![Couch creaks](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/212.jpg)
![the audacity face the audacity face](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/12/d6/5a/12d65a71addf2214bf5f146584e8338f.jpg)
Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon.
![the audacity face the audacity face](https://pam4nellallc.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/pam-headshot-business-wordpress-website.jpg)
They know they have to work hard to get ahead - and they want to.
![the audacity face the audacity face](https://i1.wp.com/thecyberflame.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/NoiseReduce.png)
The people I meet - in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks - they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college. More to do for the young woman in East St.
![the audacity face the audacity face](https://i.redd.it/uo1lnkg8aus41.jpg)
More to do for the father that I met who was losing his job and choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on. More work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Ill., who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour. This year, in this election, we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we are measuring up, to the legacy of our forbearers, and the promise of future generations.Īnd fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents - I say to you tonight: we have more work to do. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted at least, most of the time. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That is the true genius of America - a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. And yet, I know that, on this night, they look down on me with great pride. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential. They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.Īnd they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. While studying here, my father met my mother. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before. But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son.
![Couch creaks](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/212.jpg)