Sunday, May 14, 2023

Joe Biden at Howard University graduation ceremony

He does not look depleted to me.

We’re living through one of the most consequential moments in our history with fundamental questions at stake for our nation.  Who are we?  What do we stand for?  What do we believe?  Who will we be?  You’re going to help answer those questions.

... I don’t have to tell you that fearless progress towards justice often meets ferocious pushback from the oldest and most sinister of forces.  That’s because hate never goes away. 

... The sacred proposition rooted in Scripture and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that we’re all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.  While we’ve never fully lived up to that promise, we never before fully walked away from it.
 
We know that American history has not always been a fairytale.  From the start, it’s been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years between the best of us, the American ideal that we’re all create equal — and the worst of us, the harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart.  It’s a battle that’s never really over.

But on the best days, enough of us have the guts and the hearts to stand up for the best in us.  To choose love over hate, unity over disunion, progress over retreat.  To stand up against the poison of white supremacy, as I did in my Inaugural Address — to single it out as the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy. 

... To stand up for truth over lies — lies told for power and profit. 
 
To confront the ongoing assault to subvert our elections and suppress our right to vote.  That assault came just as you cast your first ballots in ‘20 and ‘22.  Record turnouts.  You delivered historic progress.
 
I made it clear that America — Americans of all backgrounds have an obligation to call out political violence that has been unleashed and emboldened.  As was mentioned already, bomb threats to this very university and HBCUs across the country.
 
To put democracy on the ballot.  To reject political extremism and reject political violence. ...

... We can finally resolve those ongoing questions about who we are as a nation.  That puts strength of our diversity at the center of American life.  A future that celebrates and learns from history.  A future for all Americans.  A future I see you leading.  And I’m not, again, exaggerating.  You are going to be leading it.  ...

Text excerpted from Whitehouse transcript. They do a very honorable job; it's all there. They even preserve the very brief stumbles when his stutter forced him to pause slightly. 

I don't look to presidents for salvation. Presidents are as good as the movements of people who push them around. But this one is a good one and worth pushing, which is all we get in this life. Let's keep him.

1 comment:

Civic Center said...

Thank you for this. He has proven to be so much better than I anticipated that I'm astonished when other people like my sisters don't see it, partly because they listen to the nightly news where he is constantly being diminished. So I always call him Old Handsome Joe Biden (OHJB) in order to make them laugh and think again.