Your Thoughts On Obama: Civil rights leaders paved way for him
NEW YORK – President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders, telling the NAACP that their sacrifice "began the journey that has led me here." The nation's first black president bluntly warned, though, that racial barriers persist. "Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America," the president said in honoring the organization's 100th convention... {President Obama sited} himself as the beneficiary of the NAACP's work, Obama cited historical figures from W.E.B. DuBois to Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr. to Emmet Till, to explain how the path to the presidency was cleared by visionaries.
Despite the racial progress exemplified by his own election, Obama said African-Americans must overcome a disproportionate share of struggles, including being more likely to suffer from many diseases and having a higher proportion of children end up in jail. "These are some of the barriers of our time," Obama said. "They're very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They're very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers," Obama said. "But what's required to overcome today's barriers is the same as what was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency."
..."There's a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There's a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob," Obama said. "It's because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential." Unlocking that potential, though, means both acknowledging the challenges facing black youth and then finding a solution to problems that are the legacy of decades of institutionalized discrimination. Today, Obama said, it is not prejudice or discrimination that presents the greatest obstacles for blacks, but rather structural inequities_ in areas such as education and health care. Still, though, he said discrimination persists — and not just for blacks — and he chided those who may contend otherwise...
..."I know what can happen to a child who doesn't have that chance," Obama said. "But I also know what can happen to a child who does... When I drive through Harlem or I drive through the South Side of Chicago, when I see young men on the corners, I say, 'There but for the grace of God go I.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090717/ap_on_...
Despite the racial progress exemplified by his own election, Obama said African-Americans must overcome a disproportionate share of struggles, including being more likely to suffer from many diseases and having a higher proportion of children end up in jail. "These are some of the barriers of our time," Obama said. "They're very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They're very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers," Obama said. "But what's required to overcome today's barriers is the same as what was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency."
..."There's a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There's a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob," Obama said. "It's because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential." Unlocking that potential, though, means both acknowledging the challenges facing black youth and then finding a solution to problems that are the legacy of decades of institutionalized discrimination. Today, Obama said, it is not prejudice or discrimination that presents the greatest obstacles for blacks, but rather structural inequities_ in areas such as education and health care. Still, though, he said discrimination persists — and not just for blacks — and he chided those who may contend otherwise...
..."I know what can happen to a child who doesn't have that chance," Obama said. "But I also know what can happen to a child who does... When I drive through Harlem or I drive through the South Side of Chicago, when I see young men on the corners, I say, 'There but for the grace of God go I.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090717/ap_on_...
I thought the speech was excellent and I've always known that we have to be proactive in our own destinies.