Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

B402, conix's video was 27 minutes, i thought likely the full speech. Excerpt from your most welcome transcript:

However, during his speech, he did tell graduates of the historically-Black college that he heard their voices of protest and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza break his heart, too.

“I support peaceful nonviolent protest," he told students at the all-male college, some of whom wore Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs around their shoulders on top of their black graduation gowns. "Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.”

Aside from the war, Biden spent much of the approximately 30-minute speech focused on the problems at home. He condemned Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants and noted that the class of 2024 entered college during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Biden said it was natural for them, and others, to wonder whether the democracy “you hear about actually works for you.”
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/full-remarks-president-biden-delivers-commencement-speech-morehouse-college/85-b22a9f38-8bff-46e5-ad68-616687bf3db1

Yet conix said his speech was about history and not today. How the hell do so many consistently get things so wrong. Part of the answer no doubt is that petty political thoughts get in the way of a more objective look at things.

More of your transcript:

My city of Wilmington -- and we were a -- to our great shame, a slave state, and we were segregated. Delaware erupted into flames when he was assassinated, literally.

We’re the only city in America where the National Guard patrolled every street corner for nine full months with drawn bayonets, the longest stretch in any American city since the Civil War.

Dr. le- -- Dr. King’s legacy had a profound impact on me and my generation, whether you’re Black or white. I left the fancy law firm I had just joined and decided to become a public defender and then a county councilman, working to change our state’s politics to embrace the cause of civil rights.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/full-remarks-president-biden-delivers-commencement-speech-morehouse-college/85-b22a9f38-8bff-46e5-ad68-616687bf3db1

Compare that to Trump's chosen path. Which should any clear thinking voter who wants the best for America choose for president.

More...

The pandemic robbed you of so much. Some of you lost loved ones -- mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, who were -- aren’t able to be here to celebrate with you today -- today. You missed your high school graduation. You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race.

It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you.

What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street?

What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave Black -- Black communities behind?

What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?

And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure? (Applause.)

When I sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, in front of the fireplace across from my -- my desk, I have two busts: one of Dr. King and one of Bobby Kennedy. I often find myself looking at those busts and making decisions. I ask myself: Are we living up to what we say we are as a nation, to end racism and poverty, to deliver jobs and justice, to restore our leadership in the world?

Then I look down and see the rosary on my wrist that was out of -- my late son, he had on him when he w- -- died at Walter Reed, and I was with him. And I ask myself: What would he say? I know the answer because he told me in his last days.

My son knew the days were numbered. The last conversation was, “Dad, I’m not afraid, but I’m worried. I’m worried you’re going to give up when I go. You’re going to give up.”

We have an expression in the Biden family. When you want someone to know -- give you their word, you say, “Look at me.” He was lying to me -- he said, “Look at me, Dad. Look at me.”

He said, “Give me your word. Give me your word as my father that you will not quit, that you will stay engaged. Promise me, Dad. Stay engaged. Promise me. Promise me.”

I wrote a book called “Promise Me, Dad,” not for the public at large, although a lot of people would end up buying it. It’s for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know who Beau Biden was.

The rosary on the -- my wrist, the bust in my office remind me that faith asks you to hold on to hope, to move heaven and earth to make better days.

Well, that’s my commitment to you: to show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way.

If Black men are being killed on the streets, we bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy, to root out systemic racism.

I stood up for George -- with George Floyd’s family to help create a country where you don’t need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over.

Instead of a trail of broken promises, we’re investing more money than ever in Black families and Black communities. We’re reconnecting Black neighborhoods cut off by old highways and decades of disinvestment where no one cared about the community.

We’ve delivered checks in pockets to reduce child -- Black child poverty to the lowest rate in history. We’re removing every lead pipe in America so every child can drink clean water without fear of brain damage, and then can’t afford to remove the lead pipes themselves.

We’re delivering affordable high-speed Internet so no child has to sit in their parents’ car or do their homework in a parking lot outside of McDonald’s.

Instead of forcing you to prove you’re 10 times better, we’re breaking down doors so you have 100 times more opportunities: good-paying jobs you can raise a family on in your neighborhood -- (applause); capital to start small business and loans to buy homes; health insurance, prescriptions drugs, housing that’s more affordable and accessible.

I’ve walked the picket line and defended the rights of workers. I’m relieving the burden of student debt -- many of you have already had the benefit of it -- (applause) -- so I [you] can chase your dreams and grow the economy.

When the Supreme Court told me I couldn’t, I found two other ways to do it. (Applause.) And we were able to do it, because it grows the economy.

And I -- in addition to the original $7 billion investment in HBCUs, I’m investing 16 billion more dollars -- (applause) -- more in our history, because you’re vital to our nation. Most HBCUs don’t have the endowments. The jobs of the future require sophisticated laboratories, sophisticated oppor- -- opportunity on campus.

We’re opening doors so you can walk into a life of generational wealth, to be providers and leaders for your families and communities. Today, record numbers of Black Americans have jobs, health insurance, and more [wealth] than ever.

Democracy is also about hearing and heeding your generation’s call to a community free of gun violence and a planet free of climate crisis and showing your power to change the world.

But I also know some of you ask: What is democracy if we can’t stop wars that break out and break our hearts?

In a democracy, we debate and dissent about America’s role in the world.

I want to say this very clearly. I support peaceful, nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them. I determined to make my c- -- my administration look like America. I have more African Americans in high places, including on the Court, than any president in American history -- (applause) -- because I need the input.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/full-remarks-president-biden-delivers-commencement-speech-morehouse-college/85-b22a9f38-8bff-46e5-ad68-616687bf3db1

Seriously. What sort of voter would choose Trump as a better president.

Thanks.