Opportunity in education swung open so their daughters and sons could imagine a life for themselves beyond washing someone elses laundry or shining someone elses shoes. Because they marched, City Councils changed and state legislatures changed and congress changed. Eventually the white house changed. [cheers and applause] because they marched, america became more free and more fair. Not just for africanamericans, but for women and latinos. Asians and native americans. Catholics, jews, and muslims. For gays, for americans with disabilities. America changed for you and for me. The entire world drew strength from that example, whether it be young people who watched from the other side of an iron curtain and would eventually tear down that wall, or the young people inside south africa would eventually end the scourge of apartheid. [cheers and applause] those are the victories they won. With iron wills, and hope in their hearts, that is a transformation that they brought with each step of their well worn shoes. That is the depth that i and millions of americans owe those maids, porters, secretaries. Those white students who put themselves in harms way, even though they didnt have to. Those japaneseamericans who recalled their own internment, those Jewish Americans who survived the holocaust. People who could have given up and given them, but kept on keeping on knowing that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. [cheers and applause] on the battlefield of justice, men and women without rank or wealth or title or fame would liberate us all in ways that our children now take for granted. People of all colors and creeds live and learn and walk together, and fight alongside one another and love one another. And judge one another by the content of our character in this greatest nation on earth. To dismiss the magnitude of this progress, to suggest as some sometimes do the little has changed that little has changed, that dishonors the courage and sacrifice sacrifice of those who paid the price to march. [cheers and applause] james chaney, andrew goodman, Martin Luther king, jr. They did not die in vain. Their victory was great. But we would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete. The ark of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it does not bend on its own. To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency. Whether it is by challenging those who erect new barriers to the vote, or ensure that the scales of justice work equally for all in the criminal Justice System it requires vigilance. [cheers and applause] we will suffer the occasional setback, but we will win these fights. This country has changed too much. [cheers and applause] people of goodwill, regardless regardless of party, are too plentiful for those with ill will to change historys currents. In some ways, the securing of civil rights, Voting Rights, the eradication of legalized discrimination the very significance of these victories may have obscured the second goal of the march. For the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search of some abstract idea. They were there seeking jobs as well as justice. Not just the absence of oppression, but the presence of Economic Opportunity. [cheers and applause] for what does it profit a man, dr. King would ask, to sit at a counter if you cant afford the meal . This idea that ones liberty is linked to ones livelihood, that the pursuit of happiness requires the dignity of work, the skills to find work, decent pay, some measure of material security, this idea was not new. Lincoln himself understood the declaration of independence in such terms that is a promise in due time, the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. And dr. King explained that the goals of africanamericans were identical to working people of all races. Decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, respect in the community. What king was describing has been the dream of every american. It has what has lured for centuries new arrivals to our shores. The second dimension of Economic Opportunity, the chance to honest toil to advance ones station in life. The goals of 50 years ago have fallen short. There have been examples of success that would have been unimaginable in black america century ago. This has been noted, as unemployment remains almost twice that of white unemployment. The gap in wealth between races has not lessened. It has grown. As president clinton indicated, the position of all working americans, regardless of color, has eroded, making the dream dr. King described even more elusive. Over a decade, working americans of all races have seen their wages and incomes stagnant, as corporate profits soar and as the pay of a fortunate few explodes. Upward mobility has become harder. In too many communities across this country, the shadow of poverty casts a pall over our youth, their lives a fortress of substandard schools, Inadequate Health care, perennial violence. As we mark this anniversary, we must remind ourselves that the measure of progress for those who marched 50 years ago was not join the ranks of millionaires, it was whether this country would allow all people who are willing to work hard into the ranks of a middleclass life. [cheers and applause] the test was not and never has been whether the doors of opportunity are cracked a bit wider for a few. It is whether our Economic System provides a fair shot for many, for the black custodian and white steelworker. The immigrant dishwasher, and the native american veteran. To win that battle, to answer that call. This remains our great unfinished business. We should not fool ourselves. The task will not be easy. Since 1963, the economy has changed. The twin forces of technology and global competition has subtracted those jobs that once provided a foothold into the middle class, reduce the Bargaining