A More Perfect Union

In the remarks on “A More Perfect Union” Senator Barack Obama discusses the issue of race identity in terms of American society. Barack Obama describes his life stressing the role the race has played in his life. It is known that if Obama wins Presdiential elections, he will become the first African-American president in the US history.

Obama touches the questions of slavery, declaration of independence in Philadelphia and origins of democracy in America. Declaration of independence in Philadelphia played crucial role in promoting democracy as farmers, scholars, patriots and statement were provided with opportunity to express their negative attitude towards slavery, discrimination, tyranny and inequality.

Declaration of independence became the first step on the long road to democracy, freedom, liberty and universal human rights. (Obama, 2008)

Through struggles and protests, through civil disobedience and civil war, American citizens made a successful attempt to narrow the gap between empty words and reality of the time they lived in.

Therefore, the most important idea of the speech is that all citizens of the United States should be provided with full rights and obligations despite their color, religious preferences and beliefs.

Obama says that US Constitution is the ideal for citizens as it ensures their legal rights, and opportunities. It is Constitution that promises all citizens liberty, freedom, justice and union. Obama adds that union should be perfected with time.

Therefore, Obama views the task of his campaign as one which will continue the long march of to more just, equal, free American nation. Obama says that he decided to run for presidency as he believed that challenges couldn’t be overcome unless they were solved together and unless the union was perfected. (Obama, 2008)

Obama stresses that we have different hopes, but all of us are striving for better future sharing similar hopes. Obama argues that “we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren”. (Obama, 2008) Obama’s beliefs, according to his words, are rooted in his own story. Obama tells he is the son of a black man and white woman from Kansas.

Obama’s grandfather survived Depression and helped to raise Obama. Obama says he visited the best schools in American, and, at the same time, lived in one of the poorest nations. She is married to an African-American women and blood of slavery flowed within them. Obama’s life story has taught him that a nation isn’t simply a sum of genetic make-ups. Instead, nation is sharing common hopes and prospects for better future.

Obama says that racial tensions are seen in all spheres of life. Even he is often labeled as ‘too black’ or ‘not black enough’. In South Carolina there are powerful coalitions of African-Americans and white Americans. Blacks and whites are equally offended and it should be stopped. Obama shares his experiences at Trinity.

He says that Trinity is embodiment of African-American community as similar to other African-American churches Trinity offers services which are full of bawdy humor and raucous laughter. Obama says that Trinity’s church is full of dancing, shouting and clapping, as well as it combines kindness and cruelty, struggles and success, intelligence and ignorance, love and bitterness, etc. All these components build the experience of Africans in America. (Obama, 2008)