0:00:00.870,0:00:05.190
June 29, 2016.

0:00:07.150,0:00:09.002
My dear fellow citizen:

0:00:10.775,0:00:13.076
I write to you today,

0:00:14.393,0:00:17.949
to you who have lost in this era.

0:00:19.708,0:00:23.551
At this moment in our common life,

0:00:23.950,0:00:25.820
when the world is full of breaking

0:00:26.425,0:00:27.695
and spite

0:00:28.239,0:00:29.505
and fear,

0:00:31.385,0:00:33.129
I address this letter

0:00:33.863,0:00:35.644
simply to you,

0:00:36.494,0:00:38.062
even though we both know

0:00:38.086,0:00:42.228
there are many of you behind this "you,"

0:00:43.306,0:00:47.024
and many of me behind this "I."

0:00:50.525,0:00:53.081
I write to you because at present,

0:00:54.478,0:00:58.799
this quaking world we share scares me.

0:01:00.819,0:01:02.810
I gather it scares you, too.

0:01:04.618,0:01:07.647
Some of what we fear, I suspect,

0:01:07.671,0:01:09.026
we fear in common.

0:01:10.169,0:01:14.534
But much of what we fear[br]seems to be each other.

0:01:16.736,0:01:19.656
You fear the world I want to live in,

0:01:20.529,0:01:24.417
and I fear your visions in turn.

0:01:25.673,0:01:30.446
Do you know that feeling you get[br]when you know it's going to storm

0:01:30.470,0:01:32.017
before it storms?

0:01:34.001,0:01:36.469
Do you also feel that now,

0:01:37.276,0:01:38.516
fellow citizen?

0:01:40.435,0:01:43.157
That malaise and worry

0:01:44.181,0:01:45.770
that some who know

0:01:47.517,0:01:50.183
feel reminds them of the 1930s?

0:01:51.878,0:01:53.747
Perhaps you don't,

0:01:54.493,0:01:56.400
because our fears of each other

0:01:56.424,0:01:57.943
are not in sync.

0:01:59.325,0:02:02.801
In this round, I sense[br]that your fears of me,

0:02:03.655,0:02:07.007
of the world that I have insisted[br]is right for us both,

0:02:08.856,0:02:10.686
has gathered over a generation.

0:02:12.017,0:02:16.136
It took time for your fears[br]to trigger my fears,

0:02:16.868,0:02:19.626
not least because at first,

0:02:19.666,0:02:22.355
I never thought I needed to fear you.

0:02:24.882,0:02:26.219
I heard you

0:02:27.737,0:02:29.070
but did not listen,

0:02:29.731,0:02:34.728
all these years when you said[br]that this amazing new world

0:02:36.204,0:02:37.754
wasn't amazing for you,

0:02:38.879,0:02:40.483
for many of you,

0:02:40.507,0:02:43.030
across the industrialized world;

0:02:43.918,0:02:46.739
that the open, liquid world I relished,

0:02:46.763,0:02:51.066
of people and goods[br]and technologies flowing freely,

0:02:51.090,0:02:53.530
going where they pleased, globally,

0:02:55.019,0:02:59.279
was not, for you, an emancipation.

0:03:01.453,0:03:03.894
I have walked through your towns

0:03:05.442,0:03:09.182
and, while looking, failed to see.

0:03:10.799,0:03:14.730
I did notice in Stephenville, Texas,

0:03:15.791,0:03:18.098
that the town square was dominated

0:03:18.122,0:03:21.365
by one lawyer's office after another,

0:03:22.394,0:03:25.395
because of all the people[br]rotating in and out of the prison.

0:03:26.224,0:03:30.302
I did notice the barren shops[br]in Wagner, South Dakota,

0:03:31.925,0:03:35.403
and the VFW gathering hall

0:03:36.314,0:03:38.106
that stood in mockery

0:03:38.934,0:03:41.725
of a community's dream to endure.

