America, where all things are possible.


For every black man, woman and child who came to this country shackled and shamed in a slave ship, today, everything is possible. For Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and thousands others who made their way out of slavery into freedom, only to fight for others to follow them, today, everything is possible. For John Brown, my personal hero, a white man who laid down his life to end slavery, and was, in doing this, labeled a crazy man, today, everything is possible. For Harriet Beecher Stowe, a white writer whose Uncle Tom's Cabin stirred many throughout the nation to cry out for freedom for their brothers and sisters, today, everything is possible.
For our brothers and sisters who were lynched by angry mobs who accused them of being "uppity," today, arising from your ashes, everything is possible. For the Tuskegee Airmen who fought for a country they considered their own even if they were often shunned, today, everything is possible. For every soldier, black or white, who has ever laid down his life to guarantee freedom for all in this fine nation of ours, today, everything is possible.

For Martin Luther King, Jr. and all those who stood beside him in the trenches of the Civil Rights movement, who went to jail, who were attacked by dogs and fire hoses, who suffered assassination, today, everything is possible. This includes their white brothers and sisters who marched along side them, registered voters alongside them, and sometimes even died alongside them. For every black person who has ever been the recipient of a vicious joke or a suspicious stare, and for every white person who has spoken up in his or her behalf, today, everything is possible. For Jackie Robinson and Josephine Baker and those precious little girls who died in their own church a lifetime ago, today, everything is possible.

For Barack Obama and the millions of people who worked to make him our President, and for all who exercised their right to disagree with his policies and vote against him, today, everything is possible. Today is a day for each of us to embrace each other and our country and a vision for a new day, for today, everything is possible.