My fellow Americans, today you sent a message to the whole world,” she says. Our values endure. Our democracy stands strong. Our motto remains: “e pluribus unum.” One, out of many.
Our differences will not define us. It will not be us against them. Everyone can achieve the American dream. We were faced with two different visions of America through a hard-fought campaign. We will discuss how we can grow and live together in a future filled with promise and peril.
This election was fundamentally about challenging us to define what it meant to be American in 21st-century America. For aiming for unity, decency and what President Lincoln described as the ‘better angels of our nature’ That was our challenge.
You renewed democracy today with your children and your neighbours by your side. With old and new friends as one. You have made our democracy a better place because of the respect you’ve shown me. I’ve met women who were born before women had the right to vote. They’ve been waiting a hundred years for tonight.
I’ve met little boys and girls who didn’t understand why a woman has never been president before. Now they know, and the world knows, that in America, every boy and every girl can grow up to be whatever they dream — even president of the United States.
All Americans can celebrate this victory. Women and men. Girls and boys. Because as our country has proven once again, when there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.
When you look deep enough in the murky waters of politics you will find something real and hard to believe. We are united by a foundation of basic values. Today, you have proven that.
An American coalition embraced the vision of a bright, open-minded, hopeful America, in spite of being divided by religion and race, culture and class, as well as paralyzing partisanship.
America that values women and welcomes immigrants. Veterans are respected, parents and workers get fair wages. An America where we believe in science, where we look beyond people’s disabilities and see their possibilities, where marriage is a right and discrimination is wrong. It doesn’t matter what race, gender, origin, and who you love.
A America in which everyone is counted and everybody has their place. There is a place for everyone. We all have an important role in the great American story. And yes, that absolutely includes everyone who voted for other candidates or who didn’t vote at all.
A writer asked me this summer if I could travel back in time to tell any historical figure about the milestone. It was very easy. Dorothy was my mother.
“You might have heard me tell you about her hard childhood. Her parents left her when she was eight years old. Her parents took her to California on a train. There she was mistreated and eventually left on her own.
But she found a way that offered me unconditional support and love, something she didn’t receive. I learned from her the Methodist Faith: “Do as much good as you can for everyone you can, in every way you can. For as long as you are able.”
My mother is always in my thoughts. On the train, I sometimes think of her. It would be so nice to walk along the aisle.
It would be so nice if I could go down the aisle to find those little seats made of wood, and hold on tight to my younger sister. alone. Terrified. She doesn’t yet know how much she will suffer.
She doesn’t yet know she will find the strength to escape that suffering. It is still far away. She stares at the vast landscape of country passing by and wonders what her future holds.
It is my dream to go up to her and sit next to them, holding her hand and saying “Look at us.” Hear me. You will make it through. You’ll have a loving family. Three children. Your daughter will become president, despite how difficult it may seem.
This is as true for me as any other thing I know: America is the most powerful country in the entire world. From tonight onwards, America will be even more great for all of us, because we are one nation. God bless America and thank you for your prayers.