0:03:43.352,0:03:44.566
I did notice

0:03:45.323,0:03:48.748
at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania Wal-Mart,

0:03:49.445,0:03:53.804
that far too many people[br]in their 20s and 30s

0:03:53.828,0:03:56.335
looked a decade or two from death,

0:03:57.295,0:03:59.641
with patchy, flared-up skin

0:03:59.665,0:04:02.141
and thinning, stringy hair

0:04:02.165,0:04:03.817
and browning, ground-down teeth

0:04:03.841,0:04:07.102
and a lostness in their eyes.

0:04:08.160,0:04:12.770
I did notice that the young people[br]I encountered in Paris,

0:04:12.794,0:04:14.745
in Florence, in Barcelona,

0:04:14.769,0:04:18.279
had degrees but no place to take them,

0:04:19.712,0:04:22.676
living on internships well into their 30s,

0:04:23.693,0:04:26.589
their lives prevented from launching,

0:04:27.868,0:04:30.614
because of an economy[br]that creates wealth --

0:04:31.409,0:04:32.748
just not jobs.

0:04:33.836,0:04:40.138
I did notice the news about those parts[br]of London becoming ghost quarters,

0:04:41.025,0:04:46.693
where the global super-rich[br]turn fishy money into empty apartments

0:04:47.962,0:04:52.064
and price lifelong residents of a city,[br]young couples starting out,

0:04:52.088,0:04:53.803
out of their own home.

0:04:56.332,0:04:59.253
And I heard that the fabric of your life

0:04:59.277,0:05:00.522
was tearing.

0:05:01.574,0:05:03.978
You used to be able to count on work,

0:05:04.840,0:05:06.169
and now you couldn't.

0:05:06.977,0:05:09.817
You used to be able[br]to nourish your children,

0:05:11.079,0:05:13.420
and guarantee that they would climb

0:05:14.052,0:05:17.978
a little bit further in life than you had,

0:05:18.002,0:05:19.295
and now you couldn't.

0:05:20.374,0:05:25.959
You used to be made to feel dignity[br]in your work, and now you didn't.

0:05:27.795,0:05:31.191
It used to be normal[br]for people like you to own a home,

0:05:32.470,0:05:33.849
and now it wasn't.

0:05:35.286,0:05:37.466
I cannot say

0:05:38.426,0:05:40.217
I didn't know these things,

0:05:41.701,0:05:43.918
but I was distracted

0:05:45.569,0:05:48.987
creating a future in which[br]we could live on Mars,

0:05:51.091,0:05:54.451
even as you struggled down here on Earth.

0:05:56.155,0:05:57.615
I was distracted

0:05:58.455,0:06:00.289
innovating immortality,

0:06:02.519,0:06:07.312
even as many of you began to live[br]shorter lives than your parents had.

0:06:09.301,0:06:12.360
I heard all of these things,[br]but I didn't listen.

0:06:13.528,0:06:14.727
I looked

0:06:15.566,0:06:17.137
but didn't see.

0:06:17.161,0:06:20.286
I read, didn't understand.

0:06:21.370,0:06:22.576
I paid attention

0:06:23.389,0:06:27.261
only when you began to vote and shout,

0:06:28.428,0:06:31.492
and when your voting and shouting,[br]when the substance of it,

0:06:31.516,0:06:33.999
began to threaten me.

0:06:36.235,0:06:41.228
I listened only when you moved[br]toward shattering continental unions

0:06:41.252,0:06:43.513
and electing vulgar demagogues.

0:06:44.704,0:06:48.608
Only then did your pain become of interest

0:06:49.343,0:06:50.508
to me.

0:06:52.317,0:06:54.271
I know that feeling hurt

0:06:54.295,0:06:57.588
is often prologue to dealing hurt.

0:06:59.664,0:07:01.044
I wonder now

0:07:02.408,0:07:04.686
if you would be less eager to deal it

0:07:05.438,0:07:07.378
if I had stood with you

0:07:07.402,0:07:09.686
when you merely felt it.

