President Obama
delivered the following eulogy at the funeral of the Rev.
Clementa Pinckney at the College of Charleston’s
campus this week. I’ve laid it out here with some comments on what must be one
of the very best speeches he has ever given, which of course puts it in the company
of best ever. His thinking is laid out clearly, and it is both original and
compelling. He takes an unspeakably tragic situation and transforms it into a
political argument, a call to action. His use of alliteration, repetition, and metaphor
bring it to a Linconian level.
What does not come across here is the masterful
delivery, and the singing of course, which surprised everyone.
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OBAMA: Giving all praise and honor to God.
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culture coded?...char. of AA churches?
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(APPLAUSE) The Bible calls us to hope, to persevere and have faith in things not seen. They were
still living by faith when they
died, the scripture tells us.
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repetition
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(APPLAUSE)
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They did not receive
the things promised. They only saw
them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners
and strangers on earth.
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Repetition, seen/unseen, “strangers here”
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We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith,
a man who believed in things not seen,
a man who believed there were better days ahead off in the distance, a man of
service, who persevered knowing full-well he would not receive all those
things he was promised, because he
believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed, to
Jennifer, his beloved wife, Eliana and Malana, his beautiful, wonderful
daughters, to the Mother Emanuel family and the people of Charleston, the
people of South Carolina.
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I cannot claim to have had the good fortune to know Reverend
Pinckney well, but I did have the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him
here in South Carolina back when we were both a little bit younger…
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(LAUGHTER)
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… back when I didn’t have visible gray hair.
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(LAUGHTER)
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The first thing I noticed was his graciousness, his smile, his
reassuring baritone, his deceptive sense of humor, all qualities that helped him wear so effortlessly a heavy
burden of expectation.
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Contraposed; “effortlessly, burden”
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Friends of his remarked this week that when Clementa Pinckney
entered a room, it was like the future arrived, that even from a young age,
folks knew he was special, anointed. He was the progeny of a long line of the
faithful, a family of preachers who spread God’s words, a family of
protesters who so changed to expand voting rights and desegregate the South.
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Clem heard their
instruction, and he did not forsake their teaching. He was in the
pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. He did not exhibit any of
the cockiness of youth nor youth’s insecurities. Instead, he set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years in his speech,
in his conduct, in his love, faith and purity.
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alliteration
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As a senator, he represented a sprawling swathe of low
country, a place that has long been one of the most neglected in America, a
place still racked by poverty and inadequate schools, a place where children
can still go hungry and the sick can go without treatment — a place that
needed somebody like Clem.
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beautiful,
graceful prose.
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(APPLAUSE) His position in the minority party meant the odds
of winning more resources for his constituents were often long. His calls for
greater equity were too-often unheeded. The votes he cast were sometimes
lonely.
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But he never gave up. He stayed true to his convictions. He
would not grow discouraged. After a full day at the Capitol, he’d climb into
his car and head to the church to draw sustenance from his family, from his
ministry, from the community that loved and needed him. There, he would
fortify his faith and imagine what might be.
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Reverend Pinckney embodied a politics that was neither mean
nor small. He conducted himself quietly and kindly and diligently. He
encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone but by seeking out your
ideas, partnering with you to make things happen. He was full of empathy and fellow feeling, able to walk in somebody
else’s shoes and see through their eyes.
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No wonder one of his Senate colleagues remembered Senator
Pinckney as “the most gentle of the 46 of us, the best of the 46 of us.”
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Clem was often asked why he chose to be a pastor and a public
servant. But the person who asked probably didn’t know the history of AME
Church.
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(APPLAUSE)
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As our brothers and sisters in the AME Church, we don’t make
those distinctions. “Our calling,” Clem once said, “is not just within the
walls of the congregation but the life and community in which our
congregation resides.”
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(APPLAUSE)
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He embodied the
idea that our Christian faith demands deeds and not just words, that the
sweet hour of prayer actually lasts the whole week long, that to put our
faith in action is more than just individual salvation, it’s about our
collective salvation, that to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and house the
homeless is not just a call for isolated charity but the imperative of a just
society.
