Barack Obama: “I think we can draw encouragement from the ties that have long connected our peoples.”

This idea that any suggestion or criticism that America was anything other than perfect is unpatriotic... is a suggestion that you hate your country.

They're meant to remind us of who we can be, to remind us of what's possible, so we can forge ahead.

helped lead some of the most significant movements for change in human history

In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the Declaration's promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property.