"It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one. Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."
This is the America I have grown to aspire and love. A nation that sets asides our differences in times of struggle in order to protect and uplift our nation. We have lost our way as a nation. We have ceased looking out for our brothers and sisters instead preferring ourselves. Long gone are the days when politicians came together to hammer out details of policy in friendly collegial ways. Now, at this very moment, we live in a nation that will prod at the very issues that make us sensitive. We will publicly trash the name of an opponent for easy political points. We will stand in our respective corners solely on the nature of what's best for the party rather what's best for the nation.
We must return to the days of FDR and LBJ when we as a nation took the time to known our neighbors and those we disagreed with. We came together as a nation to defeat the Great Depression and the horrific regimes of the axis powers. Whites, Jews, African-Americans, Italians, Irish, and other ethnicities came together in times of strife to help their fellow citizens defeat a common enemy. It seems that it takes great tragedy to bring this country out of our corners into the one strong America we saw during World War I and II. These times showed the resilience, tenacity, and hope that America symbolizes and as citizens the values we all hold.
America comes to her strongest potential when the worst of the world and our nation are exhibited. However, what I hope for is an America that is strongest not when the doors of peace are closed but when they are open and when the doors of opportunity are open to all. The United States of America is a nation of hope. We were built upon the shoulders of past generations who came to America for the hope of a better life among tolerant individuals. On the tablet held by the Statue of Liberty it reads "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." This is who we are; our national identity. We are a nation of tired poor masses striving to live a life of freedom. One America where we all defend our nation and live with hope, hope for a better future.
I call on all Americans to return our nation to a civil tone. A tone that respects our differences while highlighting those differences. We must remember that we are all Americans, each with a family and values. Their existed a time in our history when we met the families of our political opposites and became their friends. It is time to bring America back to those days. It is time to bring civility back into politics.
God Bless the United States of America!
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