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Reflects deep understanding of the church’s ideology
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What a good man. Sometimes I think
that’s the best thing to hope for when you’re eulogized, after all the words
and recitations and resumes are read, to just say somebody was a good man.
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Strikingly simple sentence, follow by a deep relection.
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(APPLAUSE)
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You don’t have to be of high (station) to be a good man.
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Preacher by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23.
What a life Clementa Pinckney lived.
What an example he set.
What a model for his faith.
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Three parallel phrases, followed by three parallel sentences.
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And then to lose him at 41, slain in his sanctuary with eight
wonderful members of his flock, each at different stages in life but bound
together by a common commitment to God — Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel
Lance, DePayne Middleton Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda
Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson.
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Good people. Decent people. God-fearing people.
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Threnody, again
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(APPLAUSE)
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People so full of life and so full of kindness, people who ran
the race, who persevered, people of great faith.
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..and again.
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To the families of the
fallen, the nation shares in your grief. Our pain cuts that much deeper
because it happened in a church.
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(alliteration)
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The church is and always has been the center of African
American life…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… a place to call our own in a too-often hostile world, a
sanctuary from so many hardships.
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Over the course of centuries, black churches served as hush
harbors, where slaves could worship in safety, praise houses, where their
free descendants could gather and shout “Hallelujah…”
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Metaphors: churches are harbors, houses, rest stops, bunkers.
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(APPLAUSE)
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… rest stops for the weary along the Underground Railroad,
bunkers for the foot soldiers of the civil-rights movement.
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They have been and continue to community centers, where we
organize for jobs and justice, places of scholarship and network, places
where children are loved and fed and kept out of harms way and told that they
are beautiful and smart and taught that they matter.
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(APPLAUSE)
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That’s what happens in church. That’s what the black church
means — our beating heart, the place where our dignity as a people in
inviolate.
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Church as a beating heart
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There’s no better example of this tradition than Mother
Emanuel, a church…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… a church built by blacks seeking liberty, burned to the
ground because its founders sought to end slavery only to rise up again, a
phoenix from these ashes. (APPLAUSE)
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When there were laws banning all-black church gatherers,
services happened here anyway in defiance of unjust laws. When there was a
righteous movement to dismantle Jim Crow, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
preached from its pulpit, and marches began from its steps.
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A sacred place,
this church, not just for blacks, not just for Christians but for every
American who cares about the steady expansion…
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Starting small….
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(APPLAUSE)
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… of human rights
and human dignity in this country, a foundation stone for liberty and justice
for all.
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… going big.
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That’s what the church meant.
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(APPLAUSE)
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We do not know whether the killer of Reverend Pinckney and
eight others knew all of this history, but he surely sensed the meaning of
his violent act. It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs and arson
and shots fired at churches, not random but as a means of control, a way to
terrorize and oppress…
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Now turns toward the particulars of the murder and the
murderer and defines him as part of a larger effort…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination,
violence and suspicion, an act that he presumed would deepen divisions that
trace back to our nation’s original sin.
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Oh, but God works in mysterious ways.
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A surprising turn, delivered almost with irony, with pleasure.
As this point, I choked up, and I don’t even believe in a crafty, personal
God.
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(APPLAUSE)
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God has different ideas.
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And he reinforces the point.
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(APPLAUSE)
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He didn’t know he was being used by God.
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….an astonishing and novel insight. It lifts and reframes the
whole event.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Blinded by hatred, the alleged killer would not see the grace surrounding Reverend Pinckney and that
Bible study group, the light of love that shown as they opened the church
doors and invited a stranger to join in their prayer circle.
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Subtly, the murderer is
the “one who cannot see”…
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The alleged killer could
have never anticipated the way the families of the fallen would respond
when they saw him in court in the midst of unspeakable grief, with words of
forgiveness. He couldn’t imagine that.
