07/16/2009
Obama to NAACP: Anti-Gay Discrimination Has No Place in America
President Obama addressed the NAACP at its Centennial Convention this evening in New York. In a speech mentioning the economy, health care, education and HIV/AIDS, he also addressed the issue of discrimination, calling for an end to prejudice against minority groups, specifically African-American women, Latinos, Muslim Americans, and gays and lesbians.
Said Obama: "The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there probably has never been less discrimination in America than there is today. But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America."
Video and full remarks (as prepared for delivery), AFTER THE JUMP...
***Remarks of President Barack Obama - NAACP Centennial***
It is an honor to be here, in the city where the NAACP was formed, to mark its centennial. What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past one hundred years.
It is a journey that takes us back to a time before most of us were born, long before the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and Brown v. Board of Education; back to an America just a generation past slavery. It was a time when Jim Crow was a way of life; when lynchings were all too common; and when race riots were shaking cities across a segregated land.
It was in this America where an Atlanta scholar named W.E.B. Du Bois, a man of towering intellect and a fierce passion for justice, sparked what became known as the Niagara movement; where reformers united, not by color but cause; and where an association was born that would, as its charter says, promote equality and eradicate prejudice among citizens of the United States.
From the beginning, Du Bois understood how change would come – just as King and all the civil rights giants did later. They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action. They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom and in the legislature.
But they also knew that here, in America, change would have to come from the people. It would come from people protesting lynching, rallying against violence, and walking instead of taking the bus. It would come from men and women – of every age and faith, race and region – taking Greyhounds on Freedom Rides; taking seats at Greensboro lunch counters; and registering voters in rural Mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, knowing they would be beaten, knowing that they might never return.
Because of what they did, we are a more perfect union. Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500 companies. Because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors, governors, and Members of Congress serve in places where they might once have been unable to vote. And because ordinary people made the civil rights movement their own, I made a trip to Springfield a couple years ago – where Lincoln once lived, and race riots once raged – and began the journey that has led me here tonight as the 44th President of the United States of America.
And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past one hundred years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks – we know that too many barriers still remain.
We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else – a gap that’s widening here in New York City, as detailed in a report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson.
We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.
We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail.
And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.
These are some of the barriers of our time. 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; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation.
But what is required to overcome today’s barriers is the same as was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.
The question, then, is where do we direct our efforts? What steps do we take to overcome these barriers? How do we move forward in the next one hundred years?
The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States. I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009. And I believe that overall, there’s probably never been less discrimination in America than there is today.
But make no mistake: the pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.
On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination must not stand. Not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love. Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.
But we also know that prejudice and discrimination are not even the steepest barriers to opportunity today. The most difficult barriers include structural inequalities that our nation’s legacy of discrimination has left behind; inequalities still plaguing too many communities and too often the object of national neglect.
These are barriers we are beginning to tear down by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; making housing more affordable; and giving ex-offenders a second chance. These are barriers that we are targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, and through Promise Neighborhoods that build on Geoffrey Canada’s success with the Harlem Children’s Zone; and that foster a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on a pathway to college, and giving them the schooling and support to get there.
But our task of reducing these structural inequalities has been made more difficult by the state, and structure, of the broader economy; an economy fueled by a cycle of boom and bust; an economy built not on a rock, but sand. That is why my administration is working so hard not only to create and save jobs in the short-term, not only to extend unemployment insurance and help for people who have lost their health care, not only to stem this immediate economic crisis, but to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity that will put opportunity within reach not just for African Americans, but for all Americans.
One pillar of this new foundation is health insurance reform that cuts costs, makes quality health coverage affordable for all, and closes health care disparities in the process. Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, freeing America from the grip of foreign oil, putting people to work upgrading low-income homes, and creating jobs that cannot be outsourced. And another pillar is financial reform with consumer protections to crack down on mortgage fraud and stop predatory lenders from targeting our poor communities.
All these things will make America stronger and more competitive. They will drive innovation, create jobs, and provide families more security. Still, even if we do it all, the African-American community will fall behind in the United States and the United States will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters. In the 21st century – when so many jobs will require a bachelor’s degree or more, when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow – a world-class education is a prerequisite for success.
You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. 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. 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.
