這是演講的最後一段。

53There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

54There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion (每個人都可以輪流發言的平等會議) where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

55And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go (被解僱) and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

56She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish (酸黃瓜醬) sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

57She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

58Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare (靠社會福利金救濟過活) and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

59Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up (談到、拋出[議題, 問題等] ) a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

60"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

61But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

(The End)

演說的最後,歐巴馬用很淺顯的字句,與大家分享一個小故事。這個故事的感人之處在於白與黑、老與少、孤單與團結的對比。所有來自不同地方的人們都有不同的故事,但他們都來到這裡,為了使這個國家更完美。

以下是整段演說的實況轉播:



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