For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change.

When our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act.

In the absence of sound oversight,responsible businesses are forced to compete against unscrupulous and underhanded businesses, who are unencumbered by any restrictions on activities that might harm the environment, or take advantage of middle-class families, or threaten to bring down the entire financial system.

Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science.

Weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don’t belong on our streets.

We buy our own toilet paper even here in the White House.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old - is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.