I have a dream - How will future historians view Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009?

If you’re not right, the world is deaf.

I was moved simply reading the excerpt you included (can’t wait to watch it tonight).

What pettiness, what hatred or fear of “the other” would cause someone to not see that this is the way we (as humans) need to go?

@Judi – I hope a lot of people also listened to this very important part:

“Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It’s a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered.”

It was a non-violent movement in East Germany that brought the Berlin Wall down.

stand-up comedy for tyrants.

@mattbrowne, in isolation that is a very good quote, however, it was not “a non-violent movement” that brought down the berlin wall, and had the people had the means to overthrow their oppressors via violent means it would have come down much sooner.

@archer ; I believe @mattbrowne may have been there. he is a primary source. (I’m not sure how old you are matt)

Thank you for posting this. Sadly I did not have the chance to watch it when it was aired. Beautiful words and very true.

I saw excerpts of the speech tonight, as well as commentary from “ordinary” people in Cairo and parts of the world. No one can deny that Obama is an incredible speaker, and I thought the sentiment of the speech was exactly what has been lacking in Middle East relations since…well…forever.

Actions speak louder than words of course, so now we’ll have to wait and see what kind of actions back up this speech. Will all of the different groups who are happy with the speech try to live up to that spirit and seek peaceful resolutions?

I just listened to it tonight and was very impressed. President Obama said many simple truths in a more direct way than any politician I can remember has stated them, and I believe the people listened, both in Cairo and in the United States. Of course, he was much helped by his own deep knowledge of history and of the world’s religions, and I am so pleased that we have an American President who is so thoughtful and well educated.

But I agree that actions speak louder than words. If the appropriate actions follow, and if real progress is made toward a better understanding between nations, I suspect that this speech will indeed rank with the “I have a dream speech.” If not, many people will regard it as only rhetoric.

@archer and @Judi: I’m 46 years old and I grew up and live in Germany. I guess I know more about the history and it’s a fact that the Wall was brought down by a peaceful movement. You are clearly mistaken, archer. Of course, the general conditions where favorable with Gorbachev in power, with Poland having started the Solidarność movement. With Hungary opening their borders to East Germans crossing into Austria and so forth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_demonstrations_in_East_Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_revolution_(German)

@MissAusten – Action does not only involve the politicians. It involves everyone. It involves you and me. I involves the teenagers in Kansas and Cairo. Here’s another quote:

“On education, we will expand exchange programs, and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America; invest in on-line learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo.”

I’ll believe it when I see it. For now, it is no different to the peace talks between Israel and Palestine that have promised to ‘herald a new era’, but have only delayed the fighting for another two months or so. Many Middle East nations have sworn solemn oaths that they will not rest until Israel is removed. Obama’s speech is just the latest in a long line of doomed attempts at peace. I apologise if my scepticism isn’t what you are looking for, but it has happened so many times before, I don’t see what might change.

Well, many slaves in the early 18th century thought trying to achieve freedom is a doomed attempt.

melanie phillips finds positive and negative in the speech
http://3.ly/Ii