The Speech Barack Obama Should Have Delivered

[I am not a professional speech-writer, as you are about to find out. However, here is a freebie, for the consideration of Barack Obama. I believe that it is, if he could do so truthfully and sincerely, the speech that he should have given on March 18, 2008, in the City of Brotherly Love.]

I am profoundly sorry. I apologize with all my heart to the People of the United States and to my constituents in the State of Illinois.

I have been the beneficiary of an extraordinary gift, a gift that started before I was born and that has continued to this day. That gift began as a gift to my father, who was born black and poor in Africa. The greatest country that the world has ever known, the United States of America, gave my father a scholarship and brought him to the U.S., where he earned college degrees in economics, first at the University of Hawaii, and later a graduate degree at Harvard. This extraordinary gift occurred during the 1960s, surrounding the time of my birth, and the U.S. asked nothing of my father in return. For that gift, I thank you America.

My mother, a white woman, was given the gift of having been born in the greatest country on earth to two quintessential working class American parents - her father, who joined the U.S. Army after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, and her mother, who served the efforts of WWII by working in the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas. After the United States and its allies had defeated the forces of evil in WWII, these ordinary American parents saw to it that my mother had the opportunity to receive the level of education that had not been possible for them. This is the blueprint of the “American Dream” – parents doing their best to see that their children have even more opportunities than they had been afforded. For that gift, I thank you America.

America’s gift to my family, and thus to me, was the gift that kept on giving. I was granted the good fortune of having been born in the United States to my parents, two people of different races, making me an alloy of the great American melting pot. While my childhood was somewhat unconventional, owing to the life-choices of my divorced parents, who were world-travelers seeking knowledge and a way to contribute to their world, I consider that to have been an advantage, rather than a disability.

When I was ten, my mother sent me to live with my maternal grandparents, who accepted me unconditionally, in spite of the obvious difference in the color of our skin, and afforded me a further upbringing and educational opportunity, that made it possible for me to eventually reach a level of success that has exceeded that of my parents. America – thank you again.

What else has this unbelievable country given to me? The blessings are many too many for me to recount; but I will name just a few. I have been given the opportunity to obtain an extraordinary level of education, without having been born with family wealth. I have been entrusted by the people of Illinois, with the privilege of representing them in state government and then as a Senator in the Senate of the United States of America. Thank you Illinois, and thank you America.

In reflecting on all of these gifts, which would not have been possible in any other country on earth, at any other time in the history of this world, I have concluded that I have failed to sufficiently appreciate what I have been given. In fact, I have publicly complained about my country, in a way that denigrates this country and shows a lack of appreciation, of which I am deeply ashamed.

I am sorry. I am deeply sorry. In retrospect, I recognize that many of the gifts, that I have received, have been paid for by other Americans, people who don’t even know me, some people who are not even alive. I recognize that many of the gifts that I have received have been unavailable to others, because there is never enough to give equally to each person in the country, or in the world.

I now see that there are a number of things that I could have done, over the years, to more fully acknowledge the debt of gratitude that I owe to my country and to my countrymen, all of them.

While there are many things that I will try to do, in order to remedy this shortcoming, I want to address one issue in particular, and that is the race issue. This issue has recently been brought to the forefront, due to my membership in a particular church, with a particular pastor. I apologize that my approach to the race issue, and to the pronouncements of my pastor, has been cowardly. I have taken the typical politician’s approach to race in America. I, and my campaign organization, have tried to exploit race relations, and race-guilt in America, to my advantage. I have been able to rationalize that to myself by believing that this was the only way for me to be elected, and thus to make unique contributions to America.

I was wrong. I have not only failed you, I have failed my pastor, my congregation and my family. Over a very long period of time, I have failed to tell my pastor, and good friend, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that I do not agree with his jaded and misguided view of the United States; nor his negative view of the white race. I have failed to try to convince him, and my congregation, that his vile pronouncements against America, and especially white Americans, is wrong and serves only to divide, rather than unify. Having been afraid to take those actions, I was then also wrong not to remove my family, especially my daughters, from that atmosphere of hate.

While my own particular racial makeup is somewhat unusual, it is not unique in this great country. While my level of education and experience may be unusual (or even above-average), it is not unique. In other words, I am not perfect, and I may not even be worthy to be asking you, the American people, to give me another gift, the extraordinary gift of trusting me to be President of the United States.

However, I will ask you to take a chance on me. I desperately want the opportunity to contribute to my country. I wish to do whatever I can, to the best of my ability, to repay part of the debt that I owe to the United States. I believe that I have the best ideas, and the best answers to issues, of any candidate in this contest for the presidency.

So I ask you, as humbly as I can, to cast an informed vote for me. Please, do not vote for me, or against me, because of the color of my skin. Please don’t vote for me, or against me, because of the color of your skin. All I ask is that you read my position papers, and those of my opponents. Listen to my speeches, and those of my opponents. If you conclude, as I hope and think you will, that my positions offer the best direction for America, vote for me. Together I truly believe that we can make America, the greatest country on earth, ever better.

So – I say again, I am sincerely sorry for my lack of gratitude to my God and my country. Please accept this belated thank-you for all of the gifts that I have been given. Please grant me the opportunity to repay my debt.

Thank you, again; and may God continue to bless the United States of America.