Many Of Us Were Kind Of Irritated

One Of The Thing About Being President - That Can't Be Taught, You Have To Experience, Is - There Is The Sheer Weight Of Decision Making. And When I Make A Decision To Send 17,000 Young Americans To Afghanistan - You Can Understand That Intellectually. But Understanding What That Means For Those Families, For Those Young People - When You End Up Sitting At Your Desk, Signing - A Condolence Letter To One Of The Family Members Of A Fallen Hero - You're Reminded Each And Every Day, At Every Moment, That - The Decisions You Make Count.

Usually, I'm Pretty Good About Sorting Through The Options And Then Making Decisions That I'm Confident Are The Best Decisions In That Moment, Given The Information We Have. But There Are Times Where I Think I Wish I Could Have Imagined A Different Level Of Insight.

America, We Weaken Our Ties When We Allow Our Political Dialogue To Become So Corrosive That People Of Good Character Aren't Even Willing To Enter Into Public Service; So Coarse With Rancor That Americans With Whom We Disagree Are Seen Not Just As Misguided But As Malevolent. We Weaken Those Ties When We Define Some Of Us As More American Than Others, When We Write Off The Whole System As Inevitably Corrupt, And When We Sit Back And Blame The Leaders We Elect Without Examining Our Own Role In Electing Them.

If You Want To Get At African American Poverty, The Income Gap, Wealth Gap, Achievement Gap, That The Most Important Thing Is To Make Sure That The Society As A Whole Does Right By People Who Are Poor, Are Working Class, Are Aspiring To A Better Life For Their Kids.

Tonight, Somewhere In America, A Young Person, Let's Say A Young Man, Will Struggle To Fall To Sleep, Wrestling Alone With A Secret He's Held As Long As He Can Remember. Soon, Perhaps, He Will Decide It's Time To Let That Secret Out. What Happens Next Depends On Him, His Family, As Well As His Friends And His Teachers And His Community. But It Also Depends On Us - On The Kind Of Society We Engender, The Kind Of Future We Build.