Yet, more than a half century after Brown v. Board of Education, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across this country. African-American students are lagging behind white classmates in reading and math – an achievement gap that is growing in states that once led the way on civil rights. Over half of all African-American students are dropping out of school in some places. There are overcrowded classrooms, crumbling schools, and corridors of shame in America filled with poor children – black, brown, and white alike.
The state of our schools is not an African-American problem; it’s an American problem. And if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve it, then all of us can agree on that. All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country the best education the world has to offer from the cradle through a career.
That is our responsibility as the United States of America. And we, all of us in government, are working to do our part by not only offering more resources, but demanding more reform.
When it comes to higher education, we are making college and advanced training more affordable, and strengthening community colleges that are a gateway to so many with an initiative that will prepare students not only to earn a degree but find a job when they graduate; an initiative that will help us meet the goal I have set of leading the world in college degrees by 2020.
We are creating a Race to the Top Fund that will reward states and public school districts that adopt 21st century standards and assessments. And we are creating incentives for states to promote excellent teachers and replace bad ones – because the job of a teacher is too important for us to accept anything but the best.
We should also explore innovative approaches being pursued here in New York City; innovations like Bard High School Early College and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School that are challenging students to complete high school and earn a free associate’s degree or college credit in just four years.
And we should raise the bar when it comes to early learning programs. Today, some early learning programs are excellent. Some are mediocre. And some are wasting what studies show are – by far – a child’s most formative years.
That’s why I have issued a challenge to America’s governors: if you match the success of states like Pennsylvania and develop an effective model for early learning; if you focus reform on standards and results in early learning programs; if you demonstrate how you will prepare the lowest income children to meet the highest standards of success – you can compete for an Early Learning Challenge Grant that will help prepare all our children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
So, these are some of the laws we are passing. These are some of the policies we are enacting. These are some of the ways we are doing our part in government to overcome the inequities, injustices, and barriers that exist in our country.
But all these innovative programs and expanded opportunities will not, in and of themselves, make a difference if each of us, as parents and as community leaders, fail to do our part by encouraging excellence in our children. Government programs alone won’t get our children to the Promised Land. We need a new mindset, a new set of attitudes – because one of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way that we have internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little of ourselves.
We have to say to our children, Yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not. But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands – and don’t you forget that.
To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.
And it means we need to be there for our neighbor’s son or daughter, and return to the day when we parents let each other know if we saw a child acting up. That’s the meaning of community. That’s how we can reclaim the strength, the determination, the hopefulness that helped us come as far as we already have.
It also means pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States.
So, yes, government must be a force for opportunity. Yes, government must be a force for equality. But ultimately, if we are to be true to our past, then we also have to seize our own destiny, each and every day.
That is what the NAACP is all about. The NAACP was not founded in search of a handout. The NAACP was not founded in search of favors. The NAACP was founded on a firm notion of justice; to cash the promissory note of America that says all our children, all God’s children, deserve a fair chance in the race of life.
It is a simple dream, and yet one that has been denied – one still being denied – to so many Americans. It’s a painful thing, seeing that dream denied. I remember visiting a Chicago school in a rough neighborhood as a community organizer, and thinking how remarkable it was that all of these children seemed so full of hope, despite being born into poverty, despite being delivered into addiction, despite all the obstacles they were already facing.
And I remember the principal of the school telling me that soon all of that would begin to change; that soon, the laughter in their eyes would begin to fade; that soon, something would shut off inside, as it sunk in that their hopes would not come to pass – not because they weren’t smart enough, not because they weren’t talented enough, but because, by accident of birth, they didn’t have a fair chance in life.
So, I know what can happen to a child who doesn’t have that chance. But I also know what can happen to a child who does. I was raised by a single mother. I don’t come from a lot of wealth. I got into my share of trouble as a kid. My life could easily have taken a turn for the worse. But that mother of mine gave me love; she pushed me, and cared about my education; she took no lip and taught me right from wrong. Because of her, I had a chance to make the most of my abilities. I had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. I had the chance to make the most of life.
The same story holds for Michelle. The same story holds for so many of you. And I want all the other Barack Obamas out there, and all the other Michelle Obamas out there, to have that same chance – the chance that my mother gave me; that my education gave me; that the United States of America gave me. That is how our union will be perfected and our economy rebuilt. That is how America will move forward in the next one hundred years.