Power of american workers. Our politics has suffered. Entrenched interests, those who benefit from an unjust status quo, resisted any government efforts to give working families a fair deal. An army of lobbyists argued that minimum wage increases or stronger labor laws or taxes on the wealthy who could afford just to Fund Public Schools but all these things violated sound economic principles that all the things violated sound economic principles. We have been told that growing inequality was a price for a growing economy. The measure of a free market. That greed was good, and compassion ineffective, and those without jobs or health care had only themselves to blame. Then there were those elected officials who found it useful to practice the old politics of division, doing the best to convince middleclass americans of a great untruth, that government was somehow itself to blame for their growing economic insecurity. That distant eurocrats were taking their hardearned dollars to benefit bureaucrats were taking their hardearned dollars to benefit others. There were times when some of us claiming to push for change lost our way. The anguish of assassinations set off selfdefeating rights riots. Legitimate grievances against Police Brutality ended in excuse making for criminal behavior. Racial politics could cut both ways. As a transformative message of unity and brotherhood was drowned out by discrimination. What had once been a call for equality of opportunity, the chance for all americans to work hard and get ahead, was too often framed as a mere desire for government support. As if we had no agency in our own liberation. The poverty was an excuse for not raising your child. All of that history is how progress stalled. That is how hope was diverted. It is how our country remained divided. The good news is, just as was true in 1963, we now have a choice. We can continue down our current path, in which the gears of this great democracy grind to a halt and our children except a life of lower expectations, where politics is a zerosum game, where if you do very well while struggling families of every race fight over shrugging economic pie. Or we can have the courage to change. The march on washington teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history. We are masters of our fate. It also teaches us that the promise of this nation will only be kept when we work together. We will have to reignite the embers of empathy and fellow feeling, the coalition of conscience that found expression in this place 50 years ago. I believe that spirit is there. That force inside each of us. I see it when a mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when the black youth think of his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white man. It is there when the nativeborn recognizes that striving spirit, when interracial couple connects the pain of a gay couple and experiences it as their own. That is were courage comes from. When we turn not from each other, or on each other, but towards one another and we find that we do not walk alone. That is were courage comes from. Where courage comes from. [cheers and applause] with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and just wages. We can stand together for the right to health care in the richest nation on earth for every person. With that courage, we can stand together for the right of every child from the corners of anacostia to the hills of appalachia to get an education that serves the mind and catches the spirit and prepares them for the world that awaits them. [cheers and applause] with that courage, we can feed the hardworking and house the homeless and transform bleak wastelands of poverty into fields of commerce and promise. America, i know the road will be long, but i know we can get there. We will stumble, but i know we will get back up. That is how a movement happens. That is how history bands. Bends. That is when someone says, come on. There is a reason why so many who marched that day and in the days to come were young. The young are unconstrained by fear. Unconstrained by the conventions of what is. They dare to dream differently, to imagine something better. Im convinced that same imagination, the same hunger of purpose serves in this generation. We might not face the same dangers as 1963, but the fierce urgency of now remains. We may never duplicate the swelling crowds, the dazzling procession. No one can match kings brilliance. But the same claim that lifted the heart of all who are willing to take that step for justice, i know that claim remains. The tireless teacher who gets to class early and stays late and dips into her own pocket to buy supplies because she believes that every child is her charge, she is marching. [cheers and applause] that successful businessman who doesnt have to, but pays his workers a fair wage and then offers a shot to a man, maybe an excon, who is down on his luck, he is marching. [cheers and applause] the mother who pours her love into her daughter so she grows up with the confidence to walk through the same doors as anybodys son, shes marching. [cheers and applause] the father who realizes the most important job he will ever have is raising his buoyant right, even he did not have a father, especially if you did not have a father at home, boy right, even if he did not have a father, especially if you did not have a father at home, he is marching. [cheers and applause] to keep serving their country when they come home, they are marching. [cheers and applause] everyone who realizes what those glorious patriots knew on that day, the change does not come from washington am a but to washington washington, but to washington. We, the people, who take on the mantle of citizenship, you are marching. [cheers and applause] that is the lesson of our past. That is the promise of