Trapped In The Past

     "The past is not dead and buried. In fact is not even the past." (Faulkner) President Obama quoted William Faulkner in the speech "A More Perfect Union" to strengthen his call of the perfection. He also made the American people aware that we are still negatively connected to our past through the oppression of slavery and Jim Crow laws. He issued challenges to Americans to cut internal division and to move on from the past. If we are to cut internal division we must realize we are all here to make something of ourselves in this country and  must focus on the similarities that we share  common dreams, values, and hopes. To move forward from the past African Americans cannot allow themselves to hold any resentment towards Caucasian Americans as a result of slavery and Jim Crow. As African Americans we must take the challenge issued to us to unite all people of this nation. If we refuse to answer our challenge than the past will indeed not be dead and buried. In fact it will not even be the past.

Obama,Barack "A More Perfect Union" National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 18, 2008, Speech