And we will move forward. This I know – for I know how far we have come. Last week, in Ghana, Michelle and I took Malia and Sasha to Cape Coast Castle, where captives were once imprisoned before being auctioned; where, across an ocean, so much of the African-American experience began. There, reflecting on the dungeon beneath the castle church, I was reminded of all the pain and all the hardships, all the injustices and all the indignities on the voyage from slavery to freedom.
But I was also reminded of something else. I was reminded that no matter how bitter the rod or how stony the road, we have persevered. We have not faltered, nor have we grown weary. As Americans, we have demanded, strived for, and shaped a better destiny.
That is what we are called to do once more. It will not be easy. It will take time. Doubts may rise and hopes recede.
But if John Lewis could brave Billy clubs to cross a bridge, then I know young people today can do their part to lift up our communities.
If Emmet Till’s uncle Mose Wright could summon the courage to testify against the men who killed his nephew, I know we can be better fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters in our own families.
If three civil rights workers in Mississippi – black and white, Christian and Jew, city-born and country-bred – could lay down their lives in freedom’s cause, I know we can come together to face down the challenges of our own time. We can fix our schools, heal our sick, and rescue our youth from violence and despair.
One hundred years from now, on the 200th anniversary of the NAACP, let it be said that this generation did its part; that we too ran the race; that full of the faith that our dark past has taught us, full of the hope that the present has brought us, we faced, in our own lives and all across this nation, the rising sun of a new day begun. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
Posted 7:39 PM EST by Andy Towle in Barack Obama, Discrimination, NAACP, News | Permalink
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Awesome! Some will say that these are just words, but words can be powerful. And this isn't pandering to a LGBT group -- it's speaking truth to an audience who may be struggling with gay equality as a civil rights issue.
Using the phrase "who you love" is perfect -- makes it hard to argue against love.
I still expect legislative and executive action on our behalf, but the fact that Obama is using his bully pulpit on our behalf is powerful and important. Hearing the President make a strong case against our discrimination made my night!
Posted by: IkeBen | Jul 16, 2009 8:00:03 PM
Every time this man speaks, it just re-confirms how right his Presidency is for all of us, gay and straight. Sure, the bitter will just look for reasons to scream and stomp their feet, but this President even makes THAT possible for gays and lesbians.
Posted by: Davey | Jul 16, 2009 8:04:14 PM
Very good, Mr. President. Now, follow up with actively working to repeal DADT and DOMA. Don't cop out by saying Congress must (eventually) give you a bill. What are you doing to lobby Congress? While you're at it, you'd better teach your press guy Gibbs how to better answer Jake Tapper's dogged questions on LGBT equality.
Posted by: Tim | Jul 16, 2009 8:19:39 PM
Kool Aid for dinner again so soon?
He found "room for prejudice" in his admin's brief defending DADT to the Supreme Court recycling old homohating excuses.
He found "room for prejudice" in his admin's brief defending DOMA to the Supreme Court recycling homohating excuses AND making up some fresh ones.
When he PRACTICES what he preaches to others...call me.
No action? No transaction: the gay ATM is closed.
Posted by: Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com | Jul 16, 2009 8:20:02 PM
Kool Aid for dinner again so soon?
He found "room for prejudice" in his admin's brief defending DADT to the Supreme Court recycling old homohating excuses.
He found "room for prejudice" in his admin's brief defending DOMA to the Supreme Court recycling homohating excuses AND making up some fresh ones.
When he PRACTICES what he preaches to others...call me.
No action? No transaction: the gay ATM is closed.
Posted by: Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com | Jul 16, 2009 8:28:47 PM
Blah, blah, blah. More talk, no action, I'm sick to death of him.
Posted by: Bob | Jul 16, 2009 8:38:31 PM
Yes, the gAyTM should stay closed until laws are passed. Yes, Obama has been way too lax about, and at times even detrimental to, our causes. But words do matter, and I'm giving him significant points on this one.
Posted by: Bruno | Jul 16, 2009 8:39:27 PM
There is still room for discrimination however. I will actually believe him when a man (or woman) with a federally recognized marriage is able to serve in the military. Until then, the gaytm will no longer be wasting money on the dems and will instead shuttle money where it can have some impact.
Posted by: Derrick Lowery | Jul 16, 2009 8:49:22 PM
And so...whatcha gonna do about it, 'Bama baby?
