LafontaineOpen the Door Speech

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{ Paul Lafornara - Arrangement } - { Narrative - excerpts from Barack Obama's acceptance speech on November 4th 2008 in Grant Park, Chicago } - November 2008 - The View

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches, in numbers this nation has never seen. By people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time their lives. Because they believed that this time must be different. That their voices could BE that difference. It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native-American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states, we are, and always will be the United States of America. It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long, by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful about what we can achieve, to put their hands on that arch of history, and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It’s been a long time comin’, but tonight because what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. I know you didn’t do this just to win an election. And I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand that enormity of the task that lies ahead. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term, but America I have never been more hopeful, than I have been tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there! And I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for the last two hundred and twenty one years; block by block, brick by brick, calloused hands by calloused hands. What began twenty one months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek, it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to way things were, it can’t happen without you. So let us summon a new spirit, of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder, and look, after not only for ourselves but each other. In this country we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Those are values that we all share. Heal the divides. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright, tonight we’ve proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth but from the enduring power of our ideals, democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope. x