The Terrorists Do Not Speak

My Greatest Hope Is To Be Able To Pass The Same Dreams And Hopes And Vision That I've Been Able To Enjoy In My Life, On To The Next Generation. Not Just For My Children - Because With A Mother Like Michelle, My Kids Are Going To Be Great - But For All Children. There Are Too Many Children In This Country For Whom The American Dream Is So Distant And The Odds Against Them Are So Daunting.

Estiven Rodriguez Couldn't Speak A Word Of English When He Moved To New York City At Age Nine. But Last Month, Thanks To The Support Of Great Teachers And An Innovative Tutoring Program, He Led A March Of His Classmates - Through A Crowd Of Cheering Parents And Neighbors - From Their High School To The Post Office, Where They Mailed Off Their College Applications. And This Son Of A Factory Worker Just Found Out He's Going To College This Fall.

Some Of The Same Politicians And Pundits That Are So Quick To Reject The Possibility Of A Diplomatic Solution To Iran's Nuclear Program Are The Same Folks Who Were So Quick To Go To War In Iraq And Said It Would Take A Few Months.

What We Should Be Asking Is Not Whether We Need A Big Government Or Small Government, But How We Can Create A Smarter And Better Government.

They Will Tell You That The Americans Who Sleep In The Streets And Beg For Food Got There Because They’re All Lazy Or Weak Of Spirit. That The Inner-city Children Who Are Trapped In Dilapidated Schools Can’t Learn And Won’t Learn And So We Should Just Give Up On Them Entirely. That The Innocent People Being Slaughtered And Expelled From Their Homes Half A World Away Are Somebody Else’s Problem To Take Care Of.