Posted by: DW | Jul 16, 2009 8:55:25 PM
It's totally refreshing and inspiring to have a world leader speaking about the importance of equal rights for all. Change comes...sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly...and with legislation building and sustaining momementum is paramount for installing significant change.
Posted by: Daniel | Jul 16, 2009 8:58:05 PM
Does the term "anti-gay" discrimination strike anyone as strange. doesn't it sound like discrimination against people who are "anti-gay." Shouldn't it just be "gay discrimination."
I must say that the generalized term homophopia also strikes as not quite right since there seems to be a lot of people who hate gays but aren't afraid of them.
Maybe I'm just not thinking clearly today. I don't know.
Posted by: David Flood | Jul 16, 2009 9:10:44 PM
David Flood,
No one ever reads phrases like "anti-gay bias" or "anti-gay attacks" and thinks that people who are anti-gay are the ones being discriminated against or attacked.
Nitpick much?
Posted by: Q | Jul 16, 2009 9:26:45 PM
There's no doubt President Obama knows how to wax poetic- but ultimately it's only words- and talk is cheap if it's not backed by action.
Mr. President stop talking about change and start making change.
Posted by: Joe L | Jul 16, 2009 9:39:40 PM
Obama may deserve his share of criticism for not moving as quickly as we would like, and in the end he may just be full of honeyed words -- but words do have power, and you'd never hear words like that coming from a Republican.
Posted by: homoDM | Jul 16, 2009 9:51:05 PM
Spoken to the exact group of people that most needs to hear it.
Posted by: GrabbinNewscum | Jul 16, 2009 10:04:50 PM
@ Daniel.
"It's totally refreshing and inspiring to have a world leader speaking about the importance of equal rights for all."????
You think this is something NEW? Maybe if you're 12 years old or have never read anything about gay history....
Jesse Jackson was speaking much more eloquently about gay rights when he ran for President TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. I was in the San Francisco hall when he told a alternately cheering and weeping Democratic National Convention:
"Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow -- red, yellow, brown, black and white -- and we're all precious in God's sight. America is not like a blanket -- one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt. ... The Rainbow includes lesbians and gays. No American citizen ought be denied equal protection from the law."
Bill Clinton was speaking much more eloquently than Obama about gay rights when he ran for President SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO. And, unlike Obama, he didn't hide from gay groups during his campaign, telling a huge gay crowd on one campaign stop,
"Tonight I want to talk to you about how we can be one people again, without regard to race or gender or sexual orientation or age or region or income. Those of you who are here tonight represent a community of our nation's gifted people whom we have been willing to squander. We cannot afford to waste the capacity, the contributions, the heart, the soul and the mind of gay and lesbian Americans...What I came here to tell you in simple terms, is, I have a vision and you're a part of it."
But that words alone are not enough is no less true after this speech by O than they were then.
Posted by: Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com | Jul 16, 2009 10:05:33 PM
Geez, people -- the guy has been in office LESS THAN 6 MONTHS! "I'm sick to death of him"?! Like the guy in there before was so awesome.
I don't understand the haters -- Clinton actually signed anti-gay legislation, Bush II wanted us written out of the Constitution. This guy has a couple of missteps, in the context of strong language like the speech tonight (and some positive albeit minor executive action, let's not forget), and we still have to dump on him?
I say let's keep the pressure on, but give the guy a little time to get things right before denigrating him!
Posted by: IkeBen | Jul 16, 2009 10:12:24 PM
I'm starting to think that it really doesn't matter what Obama does and what he says, it's never enough for the 'usual suspects' that haunt this site and this comments section.
Obama is using his bully pulpit to change hearts and minds with an audience that has been far less helpful in the march for equal rights than many of us would like. But that's 'just words', of course.
Posted by: Mitch | Jul 16, 2009 10:15:04 PM
Michael, so you saw Jesse Jackson and Clinton speak (I have and met Clinton). They are not president now and Obama gave a speech to the NAACP, a group that has a huge influence.
Yes, they are words but they were brilliant and inspiring to me. If you watched the whole speech it was excellent.
Posted by: Ed | Jul 16, 2009 10:19:27 PM
bravo!
Posted by: TCW | Jul 16, 2009 10:36:17 PM
Did you notice the gay discrimination portion of the speech got more response then the others? It brought a smile to my face. Perhaps there are a few in the leadership who can see the light. The "who you love" part was nice too.
