places will be made plain, and those crooked places, they straighten out towards grace, and we will vindicate the faith of those who sacrificed so much and live up to the true meaning of our creed, as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (Applause.)
END 3:36 P.M. EDT