0:07:11.313,0:07:12.590
I ask myself

0:07:13.355,0:07:15.448
why I didn't stand with you then.

0:07:16.874,0:07:20.251
One reason is that I became entranced

0:07:20.275,0:07:22.364
by the gurus of change,

0:07:23.187,0:07:27.522
became a worshiper of the religion[br]of the new for novelty's sake,

0:07:27.546,0:07:29.699
and of globalization and open borders

0:07:29.723,0:07:32.660
and kaleidoscopic diversity.

0:07:34.928,0:07:38.836
Once change became my totalizing faith,

0:07:40.415,0:07:41.817
I could be blind.

0:07:43.143,0:07:46.677
I could fail to see change's consequences.

0:07:47.866,0:07:49.803
I could overlook the importance

0:07:49.827,0:07:52.929
of roots, traditions,[br]rituals, stability --

0:07:52.953,0:07:54.296
and belonging.

0:07:55.501,0:07:58.816
And the more fundamentalist I became

0:07:58.840,0:08:02.582
in my worship of change and openness,

0:08:04.090,0:08:07.320
the more I drove you[br]towards the other polarity,

0:08:08.074,0:08:09.234
to cling,

0:08:09.632,0:08:10.789
to freeze,

0:08:11.277,0:08:12.448
to close,

0:08:13.100,0:08:14.259
to belong.

0:08:16.138,0:08:18.854
I now see as I didn't before

0:08:18.878,0:08:22.819
that not having[br]the right skin or right organ

0:08:22.843,0:08:26.766
is not the only varietal of disadvantage.

0:08:27.722,0:08:31.312
There is a subtler, quieter disadvantage

0:08:31.336,0:08:34.651
in having those privileged traits

0:08:34.675,0:08:39.058
and yet feeling history to be[br]moving away from you;

0:08:39.082,0:08:42.475
that while the past was hospitable[br]to people like you,

0:08:42.499,0:08:44.897
the future will be more hospitable

0:08:44.921,0:08:46.314
to others;

0:08:46.338,0:08:48.791
that the world is growing less familiar,

0:08:48.815,0:08:51.681
less yours day by day.

0:08:53.865,0:08:59.547
I will not concede for a moment[br]that old privileges should not dwindle.

0:09:00.055,0:09:02.801
They cannot dwindle fast enough.

0:09:03.785,0:09:07.285
It is for you to learn to live[br]in a new century in which

0:09:07.310,0:09:12.134
there are no bonuses for showing up[br]with the right skin and right organs.

0:09:13.277,0:09:15.704
If and when your anger turns to hate,

0:09:15.729,0:09:19.959
please know that there is no space[br]for that in our shared home.

0:09:21.642,0:09:24.990
But I will admit, fellow citizen,

0:09:26.140,0:09:31.679
that I have discounted the burden[br]of coping with the loss of status.

0:09:32.163,0:09:33.932
I have forgotten

0:09:33.957,0:09:38.702
that what is socially necessary[br]can also be personally gruelling.

0:09:40.919,0:09:42.424
A similar thing happened

0:09:43.217,0:09:46.841
with the economy that you and I share.

0:09:48.191,0:09:50.623
Just as I cannot and don't wish

0:09:50.647,0:09:54.274
to turn back to the clock[br]on equality and diversity,

0:09:54.298,0:09:56.627
and yet must understand

0:09:56.651,0:09:59.417
the sense of loss they can inspire,

0:10:01.027,0:10:05.185
so, too, I refuse[br]and could not if I wished

0:10:05.970,0:10:10.111
turn back the clock on an ever more[br]closely knit, interdependent world,

0:10:10.135,0:10:13.525
and on inventions[br]that won't stop being invented.

0:10:14.520,0:10:19.754
And yet I must understand[br]your experience of these things.

0:10:21.032,0:10:24.451
You have for years been telling me[br]that your experience of these things

0:10:24.475,0:10:27.617
is not as good as my theories forecast.