tomorrow. In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. When millions of americans of every race, every faith and every station can join together in a spirit of brotherhood, those mountains will be made low and those rough places will be made plain and those crooked places, they straighten out towards grace. We will vindicate the faith of those who sacrifice so much and live up to the true meaning of our creed as one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Cheers and applause] qwhwho canfore me, be against me . America, america where people dare to d ream for americaht america the free rising from the ashes of America AmericaAmerica America from sea to shining sea america for you and me red, white and blue America America lady liberty oh, we thank America America america believe, i believe america land of the free america you can watch more of this tonight. You will hear from john lewis and former naacp chair julian bond as well as others. That is at 9 20 p. M. Eastern right here on cspan. Quacks there are several types of bullying. Their favorite is race stroll racial bullying. They love it. It is based almost solely and completely on the idea that they stand up for the demise groups. Everything they do is on behalf of some victimized minority, blacks, jews, gays, women. We hate blacks, gays, and women. Philosophy they tried out. We will take your calls and comments for three hours starting at noon eastern. And the book club returns in september with this town, to parties and a funeral plus 20 of la parking in the capital. Read the book and engage. Quacks shortly before 2 00, president obama came to the rose garden of companies by Vice President joe biden. We will show these to you now. Good afternoon. 10 days ago the world watched in horror as men, women and children were massacred in syria in the worst chemical attack in the 21st century. Thatrday they presented the Syrian Government was responsible for this attack on its own people. It shows them preparing to use chemical weapons, launching rockets in the highly populated suburbs of damascus, and acknowledging that a chemical weapons attack took place. All of this corporates what the world can plainly see. Hospitals overflowing with victims. Terrible images of the dead. All told, well over 1000 people were murdered. Several hundred of them were children. Young girls and boys gassed to death by their own government. This attack is an assault on human community. It also presents a serious danger to our National Security. It risks making a mockery of the global role vision on the use of chemical weapons. It endangers our friends and our partners along syrias border including israel, turkey, lebanon, and iraq. It leads to an escalating use of chemical weapons or the proliferation for terrorist groups who would do our people harm. A world with many damage, this menace must be confronted. After careful deliberation, i have decided that the unit states should take military action against Syrian Regime targets. This will not be an openended intervention. We would not put boots on the ground. And said, our action will be designed to be limited in duration and scope. But im confident we can hold the assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior, and degrade their capacity to carry it out. Our military has assets in the region, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose. Moreover, the chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time sensitive. It will be effective tomorrow or next week or one month from now. I am prepared to give that order. But having made my decision as commander in chief based on what i am convinced is our National Security interests, i am also mindful that im the president of the worlds oldest constitutional democracy. I have longed believe that power is not rooted in our military right but in our example of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That is why i have made a second decision i will seek authorization for the use of force from the American Peoples representatives in congress. For the last several days, we have heard from members of the congress who want their voices to be heard. I absolutely agree. So this morning, i spoke with all congressional leaders, and they agreed to schedule a debate and then a vote as Congress Comes back into session. In the coming days, my Administration Stands ready to provide every member with of the information they need to understand what happened in syria and why it has such profound implications for americas National Security. And all of us should be accountable as we move forward, and that can only be accomplished with a vote. Im confident in the case our government has made without waiting for u. N. Inspectors. I am comfortable Going Forward without the approval of a United NationsSecurity Council that has so far been completely unverified and unwilling to hold assad accountable. As a consequence, many people have advised against taking this decision to congress. Undoubtedly, they were impacted by what we saw happen in the United Kingdom this week when the parliament of our closest ally failed to pass a resolution with a similar goal, even if the Prime Minister supported taking action. Yet, while i believe i have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, i know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be even more effective. We should have this debate. The issues are too big for business as usual. This morning, john boehner, harry reid, nancy pelosi, and Mitch Mcconnell agreed that this is the right thing to do for our democracy. A country faces few decisions as grave as using military force. Even when a force is limited. I respect the views of those who called for caution, particularly as our country emerges from a time of war that i was elected in part to handle. But if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate actio