Mazel tov!

Black Episcopal Congregation Celebrates Lesbian Marriage
By Rev. Irene Monroe [source link] Photo by Gloria Kinkard

Since the liberal arm of the US Episcopal Church passed a resolution in July to bless same-sex unions, particularly in states like Massachusetts that legalize such marriages, so too has, at least, one black congregation within the Massachusetts diocese. On August 30th St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in Cambridge housed the marriage and blessed the union of its mayor, E. Denise Simmons and, her lifetime partner, Ms. Mattie Hayes.

Mayor Simmons, a native Cantabridgian, who presides over a diverse demographic consisting of people from various racial, cultural, economic and sexual orientations had only one church she could go to with the hopes of not being turned down.

The church’s new Priest-in-Charge, The Reverend Leslie K. Sterling, is the first African-American female priest at St. Barts, and a fierce ally of the LGBT community. Having just arrived at St. Barts in February, Sterling brings a new vision to a church that has served both the African-American and African-Caribbean community for over 100 years.

When I went to meet with Sterling to discuss our roles as officiates in the mayor’s nuptials I asked her if she were ready to jump into in this conflagration that has the Episcopal Church at the brink of schism.

“Some will leave I know, but those who oppose and stay, at least, we can talk about it in a spirited conversation,” Sterling said.

In preparing her parishioners for their leap of faith Sterling wrote in a letter to them:

“I am aware of all the Bible verses conservatives cite in opposition to homosexuality, and I am also aware that there is more than one way to look at each one of those verses. If we believe that the Spirit continues to guide the church in the interpretation of scripture, as was done with respect to slavery and the status of women, then we have to consider the possibility that the Spirit is speaking today, as the hearts and minds of so many people at so many levels of Bible scholarship no longer read those verses as a blanket condemnation of same-sex relationships, or as a reason to deny committed, faithful couples a blessing on their marriage.”

To be in full compliance with the canons of the Episcopal Church, the wedding liturgy was divided among three officiates — The Rev. Sterling, Jada D. Simmons, the mayor’s oldest daughter and Justice of the Peace, and me.

I was elated to be a part of this liturgical assembly line helping to make a historic event happened within the ecclesial strictures of the church. Sterling did the invocation, declaration of consent to marry, and blessing of the marriage; Simmons pronounced the marriage, and I did the homily, blessing of rings and vows.

At the end of the wedding service when Simmons and Hayes walked down the aisle as a married couple to the church clapping and the choir singing the gospel tune “Oh Happy Day” I turned to Sterling and asked what she thought about the service.

"I’m feeling the history of the moment and what it must have been when black folks were able to marry.”

Historically, as African Americans we have always focused on spiritual content of family. Alternative family structures, which we have had to devise as models of resistance and liberation, have always, by example, shown the rest of society what really constitutes family. Hayes spoke to me about the spiritual aspect of her family when she said, “Of course to have my marriage, my wedding to be in an historic event is phenomenal. But the bottom line is as wonderful as all that is, I have married the woman I love, Denise Simmons.”

Rev. Irene Monroe is a Ford Fellow and doctoral candidate at Harvard Divinity School.

9/11

The candles massed in front of the altar burn in tribute to the names being read from the lectern – Naomi Leah Solomon, Daniel W. Song, Michael C. Soresse, Fabian Soto – as other names scroll above the altar projected on a video screen – John Bentley Works, William Wren, Sandra Wright, Myrna Yashkulka.
The church is silent save for the reading of the names and the careful footsteps of those who come forward to light a candle -- the gentle thud of a kneeler lowered for prayer --the quiet rustle of pages turned in a prayer book.

“American Airline Flight 11”– Anna Allison, David Lawrence Angell, Lynn Edwards Angell, Seima Aoyamma. The names began at 5:46 – the west coast moment when the first plane struck – and will continue through the morning until we gather for Eucharist at noon. The table is already set. The red frontal – blood of martyrs – covers the altar. The chalice is vested, the missal marked. The credence table is ready, too: flagons of wine, silver chalices and ciborium lined up – ready to hold the holy food and drink of new and unending life we will share here at All Saints Church.

