That promise is our greatest inheritance. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.
When Washington doesn’t work, all its promises seem empty. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation.
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. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition.
While studying here, my father met my mother. Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them.
From his heroic service to Vietnam, to his years as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the United States Senate, he has devoted himself to this country. Because whether it’s poverty or racism, the uninsured or the unemployed, war or peace, the challenges we face today are not simply technical problems in search of the perfect ten-point plan. Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton’s Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations. Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together.
God bless you.