Press. voanews.com.
U.S. President
Barack Obama said Tuesday the country is a "better, stronger place"
than when he took office in 2008, pointing to the reversal of a recession,
passage of his landmark healthcare program and the legalization of gay marriage
as achievements the American people have won through his message of change.
That section of
his farewell address drew huge applause from a crowd of thousands in Chicago,
delivered a few kilometers from the site where he gave his acceptance speech
the night he won his first term in the White House.
With less than
two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, Obama had
directed his team to craft an address that would speak to all Americans,
including those who voted for Trump.
Obama said in
his speech it is up to all Americans to make sure the government can meet the
country's many challenges and that he has committed to making the transition to
the new administration as smooth as possible.
"Understand,
democracy does not require uniformity," he said. "Our founders
quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that
democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity -- the idea that for all our
outward differences, we are all in this together."
Obama is the
first black man to serve as U.S. president, and he noted that after his
election many spoke of what they called a "post-racial" America. But
he said race is still a "potent and often divisive force," and
stressed the need to uphold anti-discrimination laws.
He urged
minorities to connect their own struggles to challenges faced by refugees,
immigrants, the rural poor and transgender Americans, and for the country's
white population to acknowledge that laws that discriminated against
African-Americans have effects that endure 50 years after they were abolished.
"So
regardless of the station that we occupy; we have to try harder; we all have to
start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just
as much as we do; that they value hard work and family like we do; that their
children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own."
Obama listed
economic achievements such as cutting the number of people who lack health
insurance, a growing economy and a lower unemployment rate. But he said those
are not enough and that economic inequality hurts the country's democratic
principles.
"While the
top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many
families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind," he
said.
Obama told U.S.
military members that serving as their commander-in-chief was the honor of his
lifetime, and he pointed to successes in the fight against terrorism, including
the killing of former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the ongoing coalition
effort against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The president
said the United States has to guard against weakening its values in the face of
fear, further noting his efforts to ban torture, reform government surveillance
laws and close the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "That's why I
reject discrimination against Muslim Americans," Obama said, drawing
perhaps his loudest applause of the night.
He said he is
more optimistic about the country than when he began his presidency. But he
also urged people to take an active role in democracy, saying the system
depends on Americans "accepting the responsibility of citizenship
regardless of which way the pendulum swings."
During his 2008
campaign, Obama used as one of his slogans, "Change we can believe
in." He returned to that idea at the end of his address Tuesday. "I
am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change, but in
yours," Obama said.
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