0:10:28.528,0:10:32.386
Yet before you could finish[br]a complaining sentence

0:10:34.116,0:10:39.604
about the difficulty of living[br]with erratic hours, volatile pay,

0:10:39.628,0:10:41.254
vanishing opportunities,

0:10:41.278,0:10:45.536
about the pain of dropping[br]your children off at 24-hour day care

0:10:45.560,0:10:47.323
to make your 3am shift,

0:10:48.319,0:10:52.232
I shot back at you -- before you[br]could finish your sentence --

0:10:52.256,0:10:53.598
my dogma,

0:10:53.622,0:10:58.052
about how what you are actually[br]experiencing was flexibility

0:10:58.794,0:11:00.080
and freedom.

0:11:02.591,0:11:07.162
Language is one of the only things[br]that we truly share,

0:11:08.549,0:11:12.028
and I sometimes used[br]this joint inheritance

0:11:12.052,0:11:13.263
to obfuscate

0:11:13.821,0:11:15.025
and deflect

0:11:15.479,0:11:16.995
and justify myself;

0:11:17.933,0:11:19.813
to re-brand what was good for me

0:11:19.837,0:11:22.629
as something appearing good for us both,

0:11:23.324,0:11:27.310
when I threw around terms[br]like "the sharing economy,"

0:11:28.135,0:11:29.310
and "disruption"

0:11:29.845,0:11:31.690
and "global resourcing."

0:11:33.224,0:11:35.595
I see now that what I was really doing,

0:11:36.229,0:11:37.475
at times,

0:11:37.894,0:11:40.998
was buying your pain on the cheap,

0:11:41.892,0:11:43.104
sprucing it up

0:11:43.772,0:11:45.744
and trying to sell it back to you

0:11:46.244,0:11:47.450
as freedom.

0:11:49.712,0:11:52.971
I have wanted to believe[br]and wanted you to believe

0:11:55.683,0:11:57.792
that the system that has been good to me,

0:11:57.816,0:12:00.489
that has made my life ever more seamless,

0:12:01.229,0:12:04.124
is also the best system for you.

0:12:05.544,0:12:07.805
I have condescended to you

0:12:07.829,0:12:11.725
with the idea that you are voting[br]against your economic interests --

0:12:12.207,0:12:13.995
voting against your interests,

0:12:15.621,0:12:18.844
as if I know your interests.

0:12:20.296,0:12:24.613
That is just my dogmatic[br]economism talking.

0:12:25.723,0:12:27.500
I have a weakness

0:12:27.524,0:12:32.909
for treating people's economic interests[br]as their only interest,

0:12:32.933,0:12:36.457
ignoring things like belonging and pride

0:12:36.481,0:12:40.255
and the desire to send a message[br]to those who ignore you.

0:12:40.688,0:12:43.419
So here we are,

0:12:44.243,0:12:48.869
in a scary but not inexplicable moment

0:12:49.507,0:12:51.830
of demagoguery, fracture,

0:12:52.481,0:12:56.367
xenophobia, resentment and fear.

0:12:57.628,0:13:01.658
And I worry for us both[br]if we continue down this road,

0:13:02.358,0:13:03.754
me not listening,

0:13:04.305,0:13:06.156
you feeling unheard,

0:13:06.180,0:13:08.729
you shouting to get me to listen.

0:13:10.779,0:13:14.230
I worry when each of us is seduced[br]by visions of the future

0:13:14.254,0:13:16.914
that have no place for the other.

0:13:17.731,0:13:19.819
If this goes on,

0:13:21.655,0:13:23.030
if this goes on,

0:13:24.053,0:13:25.532
there may be blood.

0:13:27.290,0:13:29.975
There are already hints of this blood

0:13:30.915,0:13:32.255
in newspapers every day.

0:13:32.967,0:13:35.552
There may be roundups, raids,

0:13:35.586,0:13:38.661
deportations, camps, secessions.