I think this could be a spark this group needs.
Posted by: Mary in Iowa | Jul 16, 2009 10:43:56 PM
Blah blah blah
Posted by: Glenn | Jul 16, 2009 10:53:42 PM
"From the beginning, Du Bois understood how change would come – just as King and all the civil rights giants did later. They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action."
We can continue our efforts to pressure, but lets not throw the
baby out with the bath water.
Posted by: inocentmi | Jul 16, 2009 10:57:34 PM
No place in America--but plenty of places in the Obama administration. Starting in the White House. I'm with the other Michael: when he actually starts taking action on those words and living up to all those hitherto-empty promises he made to us during the campaign, then I'll listen. And quite happily give him whatever credit he deserves. Until then, however, he's still on probation.
And, Ikeben, the "it's only been six months" thing was old about the first five thousand times it was used. As is the "At least he's better than the last guy" dodge. At least with the last guy we knew exactly what we were getting--bupkes. Unlike Obama, who promised the moon and the stars and hasn't even managed to deliver a bowl full of Lucky Charms. If this is what a "fierce advocate" for gay rights looks like, I think I'd rather have an apathetic incompetent. At least G. W. Bush was honest about how he felt about gay people. Obama just seems to want to say whatever his handlers tell him he needs to say whenever they need a favor or some cash from us. That makes him different from every other Democratic politician my whole adult life how, exactly?
Posted by: Michael | Jul 16, 2009 11:03:49 PM
Only six months in office. No one's disputing that.
But it would take him less that six SECONDS to sign an executive order using the powers Congress gave him under "10 United States Code 12305" to stop the discharges that, in Obama’s own words three weeks ago, “weakens our national security” of, again in HIS words,
“patriots who often possess critical language skills and years of training and who've served this country well” like Iraq veteran and Arabic linguist Lt. Dan Choi when we continue to be so short of linguists as we were when that shortage resulted in failure to translate in time a terrorist message intercepted the day BEFORE 9/11
...and decorated combat veteran/flight nurse Maj. Margaret Witt when the Air Force has a shortage of flight nurses
...and experienced fighter pilot Iraq veteran Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach
and the discharges of all gays Obama called “patriotic Americans” when recruiters are so desperate to make their minimum numbers that they’ve dumped the ban on enlisting convicted felons and are wasting even more tax dollars bribing foreign nationals with cash bonuses and the promise of citizenship for enlisting when there are thousands of gays who would enlist for free. Or reenlist—estimates are that every year up to 4000 gay servicemembers, already trained at taxpayer expense, choose not to reenlist rather than continue to have to lie in order to serve.
If there is, in Obama’s words three weeks ago, such an “urgency of reversing this policy not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it is essential for our national security,” then why hasn't he done with his pen what his mouth is saying?
Applause for saying pretty words to the NAACP, but he should take a page from the heroism of President Kennedy who when there was far more racism in America than there is homophobia now went live on national television in prime time and told Americans that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was about to be introduced in Congress and that he fully endorsed it in a lengthy, eloquent speech about racial injustice, echoing a press release from months before:
"In short, the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, under this Administration and in all of its activities, now stands squarely behind the principle of equal opportunity, without segregation or discrimination, in the employment of Federal funds, facilities and personnel. All officials at every level are charged with the responsibility of implementing this principle -- and a formal inter-departmental action group, under White House chairmanship, oversees this effort and follows through on each directive. For the first time, the full force of Federal executive authority is being exerted in the battle against race discrimination."
"The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. ... Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay? .... And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.
We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?
We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people. ... It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives."
While Obama's so-called Justice Department defends DADT and DOMA in court, Kennedy ordered his Justice Department to personally write the Civil Rights Act with input from members of Congress. Then his White House lieutenants and allies in Congress worked the Senate and House to get it passed as hard as any Executive branch had for any peacetime bill.
Obama could and should do the same for his entire supposed LGBT rights agenda and sign the executive order freezing discharges on the spot in the interest of national security.
But not only is he NOT doing that, there is not evidence that there is even anyone in his administration, as there was in Kennedy's, tasked with seeing that agenda enacted.
All we get are various excuse makers for doing nothing...and the pity is that some of them are gay themselves.
Posted by: Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com | Jul 16, 2009 11:12:17 PM