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Barack's Story
Duration:
10 minutes and 6 seconds
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Genre:
None
Producer:
OFA
Director:
New Media
Views:
2,070
(1,727
embedded)
Posted by:
rpena on Oct 8, 2008
Barack's biography: "A Mother's Promise."
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Video Transcription
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- It is a promise that we make to our children,
- that each of us can make what we want of our lives.
- It is this promise that has defined so many great Americans.
- I stand here knowing that my story
- is part of the larger American story,
- that I owe a debt
- to all those that came before me,
- that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
- And it does define him as well.
- My mother, she said to herself:
- My son is an American
- and he needs to understand what that means.
- His childhood was like any other,
- but it was his search for self that defined him.
- My father, I only met him once for a month,
- when I was ten.
- I probably was shaken more by his absence,
- than his presence.
- And what he learned is that by discovering his own story,
- he would come what is remarkable about his country.
- My grandparents, they grew up in Kansas,
- right in the center of the Heartland.
- They were growing up during the Great Depression.
- They weren’t complainers.
- They took life as it came.
- They knew that they had to work hard,
- even when difficult things happened.
- His grandfather fought in Paton’s army.
- His grandmother worked in a bomber assembly line.
- But it was his mother, who would see in him a promise,
- and understood what she needed to do.
- she would wake me up at 4:30 in morning,
- and we would sit there and go through my lessons.
- I used to complain and grumble, you can imagine.
- Six, seven-year-old kid, wake up at 4:30…
- If I grumbled she would say:
- Well,
- this is no picnic for me either Buster.
- The only time I ever saw my mother really angry, was when she saw cruelty,
- when she saw someone being bullied,
- or someone being treated differently
- because of who they where.
- When she saw me doing that, she would be furious.
- And she would say to me: Imagine standing in that person’s shoes.
- How would that make you feel?
- That simple idea I’m not sure I always understood when I was a kid,
- but it stayed with me.
- In Chicago he would find a calling.
- I loaded up all my belongings
- in this raggedy, old car,
- and I drove out to Chicago
- and didn’t know a soul at the time.
- There were factory closings, lost jobs,
- failing schools.
- And in the people he met
- he would find answers.
- Everyone was raving about this guy...
- She came off as very professional.
- I wasn’t sure if she’d have much of a sense of humor.
- I though “Barack Obama,”
- who names their kid Barack Obama?
- It’s one thing if your name was Barack Smith,
- or Barry Obama,
- but Barack Obama… that’s a killer
- That’s not going to work.
- In a month or two he was like…
- “We should go out on a date.”
- I thought: no.
- So he took me to this training that was going on in a church basement
- on the far south side of the city…
- Most of the folks on that basement where there
- because they had faced some point of hopelessness.
- We walk in and he takes off his suit jacket
- and launches into what I think is the most eloquent discussion
- about the world as it is
- and the world as it should be.
- And that was it...
- really after that day that was it.
- I was in love with him.
- I had a pile of student loans at the time,
- I’d just married Michelle,
- she had a pile of student loans.
- His classmates would field offers
- from big law firms on Wall Street,
- but he felt compelled to serve.
- I thought: he was crazy.
- You know, what did you do all this for?
- You read about some injustice and just say:
- “That’s not right, somebody should fix that.”
- You realize: nobody else is going to fix it if you don’t…
- The intent of this bill is to make sure that all wage workers
- are able to bring home a living wage.
- Tax cuts for workers, welfare to work,
- and health care for all those without it.
- You are unemployed, you have no health insurance,
- your kid is in a lousy school...
- That’s day-to-day stuff,
- that’s what people live on a day-to-day basis.
- Pieces of legislation that he carried, he believed in…
- He was not carrying it for a group,
- he was not carrying it for a lobbyist
- I remember the first trip I took in downstate Illinois,
- when I got down there, people where completely familiar to me,
- they where all like my grandparents.
- And in Washington he would remember why he was running
- and who he was fighting for.
- Energy independence.
- Fighting nuclear proliferation.
- Ethics reform.
- I watched him stand in the middle,
- where a lot of senior members of the Senate where saying:
- “Hey, go away, leave us alone,”
- but he wouldn’t.
- What I want is a family that is transmitting
- the values I inherited,
- the values that Michelle inherited to the next generation:
- Hard work, honesty, self-reliance,
- respect for other people,
- and a sense of empathy,
- kindness,
- faith.
- When my mom passed away
- it was one of the toughest moments of my life.
- We always has a small family,
- and she was…the beating hearth of that family.
- It was a reminder to me what that life is short,
- and you better cease the moment.
- One of my earliest memories… going with my grandfather to see
- some of the astronauts being brought back after a splash.
- Sitting on his shoulders,
- and waving the American flag.
- I remember my grandfather,
- who always has a big imagination.
- He was like a little boy himself.
- And my grandfather, would say:
- “We are Americans, we can do anything
- if we put our minds to it.”
- It is a promise we make to our children,
- that each of us can make what we want of our lives.
- It is a promise that his mother made to him,
- and that he would intend to keep.
- I stand before you today to announce
- my candidacy
- for President of the United States of America.
- I don’t think we ever had a conversation about being a Senator or being president,
- it was always about trying to move people…
- In every generation we have an obligation
- to work on behalf of the next generation,
- we got to work to make their lives better,
- I know what it’s like not have a father in the house,
- to have a mother who’s trying to raise kids,
- work, and get her college education at the same time.
- It is that fundamental belief…
- I am my brother’s keeper,
- I am my sister’s keeper,
- that makes this country work,
- I know what it’s like to watch grandparents age,
- whether their fixed incomes will be able to cover the bills...
- We got to transform the political culture,
- so it’s responsive to you
- and not the special interests,
- and not the fat cats, not the lobbyists,
- but is responsible to you…
- When I travel from town to town
- I see Americans going through the same things
- that my family went through.
- And I am reminded of what my mother always said:
- Imagine what it’s like being in somebody else’s shoes,
- one person’s struggle is all of our struggles.
- Recognize ourselves in each other,
- to make sure that opportunity is there,
- not just some people, but all of us...
- And that’s the country I believe in.
- That’s what’s worth fighting for…


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