0:13:39.494,0:13:42.415
And no, I do not think that I exaggerate.

0:13:44.236,0:13:46.157
There may be even talk of war

0:13:46.181,0:13:49.731
in places that were certain[br]they were done with it.

0:13:51.483,0:13:55.229
There is always the hope of redemption.

0:13:55.764,0:13:59.042
But it will not be a cheap,[br]shallow redemption

0:13:59.066,0:14:02.737
that comes through blather[br]about us all being in it together.

0:14:03.312,0:14:05.168
This will take more.

0:14:06.396,0:14:11.588
It will take accepting that we both[br]made choices to be here.

0:14:13.863,0:14:16.966
We create our "others."

0:14:17.975,0:14:21.655
As parents, as neighbors, as citizens,

0:14:22.503,0:14:26.834
we witness and sometimes ignore each other

0:14:26.858,0:14:28.098
into being.

0:14:29.268,0:14:32.318
You were not born vengeful.

0:14:33.339,0:14:35.346
I have some role

0:14:35.370,0:14:38.871
in whatever thirst[br]you now feel for revenge,

0:14:39.685,0:14:41.598
and that thirst now tempts me

0:14:41.622,0:14:44.140
to plot ever more elaborate escapes

0:14:44.164,0:14:46.083
from our common life,

0:14:46.107,0:14:47.976
from the schools and neighborhoods

0:14:48.000,0:14:49.931
and airports and amusement parks

0:14:49.955,0:14:51.596
that we used to share.

0:14:53.659,0:14:56.647
We face, then,

0:14:56.671,0:15:00.445
a problem not of these large,[br]impersonal forces.

0:15:02.366,0:15:06.518
We face a problem[br]of your and my relations.

0:15:07.815,0:15:10.953
We chose ways of relating to each other

0:15:12.345,0:15:13.496
that got us here.

0:15:13.896,0:15:16.645
We can choose ways of relating

0:15:16.669,0:15:18.275
that get us out.

0:15:19.361,0:15:22.630
But there are things[br]we might have to let go of,

0:15:23.418,0:15:24.599
fellow citizen,

0:15:25.674,0:15:31.280
starting with our own cherished[br]versions of reality.

0:15:33.035,0:15:36.904
Imagine if you let go of fantasies

0:15:36.928,0:15:40.786
of a society purged[br]of these or those people.

0:15:41.561,0:15:45.214
Imagine if I let go of my habit

0:15:45.755,0:15:48.825
of saving the world behind your back,

0:15:49.833,0:15:51.230
of deliberating on the future

0:15:51.254,0:15:52.729
of your work,

0:15:53.260,0:15:54.506
your food,

0:15:54.530,0:15:56.000
your schools,

0:15:56.024,0:15:59.034
in places where you couldn't[br]get past security.

0:16:00.386,0:16:04.732
We can do this only if we first accept

0:16:05.347,0:16:07.990
that we have neglected each other.

0:16:09.971,0:16:13.185
If there is hope to summon

0:16:13.930,0:16:15.280
in this ominous hour,

0:16:16.202,0:16:17.393
it is this.

0:16:18.870,0:16:20.572
We have, for too long,

0:16:21.547,0:16:24.916
chased various shimmering dreams

0:16:25.818,0:16:31.682
at the cost of attention[br]to the foundational dream of each other,

0:16:33.101,0:16:35.669
the dream of tending to each other,

0:16:35.693,0:16:38.556
of unleashing each other's wonders,

0:16:38.580,0:16:41.125
of moving through history together.

0:16:42.046,0:16:46.315
We could dare to commit[br]to the dream of each other

0:16:47.009,0:16:51.716
as the thing that matters[br]before every neon thing.

0:16:52.476,0:16:53.958
Let us dare.

0:16:54.467,0:16:55.627
Sincerely yours,

0:16:56.067,0:16:57.243
a fellow citizen.

0:16:57.683,0:17:03.308
(Applause)