A More Perfect Union: Main Idea
A More Perfect Union: Main Idea
Albert Einstein is attributed as saying, "The world as we created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking" (The New Quotable Einstein, Alice Calaprice).
Many moons ago, when those dignified men in short pants drafted the Constitution, they said it was to form a more perfect union. History has proven that perfection takes more than a signed document, and according to Obama, the only way to fix it, to really make our union perfect, is to move beyond the dark parts of the past and create a better future.
How do we begin, you ask? Well, ol' Al was a smart dude—even he knew that it starts with changing the way we think.
Questions
- "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Think about the word perfect in connection with social and political history in America. What do you think our Founding Fathers meant when they chose that word?
- In his speech, Obama mentioned racial discrimination in schools and in the workplace. Where else do you see issues of race in our society? Where do you see issues of race in your own community?
- Why do you think so we have such difficulty talking to one another about issues of race and discrimination? What are some solutions Obama offers in his speech to make it easier?
- In line 126, Obama states that the American people have "the audacity to hope" for a better future. What does he mean? How will our "audacity to hope" help us as we try to achieve a truly perfect union?
Chew On This
The New Yorker was right to say that Obama's speech helped cinch the vote, because it represented a new initiative in combatting race relations in the United States.
Barack Obama is able to influence and inspire so many people because he understands the importance of ethos, pathos, and logos in appealing to his audience.
Quotes
Quote #1
I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together—unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; 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 our children and grandchildren. (10)
That moment Obama was speaking of? It was full to bursting with people who were fed up and scared for so many different reasons. And, as we know, fear is a breeding ground for hate. Obama was saying that we spent too much time blaming each other, and not enough time looking at how we could fix things. He wanted us to remember that our problems were just that—our problems, collectively.
Part of what makes America so great is that we have so many different cultures and traditions, each as valid and important as the next. But at the core, we aren't so different. We all want peace, we all want access to safe water and health care and good education for ourselves and for our children. Therefore, the true path to perfection—like good-hair-day-let-me-take-12-selfies perfection—can only exist if we work together to make change.
Quote #2
I can no more disown [Reverend Wright] than I can my white grandmother—a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. (65)
We are all products of the past: our collective past as Americans and our individual experiences with our own families and communities. It takes a village to raise a child, remember—just check out the village of Stars Hollow.
But the stories aren't always so Gilmore Girls-esque. Obama knew we understood racism and all the reasons it is wrong. But he also knew, from personal experience, we are all guilty of succumbing to stereotypes because sometimes they're as much a part of our upbringing as the shows we watched on TV. That doesn't make them okay, but it doesn't mean we can rid ourselves of them or of the people who passed them along to us. We just have to find the middle ground and learn from them.
Quote #3
But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races. (98)
Have you seen the movie Inside Out? It's all about this girl trying to navigate a new school and a new hometown, and we get to see how the emotions inside her head rule her life. And it's a super creative way to illustrate the fact that humans are emotional creatures—we get worked up and have all these conflicting emotions that cause us to eat Phish Food straight from the carton and read sappy poetry.
The thing is, no matter how crazy our emotions are or how irrational they may seem, they're still valid. We don't have to understand why people are mad, but we have to acknowledge their feelings. Ignoring them will not fix anything—people will get more angry, and we won't understand, thus creating more madness. See where we're going with this?
Quote #4
But I have asserted a firm conviction—a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people—that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. (115)
So, here's the rub: talking about these problems, acknowledging the anger on both sides and understanding that the time to change was, like, yesterday, is a start—a legitimate and important start. But it is not a one-step process. Obama said all people, no matter their race, have to consistently and actively choose to be better and to do better, and they have to believe in the process.
We can only move forward, and it will be hard—we will be challenging stereotypes and ideologies that have characterized our culture for hundreds of years. Nails will be broken, makeup will be smudged, jeans without holes in them will start to look like the more expensive jeans that come with holes in them. His speech was all about how we need to keep moving toward a future with a union that is actually perfect.
Quote #5
What we have already achieved gives us hope—the audacity to hope—for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. (126)
"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow. You're only a day aaaa-way." Despite her hard-knock life, Annie was persistent in her belief that no matter the situation, there are always brighter days ahead.
Just like that little orphan girl, Barack Obama recognized the nation shouldn't be defined by the dark parts of our past. That we are having these conversations in increasingly public forums speaks to a collective desire to address issues of race and change the story. We don't need to wait for Daddy Warbucks to make things better.