America, We Are Better Than

All Of Us Share This World For But A Brief Moment In Time. The Question Is Whether We Spend That Time Focused On What Pushes Us Apart, Or Whether We Commit Ourselves To An Effort -- A Sustained Effort -- To Find Common Ground, To Focus On The Future We Seek For Our Children, And To Respect The Dignity Of All Human Beings.

Another Tradition To Politics, A Tradition (of Politics) That Stretched From The Days Of The Country’s Founding To The Glory Of The Civil Rights Movement, A Tradition Based On The Simple Idea That We Have A Stake In One Another, And That What Binds Us Together Is Greater Than What Drives Us Apart, And That If Enough People Believe In The Truth Of That Proposition And Act On It, Then We Might Not Solve Every Problem, But We Can Get Something Meaningful Done.

As A Product Of History And Faith, Jewish Americans Have Helped To Open Our Eyes To Injustice, To People In Need, And To The Simple Idea That We Ought To Recognize Ourselves In The Struggle Of Our Fellow Men And Women.

This Is An Extraordinary Achievement, Nearly Nine Years In The Making.

I Think I Was Able To Talk To People About Values In Ways That People - In Ways That Resonated With Folks.