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(APPLAUSE)
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The alleged killer
could not imagine how the city of Charleston under the good and wise
leadership of Mayor Riley, how the state of South Carolina, how the United
States of America would respond not merely with revulsion at his evil acts,
but with (inaudible) generosity. And more importantly, with a thoughtful
introspection and self-examination that we so rarely see in public life. Blinded by hatred, he failed to
comprehend what Reverend Pinckney so well understood — the power of God’s
grace.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Grace….he sets us up for another transition in thought
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This whole week, I’ve been reflecting on this idea of grace.
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Another coda borrowed from the AME tradition? Is this how
pastors generally set up their weekly sermon topic?
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(APPLAUSE)
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The grace of the families who lost loved ones; the grace that
Reverend Pinckney would preach about in his sermons; the grace described in
one of my favorite hymnals, the one we all know — Amazing Grace.
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Repetition
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(APPLAUSE)
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How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
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(APPLAUSE)
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I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.
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(APPLAUSE)
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According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned.
Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God.
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Explains to the wider non Christian audience
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(APPLAUSE)
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As manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of
blessings. Grace — as a nation out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited
grace upon us for he has allowed us to
see where we’ve been blind.
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And now it is us, the wider audience, the nation, who have
been blind and now can see
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(APPLAUSE)
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He’s given us the chance where we’ve been lost to find out best selves. We may not have earned this grace
with our rancor and complacency and short-sightedness and fear of each other,
but we got it all the same. He gave it to us anyway. He’s once more given us
grace.
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Reminding us of our own lack of virtue in this matter
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But it is up to us now to make the most of it, to receive it
with gratitude and to prove ourselves worthy of this gift.
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And lays out the terms of the transaction, the requirement of
making sense of this tragedy.
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For too long, we were blind
to the pain that the Confederate Flag stirred into many of our citizens.
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(APPLAUSE)
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It’s true a flag did not cause these murders. But as people
from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge, including
Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.
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Re-frame that flag
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(APPLAUSE)
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For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of
systemic oppression…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… and racial subjugation.
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(APPLAUSE)
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We see that now.
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Now, we see
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Removing the flag from this state’s capital would not be an
act of political correctness. It would not an insult to the valor of
Confederate soldiers. It would simply be acknowledgement that the cause for
which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.
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(APPLAUSE)
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The imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance
to civil rights for all people was wrong.
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(APPLAUSE)
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It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s
history, a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds.
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It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have
transformed this state and this country for the better because of the work of
so many people of goodwill, people of all races, striving to form a more
perfect union.
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By taking down that flag, we express adds grace God’s grace.
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(APPLAUSE)
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But I don’t think God wants us to stop there.
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Another turn, an elevation in purpose, an increased demand
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(APPLAUSE)
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For too long, we’ve been blind to be way past injustices
continue to shape the present.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Perhaps we see that now. Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask
some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to
languish in poverty…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… or attend dilapidated schools or grow up without prospects
for a job or for a career.
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Perhaps it causes us to examine what we’re doing to cause some
of our children to hate.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Perhaps it softens hearts towards those lost young men, tens
and tens of thousands caught up in the criminal-justice system and lead us to
make sure that that system’s not infected with bias.
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(APPLAUSE)
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… that we embrace changes in how we train and equip our police
so that the bonds of trust between law enforcement…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… and the communities they serve make us all safer and more
secure.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Maybe we now realize the way a racial bias can infect us even
when we don’t realize it so that we’re guarding against not just racial slurs
but we’re also guarding against the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a
job interview but not Jamal…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… so that we search our hearts when we consider laws to make
it harder for some of our fellow citizens to vote…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… by recognizing our common humanity, by treating every child
as important, regardless of the color of their skin…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… or the station into which they were born and to do what’s
necessary to make opportunity real for every American. By doing that, we
express God’s grace.
