michelleobamasdncspeech.docx

1、michelleobamasdncspeechmichelleobamasdnc2012speech Thank you so much, Elainewe are so grateful for your familys service and sacrificeand we will always have your back. Over the past few years as First Lady, I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country. And everywhere I

2、ve gone, in the people Ive met, and the stories Ive heard, I have seen the very best of the American spirit. I have seen it in the incredible kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially our girls. Ive seen it in teachers in a near-bankrupt school district who vowed to kee

3、p teaching without pay. Ive seen it in people who become heroes at a moments notice, diving into harms way to save othersflying across the country to put out a firedriving for hours to bail out a flooded town. And Ive seen it in our men and women in uniform and our proud military familiesin wounded

4、warriors who tell me theyre not just going to walk again, theyre going to run, and theyre going to run marathonsin the young man blinded by a bomb in Afghanistan who said, simply, Id give my eyes 100 times again to have the chance to do what I have done and what I can still do. Every day, the people

5、 I meet inspire meevery day, they make me proudevery day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth. Serving as your First Lady is an honor and a privilegebut back when we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about this journey wed begun. While

6、 I believed deeply in my husbands vision for this countryand I was certain he would make an extraordinary Presidentlike any mother, I was worried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance. How would we keep them grounded under the glare of the national spotlight? How would they fe

7、el being uprooted from their school, their friends, and the only home theyd ever known? Our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joysSaturdays at soccer games, Sundays at grandmas houseand a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I

8、couldnt stay awake for both. And the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girlsI deeply loved the man I had built that life withand I didnt want that to change if he became President. I loved Barack just the way he was. You see, even though back then Barack was a Senator and a presidentia

9、l candidateto me, he was still the guy whod picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side doorhe was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table hed found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of dece

10、nt shoes was half a size too small. But when Barack started telling me about his family thats when I knew I had found a kindred spirit, someone whose values and upbringing were so much like mine. You see, Barack and I were both raised by families who didnt have much in the way of money or material p

11、ossessions but who had given us something far more valuable their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice, and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves. My father was a pump operator at the city water plant, and he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when my brother a

12、nd I were young. And even as a kid, I knew there were plenty of days when he was in painI knew there were plenty of mornings when it was a struggle for him to simply get out of bed. But every morning, I watched my father wake up with a smile, grab his walker, prop himself up against the bathroom sin

13、k, and slowly shave and button his uniform. And when he returned home after a long days work, my brother and I would stand at the top of the stairs to our little apartment, patiently waiting to greet himwatching as he reached down to lift one leg, and then the other, to slowly climb his way into our

14、 arms. But despite these challenges, my dad hardly ever missed a day of workhe and my mom were determined to give me and my brother the kind of education they could only dream of. And when my brother and I finally made it to college, nearly all of our tuition came from student loans and grants. But

15、my dad still had to pay a tiny portion of that tuition himself. And every semester, he was determined to pay that bill right on time, even taking out loans when he fell short. He was so proud to be sending his kids to collegeand he made sure we never missed a registration deadline because his check

16、was late. You see, for my dad, thats what it meant to be a man. Like so many of us, that was the measure of his success in life being able to earn a decent living that allowed him to support his family. And as I got to know Barack, I realized that even though hed grown up all the way across the coun

17、try, hed been brought up just like me. Barack was raised by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills, and by grandparents who stepped in when she needed help. Baracks grandmother started out as a secretary at a community bankand she moved quickly up the ranksbut like so many women, she hit a g

18、lass ceiling. And for years, men no more qualified than she was men she had actually trained were promoted up the ladder ahead of her, earning more and more money while Baracks family continued to scrape by. But day after day, she kept on waking up at dawn to catch the busarriving at work before any

19、one elsegiving her best without complaint or regret. And she would often tell Barack, So long as you kids do well, Bar, thats all that really matters. Like so many American families, our families werent asking for much. They didnt begrudge anyone elses success or care that others had much more than

20、they did.in fact, they admired it. They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you dont start out with much, if you work hard and do what youre supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids.

21、 Thats how they raised usthats what we learned from their example. We learned about dignity and decency that how hard you work matters more than how much you makethat helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself. We learned about honesty and integrity that the truth mattersthat you don

22、t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rulesand success doesnt count unless you earn it fair and square. We learned about gratitude and humility that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school cleanand we were taught to value

23、everyones contribution and treat everyone with respect. Those are the values Barack and I and so many of you are trying to pass on to our own children. Thats who we are. And standing before you four years ago, I knew that I didnt want any of that to change if Barack became President. Well, today, af

24、ter so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesnt change who you are it reveals who you are. You see, Ive gotten to see up close and personal what being president really looks like. And Iv

25、e seen how the issues that come across a Presidents desk are always the hard ones the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answerthe judgment calls where the stakes are so high, and there is no margin for error. And as President, you can get all kinds of advice from

26、all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are. So when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my d

27、ad and like his grandmother. Hes thinking about the pride that comes from a hard days work. Thats why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women get equal pay for equal work. Thats why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on it

28、s feet. Thats how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs right here in the United States of America. When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health refor

29、m for another day, another president. He didnt care whether it was the easy thing to do politically thats not how he was raised he cared that it was the right thing to do. He did it because he believes that here in America, our grandparents should be able to afford their medicineour kids should be a

30、ble to see a doctor when theyre sickand no one in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or illness. And he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health carethats what my husband stands for. When it comes to giving our kids the

31、 education they deserve, Barack knows that like me and like so many of you, he never couldve attended college without financial aid. And believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage. We were so young, so in love, and so

32、 in debt. Thats why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and keep interest rates down, because he wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of debt. So in the end, for Barack, these issues arent political theyre personal. Because Barack knows what it means