The answer has arrived: “Yes…and that time is now.”

Recently, there has been considerable news coverage of two stories.  Two stories, that actually represent the very same issue:

1 - Attorney General Holder’s announcement that the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks would be tried in a federal court in New York.

2 - The announcement that a prison in Thompson, Illinois might be used to house Guantanamo Bay’s detainees.

Let’s start by taking a look at each of these issues independently:

New York Terror Trial:

One can easily predict the response to BOTH these items from the conservative camp.  Conservative pundits and politicians have made the standard “not-in-my-backyard” argument, asking their viewers and supporters, “Do you really want these terrorists brought to the U.S.?”

• Former New York Mayor Giuliani proclaimed that the wounds in New York are still too fresh for the city to withstand the “psychic pain” of a locally held trial.  News flash, Mr. Giuliani…you can’t one minute tell us how strong New Yorkers are, and then tell us the next minute that they are “too fragile” to endure trials of the terrorists who attacked them.  The former is true: New Yorkers have shown themselves to be remarkably resilient, and there are few psychologists who WOULDN’T agree that a trial would be a further step in the healing process.  When people are attacked, it is of fundamental benefit to be able to “face” their assailants, and to see the assailants brought to justice.  Side note: Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) also opposes the trial, calling it “unprecedented” and “indefensible“…strangely, both Sessions and Guiliani had no problem eight years ago with Zacarias Moussaoui (the so-called 20th hijacker) being tried in the U.S.
• Former Attorney General Ashcroft says that a trial in a civilian court, rather than a military commission, would be too “transparent.”  Too transparent?  Is there such a thing when it comes to the American government and our national ideals?  No.  The absence of transparency brought us unjust investigation methods, unjust arrests, unjust detentions, and unjust treatment of prisoners.  There is only one way to get that particular train back on the tracks, and that is to apply the two hundred year-old, Constitutionally mandated, Due Process of Law.  That means courts…it means evidence…and it means a jury gets to weigh that evidence and determine guilt or innocence.  Period.
• Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said that all we need to do…is to remember what happened in the O.J. Simpson trial and ask ourselves, “Do we really want that to happen again.” Really?  Is this perhaps the most inane thing we have ever heard from Chuck Grassley?  If anything hindered the O.J. trial…it was the fact that he is, to some, a beloved football/movie celebrity.  But Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 plotters?  Does Grassley really think that a jury is going to wrongly acquit them because they are “esteemed celebrities?“
• Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) told Holder that since Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has asked to confess his guilt to a military commission and be executed…that is what we should do.  AG Holder rightly pointed out to Kyl: we aren’t going to do what the TERRORIST wants to do…we are going to follow the American legal process.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOVN3iWu9vM

• Karl Rove, Liz Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and Bill Kristol tried desperately to mobilize an angry mob to appear the day of the hearings, where Eric Holder would be explaining his decision to a Senate committee.  The effect of their scare tactics, utilizing the full force of the airwaves and the internet?  Crickets…

It’s really quite simple:  These men participated in murdering thousands of people in New York.  We have an established process for handling this.  We are very proud of our process for handling this.  The absolute dedication to the application of the Due Process of Law is one thing that is truly American, and encompasses all aspects in our belief in fairness, justice…and the necessity for fairness and justice being decided BY THE PEOPLE.  In the New York federal court…the defendants will appear, and be represented by counsel.  The prosecutor, will represent the PEOPLE.  The jury, will represent the JUDGMENT OF THE PEOPLE.  What’s more…the process itself validates and establishes WHO WE ARE as a people each time it is successfully conducted, and also serves as a point of closure and healing for victims.  Much more so than some shadowy, closed, military tribunal down in Cuba.

