white house

I heard these words first-person:

"But the bottom line is that our core values of responsibility, opportunity, making sure that the American dream is alive and well so that anybody who is willing to put in the time and the effort and the energy are able to get a good education in this society, find a job that pays a living wage, that they’re able to send their kids to college without going broke, that they’ve got basic health care, that they’re going to be able to retire with some dignity and respect, that that opportunity is open to anybody regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, that that basic principle- that’s what holds us together, that’s what makes us Americans. We’re not all tied together by ethnicity or a single religion; what ties us together is this idea that everybody’s got a shot. As long as you carry out your responsibilities, you can make it. You can get into the middle class and beyond. You can start a company and suddenly help bring the whole world together. That’s what makes this country outstanding. But in order to do that, it requires us to both have a commitment to our individualism, our freedom and creativity, and our idiosyncrasies, but it also requires us to have a commitment to each other, and to recognize that I would not be president if somebody hadn’t helped provide scholarships to my school and you would not have Twitter if the DOD at some point and a bunch of universities hadn’t made investments in something that ended up becoming the internet. And those were public goods that were invested in. You and I are sitting here because someone somewhere made an investment in our futures. We’ve got the same obligation for the folks who are coming up behind us. We’ve got to make sure that we’re looking out for them, just like the previous generations looked out for us. And that’s what I think will help us get through what are some difficult times and make sure that America’s future is even brighter than the past."

- President Obama, July 6, 2011