By Raman Jokhakar, Tarunkumar Singhal, Chartered Accountants
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16. Barack Obama, the President-elect of USA delivered one of the
finest speeches (extempore) on November 5, on winning the Presidential election.
It moved many with its sheer poetry. Hereunder are some extracts of the speech,
which readers would cherish to read.
Hello, Chicago ! If there is anyone out there who still
doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders
if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power
of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It’s the answer told by lines that
stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by
people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their
lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices
could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor,
Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay,
straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world
that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red
States and blue States.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be
cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on
the arc of history and bend it once toward the hope of a better day.
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we
did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to
America.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We
didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. It was built by working men
and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $ 5 and $ 10 and
$ 20 to the cause.
It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the
bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of strangers, and from the
millions of Americans who volunteered and organised and proved that more than
two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the
people has not perished from the Earth. This is your victory.
And I know you didn’t do this just to win an election. And I
know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of
the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the
challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our life-time — two
wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may
not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been
more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we
face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will
ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done
in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by
calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end
on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only
the chance for us to make the change. And that cannot happen if we go back to
the way things were. It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of
service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our
nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from
the enduring power of our ideals : democracy, liberty, opportunity and
unyielding hope. That’s the true genius of America.
Yes we can change. America, we have come so far. We have seen
so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if
our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so
lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper,* what change will they see ? What
progress will we have made ?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity
for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim
the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we
are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and
doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless
creed that sums up the spirit of a people : Yes, we can.
* Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. In this election, she
touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in
America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how
America can change.
(Source : Livenint, 6-11-2008)