Relocation of Gitmo Prisoners to Thompson, Illinois:

Thompson, Illinois has a prison.  An expensive, new…and EMPTY supermax facility.  Built during the boom times…when bust times came, it was not practical to staff the prison, so only the minimum security section is used, and for only a small number of prisoners.  The governor of Illinois loves the idea of the prison’s super-maximum section being used to house detainees from Guantanamo Bay.  The state’s two senators also strongly support the idea.  The citizens of Thompson, a city experiencing very hard economic times, love the 3000 jobs and over a billion dollars that the opening of the super-maximum prison would create.  So what could possibly be the problem?

• Illinois Republican Representative Mark Kirk has been holding press conferences and circulating calls for support…saying that bringing the detainees to Illinois would make Illinois and its landmarks the new number one target for terrorists, specifically the Sears Tower, as it is America’s tallest building.  Kirk also warns that, if the Board of Corrections has authority over these prisoners, they will receive visitors…and he says that people would then have to be afraid of terrorists flying through O’Hare airport to come see their incarcerated friends.  Ummm…Kirk?  The Defense Department would be buying the prison FROM the Board of Corrections…and has already said it would not allow the detainees any visitors.  Try doing a little bit of research first, before diving headlong into scare tactics…
• Illinois Republican Don Manzullo, who is actually SUPPOSED to be representing the good people of Thompson (who, again, want the prison to open), warns that the terrorists will be brought here and then released into the Illinois community.

Editorial boards across the country immediately criticized this use of fearmongering, and set about stating the easy counter-arguments to the GOP representatives’ claims.  One of the best columns, by Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, makes some of the clearest points:  Here’s his column.  I’ll summarize, thusly: First of all, there are already Al Qaeda terrorists being held in Illinois…27 of them…it hasn’t caused Al Qaeda to “zero in” on Illinois yet, so what’s 200 more?  Secondly, history proves that trying to avoid doing anything to provoke “agents of evil”…doesn’t really work (it’s called “appeasement” and you Republicans claim to be against it).  Third, being home to the tallest building in the U.S., doesn’t really mean anything…when terrorists have shown interest in military bases, trains and subways, shopping malls, government buildings, and a multitude of other targets.  But it turns out, the columnists were not the only people who thought the senseless fearmongering had gone too far;  Some Republicans and conservatives are fed up with it as well:

• A statement was released by the Constitution Project, David Keene, founder of American Conservative Union, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and former representative and presidential candidate Bob Barr…saying that the housing of Gitmo detainees in Thompson, Illinois…”makes good sense.“  They didn’t stop there, and went as far as to say, “The scaremongering about these issues should stop…[there is] absolutely no reason to fear that prisoners will escape or be released into their communities.“  You can read the rest of the statement here.
• Illinois Republican Representative Jim Sacia was even more direct, saying that legislators (including his GOP brethren) who oppose the measure to move the detainees to Thompson…are “idiots.”  Sacia said, “My thinking on this is extremely positive.  If we lose this opportunity. All I can think of is we literally are idiots. I mean that sincerely…I understand I’m on different pages of music with others in my party. First of all this should not be a partisan issue in any way. If President Obama brings the detainees on U.S. soil and we sit here with a brand new state-of-the-art, max security prison, sitting vacant for the last eight years, and pass on an opportunity to sell it to the federal government, which we would fill it with 1,500 regular prisoners and 800 detainees, what is the problem? The building was designed to do that.“

So, perhaps that’s “it.”  Perhaps Americans, even conservative Americans, are not willing to accept arguments the consist of nothing more than “If we do [insert action here] the terrorists will kill you.“  Perhaps Americans are no longer willing to set aside Constitutional rights and the guarantee of Due Process…just in the sake of “perceived safety.”  Perhaps Americans think jobs and revenue are more important right now than slippery slope arguments regarding what the terrorists “might” do.  And perhaps…just maybe…because Americans are no longer willing to be scared into supporting GOP positions…the GOP is realizing that they have to make a better argument.  Just perhaps…

While we have certainly examined this trend before, it seems we must keep revisiting it in hopes that, sooner or later, everyone will understand the very simple reason behind the GOP’s downward spiral.