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(APPLAUSE)
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For too long…
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(APPLAUSE)
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For too long, we’ve
been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this
nation.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Sporadically, our eyes
are open when eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church
basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut
short by gun violence in this country every single day…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… the countless more whose lives are forever changed, the
survivors crippled, the children traumatized and fearful every day as they
walk to school, the husband who will never feel his wife’s warm touch, the
entire communities whose grief overflows every time they have to watch what
happened to them happening to some other place.
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The vast majority of Americans, the majority of gun owners
want to do something about this. We
see that now.
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(APPLAUSE)
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And I’m convinced that by acknowledging the pain and loss of
others, even as we respect the traditions, ways of life that make up this
beloved country, by making the moral choice to change, we express God’s
grace.
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He’s concluding the larger argument.
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(APPLAUSE)
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We don’t earn grace. We’re all sinners. We don’t deserve it.
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Recapping it in short declarative sentences
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(APPLAUSE)
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But God gives it to us anyway.
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(APPLAUSE)
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And we choose how to receive it. It’s our decision how to
honor it.
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None of us can or should expect a transformation in race
relations overnight. Every time something like this happens, somebody says,
“We have to have a conversation about race.” We talk a lot about race.
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Caution
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(APPLAUSE)
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There’s no shortcut. We don’t need more talk.
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(APPLAUSE)
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None of us should believe that a handful of gun safety
measures will prevent every tragedy.
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It will not. People of good will will continue to debate the
merits of various policies as our democracy requires — the big, raucous
place, America is. And there are good people on both sides of these debates.
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Whatever solutions we find will necessarily be incomplete. But
it would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe,
if we allow ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again
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(APPLAUSE)
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Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras
move on, to go back to business as usual. That’s what we so often do to avoid
uncomfortable truths about the prejudice that still infects our society.
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(APPLAUSE)
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To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the
hard work of more lasting change, that’s how we lose our way again. It would
be a refutation of the forgiveness expressed by those families if we merely
slipped into old habits whereby those who disagree with us are not merely
wrong, but bad; where we shout instead of listen; where we barricade
ourselves behind preconceived notions or well-practiced cynicism.
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Reverend Pinckney once said, “Across the south, we have a deep
appreciation of history. We haven’t always had a deep appreciation of each
other’s history.”
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(APPLAUSE)
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What is true in
the south is true for America. Clem understood that justice grows out
of recognition of ourselves in each other; that my liberty depends on you
being free, too.
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Tying the small to the large, the present to history, these 9
to us all
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(APPLAUSE)
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That — that history
can’t be a sword to justify injustice or a shield against progress. It must
be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, how to break
the cycle, a roadway toward a better world. He knew that the path of grace
involves an open mind. But more importantly, an open heart.
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That’s what I felt this week — an open heart. That more than
any particular policy or analysis is what’s called upon right now, I think.
It’s what a friend of mine, the writer Marilyn Robinson, calls “that
reservoir of goodness beyond and of another kind, that we are able to do each
other in the ordinary cause of things.”
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That reservoir of goodness. If we can find that grace,
anything is possible.
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(APPLAUSE)
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If we can tap that
grace, everything can change. Amazing grace, amazing grace.
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Here’s point: receive this grace, use it in this very way.
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Amazing grace…
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The audience is astonished again, the eulogizer has become the
preacher, the leader of song
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(SINGING)
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(APPLAUSE)
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… how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now, I see.
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(APPLAUSE)
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Clementa Pinckney found that grace…
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Uses the familiar lyric to set up this coda
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(APPLAUSE)
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… Cynthia Hurd found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… Susie Jackson found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… Ethel Lance found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… DePayne Middleton Doctor found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… Tywanza Sanders found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… Daniel L. Simmons, Sr. found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE) … Sharonda Coleman-Singleton found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… Myra Thompson found that grace…
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(APPLAUSE)
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… through the example of their lives. They’ve now passed it
onto us. May we find ourselves worthy of that precious and extraordinary gift
as long as our lives endure.
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May grace now lead them home. May God continue to shed His
Grace on the United States of America.
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(APPLAUSE)
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