Peace Is Not Merely The Absence Of

On My Recent Trip To Israel, I Had The Opportunity To Visit Yad Vashem, Israel's National Holocaust Memorial, And Reaffirm Our Collective Responsibility To Confront Anti-semitism, Prejudice, And Intolerance Across The World. On This Yom Hashoah, We Must Accept The Full Responsibility Of Remembrance, As Nations And As Individuals-not Simply To Pledge "never Again," But To Commit Ourselves To The Understanding, Empathy And Compassion That Is The Foundation Of Peace And Human Dignity.

For Everywhere We Look, There Is Work To Be Done. The State Of Our Economy Calls For Action: Bold And Swift. And We Will Act Not Only To Create New Jobs But To Lay A New Foundation For Growth. We Will Build The Roads And Bridges, The Electric Grids And Digital Lines That Feed Our Commerce And Bind Us Together. We Will Restore Science To Its Rightful Place And Wield Technology's Wonders To Raise Health Care's Quality And Lower Its Costs.

Our Resources May Be Finite, But Our Will Is Infinite, And I Am Confident That If We Come Together And Summon That Great American Spirit Once Again, We Will Meet The Challenges Of Our Time And Write The Next Great Chapter In Our American Story.

In Addition To Giving Our Children The Science And Math Skills They Need To Compete In The New Global Context, We Should Also Encourage The Ability To Think Creatively That Comes From A Meaningful Arts Education.

I Have Muslim Members Of My Family. I Have Lived In Muslim Countries.