It’s simple:

- All since January of this year: A staffer for Tennessee State Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) sends out a racially insensitive email…she doesn’t apologize, and isn’t terminated.    Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) tells a monkey joke at a the 2009 Values Voters Summit…and then makes it clear that he’s talking about President Obama.  Kansas Republican legislator Bill Otto puts a clip on YouTube called “Redneck Rap” where he criticizes the President and then refers to opossum as the “other dark meat.“  Diann Jones, a Texas GOP official, criticized a tax on guns as “Another terrific idea from the black house and its minions.“  Audra Shay, at the time running to be head of the Young Republicans, encouraged and laughed along with racist jokes on her Facebook page and made her own joke about Obama “in a noose“…even after these comments went public, she won the position.  GOP activist Rusty DePass responds to a news story about an escaped gorilla…joking that it is “just one of Michelle’s ancestors – probably harmless,“ and the Republican Party does not apologize.  The chairman of the RNC, Michael Steele, says that he is going to lure African-Americans to the Republican Party with “fried chicken.”  When asked why he is the only senior official from Louisiana not to rebuke a judge for refusing to marry an interracial couple, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) would only respond, “I don’t think that’s the case,” then got on an elevator, declining to make further comment.  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 40.9 million black people in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

- All since January of this year: Senator Kyl (R-AZ) says that maternity shouldn’t be covered by health insurance, because he and other men “don’t need it.“  Senator Al Franken (D-MN) sponsors his first bill, which states that government contractors that attempt to force female employees not to report harassment and rape, should be penalized…and 30 Republican senators vote AGAINST it.  Republican Robert F. McDonnell, the man running to become the governor of Virginia…wrote a thesis claiming that women should not work, and should stay in the home, and that government credits for child care expenses are part of the “problem.”  The National Republican Congressional Committee said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should be “put in her place“…and not a single female Republican legislator (or male Republican legislator, for that matter) was willing to denounce the statement.  No fewer than three high ranking Republican “leaders” are discovered to be cheating on their wives, brazenly, and are all connected to the bizarre, “weirdly-Christian,” C Street house, where it appears infidelity was not only encouraged (using the justification that as ‘men of power,’ they DESERVED to do it), but it was also allowed to occur in the building and was covered up by other members.  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 150.6 million women in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

- All since January of this year: Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Justice Sonia Sotomayor a racist during the confirmation hearings…and another Republican made the “Ricky Ricardo” reference that she’d have “some ‘splainin’ to do.“  Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo called Sotomayor a member of the “Latino KKK.”  The RNC put out a press release for Hispanic Heritage Month that had obviously just been run through a translator program and was rife with translation, grammatical, and spelling errors…and the ad they put out featuring prominent Hispanics, didn’t include Justice Sotomayor.  Two RNC officials defended Senator Jim DeMint’s failure to “bring home” funds to South Carolina…by saying he was just acting like “a jew” with our country’s “pennies.”  Representative Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) wrote the forward for a new book which claims there is a “Muslim conspiracy” to take over our government, and Myrick and other Republicans held a press conference to ask the Sergeant Of Arms of the Congress to investigate any Muslim interns.  Republican Representatives and Senators cheered on a Tea Party gathering in Washington, D.C…despite the fact that many protesters held sign bearing anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-foreigner slogans and images.  RNC Chair Michael Steele claimed, ridiculously, that gay marriage would hurt small businesses.  Representative Steve King (R-IA) said gay marriage is socialism…and later claimed that the Hate Crimes legislation to protect homosexuals would protect other, what he called, “perversions“…and then he compared homosexuality to bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia.  Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is now trying to get gays to support him in the fight against health care reform…despite the fact that he has called the “gay agenda” the “greatest threat to our freedom that we face today,” and also once said, “Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that’s happened to us?“  Don’t wonder very long why many of the 44.3 million Hispanics…and the 5.5 million Jews…and the 8.8 million gay/bisexual/transgendered people…and the 6.5 million Muslims in the United States are not identifying themselves as Republicans.

And these incidents…are just the SOME of the RECENT ones involving politicians and other political officials.  I’m not even including the race-baiting and fearmongering from the presidential campaign, nor any of the numerous incidents involving the right-wing media.

In the end…it’s simple mathematics.  Each of us was taught in grade school that America is a “melting pot.“  The problem is…it’s not stirred very well.  There are clumps: enclaves of single-race, single-religion, single-creed people all across this country.  Within those caches of homogeneity, people often fall into the simple trap of forgetting that, while within their clique all may share very similar profiles and opinions…the rest of the nation varies considerably.  For example, when you have lived most of your life in a small town or suburb where everyone is white, goes to the same evangelical church, votes Republican, watches FOX News, and opposes homosexuality…it may be hard to imagine that there are a VAST number of American who are not white, go to some other church (or don’t attend at all), vote Democrat (or Independent, or not at all), think only fools watch FOX News, and support (or simply show tolerance towards) gays.

Those people also live in America, and millions of others representing every possible race, ethnicity, sexuality, creed, and lifestyle…and they are full citizens with full lives, equal rights, and one vote apiece.  And forgetting that they vote, not just in the polling place but with their wallets, will lead to the continued withering of the Republican Party.  It’s simple math…and simple politics…and there’s no excuse for the GOP not knowing this.

…well…the big day has arrived.  Obama has delivered his speech, and all the anticipation and ire…has faded.

Of course, most of it faded yesterday, when the White House released the full text of what Obama planned to say.  Here is a link, and I have included the full text at the bottom of this post: it’s a good read.

Upon the release of the speech…the controversy abruptly stopped.  The White House had said it would be the typical “stay in school…work hard…don’t do drugs…your country wants/needs you to succeed speech.“  Republicans and conservatives had warned everyone that it would be a “workers of the world unite in gay marriage, abortions, and free money for all” sort of manifesto designed specifically to indoctrinate our children.  Well…you should be able to guess which of these two speeches it actually was.  Upon reading the text, Laura Bush (wife of former President Bush and a former schoolteacher) praised the speech, saying it is “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States…There’s a place for the president of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children…“  Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer, who just last week said he was “absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology,” now says that he would let his children hear the speech: “It’s a good speech.  It encourages kids to stay in school and the importance of education and I think that’s what a president should do when they’re gonna talk to students across the country.“  Of course…Greer did not apologize for last week’s fearmongering, and seemed to imply that his criticism had somehow prompted the White House to change the speech from some sort of “Socialist Manifesto” into an “Education Speech“…even though the White House has never claimed that the speech would be anything BUT an “Education Speech“, and the online teaching materials would not have given anyone reason to suspect otherwise.  And, yes, even Newt Gingrich says EVERYONE’S children should hear/read the speech: “President Reagan did it, President George H.W. Bush did it.  I read the speech yesterday when it was posted and I think the White House was smart to post it…It’s a good speech.  I recommend it to everybody if you have any doubts. I would love to have every child in America read it, think about it, and learn that they should stay in school and they should study.”

NOTE TO CONSERVATIVES/REPUBLICANS/PUNDITS: If you are going to unreasonably overreact to EVERYTHING the president does or plans to do…be ready to be forced, MORE THAN JUST OCCASIONALLY, to eat your words.  This is a perfect example:  conservative pundits like Malkin/Beck/Hannity went insane…GOP leaders shot off at the mouth…right-wing wacko parents hopped in front of the news cameras saying “I’m not gonna let Obama teach my child that gay marriage and abortion are ok!“  Meanwhile…the other 80% of the country groaned and shook their heads, and once the speech (a very good speech) was released, the same loud-mouth instigators had to backpedal and were left no option but to support it, or risk looking like TOTAL fools.  Let this be a lesson…

Anyway…without further ado, here is a link to speech coverage, and the speech itself is below…

FULL TEXT OF SCHOOL SPEECH:

“Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”