“All Saints” – Charles’ deep voice breaks the silence as he begins reading the next segment of the list of names: “World Trade Center, continued” – Paul Riza, John Frank Rizzo, Stephen Luis Roch, Leo Roberts. I remember the ancient words of comfort from the prophet Isaiah, “I have called you by name and you are mine.” As Charles tolls the names of the dead that assurance echoes again and again in my head. These names I do not know – some I cannot even pronounce – each and every one known to God. Beloved of God.

“United Airlines Flight 93”: Christine Adams, Lorraine Berg, Todd Beamer, Alan Beaven. Gone from our sight yet gathered into God’s embrace -- seated at the heavenly banquet we can but glimpse through the sacrament we are preparing to share -- the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving we will offer at this altar.

I look again at the ciborium massed on the credence table – the candles flickering in the polished silver – the light of lives lost reflected in the vessels holding the bread of life. It staggers the mind to consider what they represent – the magnitude of the collective loss of love, joy, hope and possibilities taken on that day a year ago with such sudden unexpectedness.

Takashi Ogawa. Albert Ogletree. Gerald Michael Olcott. The pain of death and loss mingles mysteriously in the promise of life and hope. Body and Blood. Bread and Wine. Strength for the journey and hope for the future. Hope for a world where differences enrich rather than divide. Hope for the end of wars waged in the name of the God who created us not to destroy but to love each other.

Dipti Patel. James Matthew Patrick. Sharon Christina Millan Paz. “Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on your journey of faith there is a place for you here.” Thanks be to God. Alleluia. Amen.

And another thing ...

Reading ANYTHING Jim Naughton writes is always recommended.

Reading this just-posted-to-the-UK Guardian's-"Comment Is Free" piece is REQUIRED for anybody who cares about or is wondering about what's next for the Anglican Communion.

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The right gains ground
Lambeth runs the risk of heading a communion synonymous with the agenda of the American right

Jim Naughton
[source link] guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 September 2009 10.00 BST

The Anglican Covenant may never come to pass. Or its doctrinal statements may be so unobjectionable, and its enforcement mechanisms so weak, that every church in the communion will hastily sign on. Or the gay-friendly churches threatened with diminished status may realise that they will always have more opportunities than resources for mission within the communion, and happily agree to run their trains on track number two.

Yet if Rowan Williams succeeds in his misguided effort to establish a single-issue magisterium that determines a church's influence within the communion, a significant risk remains. That risk is run not by the Anglican left, which has nothing practical to lose, nor by the Anglican right, whose leaders embarrass less easily than Donald Trump and don't fear public opprobrium. Rather, the parties at risk are the Church of England and the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which may find themselves at the head of a communion synonymous with the agenda of the American right.

If Americans, Canadians and other gay-friendly churches are deemed insufficiently Anglican, the struggle to determine who speaks for the communion will be waged between the dozy dons and preening peacocks who lead the Church of England, and Episcopal schismatics whose public relations are handled by the folks who operated the Swift Boat Veterans campaign against John Kerry in 2004. Early wagering favours the Swifties giving three goals.

The American donors who helped fuel the Anglican schism – Howard Ahmanson, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Coors brewing family – have been losing interest of late thanks to the Episcopal church's recent string of legal victories and the Anglican Church in North America's failure to lure away any more than about 3% of the Episcopal church's membership. But awarding the Anglican brand in North America to the schismatics would reverse the trend by handing the American right the opportunity to wrap its agenda in the endorsement of a major mainstream religious organisation.

As we've seen in inter-communion struggles, American money in the pockets of the right's figureheads causes words written by Martyn Minns and Chris Sugden to issue from the mouths of high-profile prelates, after which a gullible press transcribes them as the authentic voice of impoverished Christians around the globe.

The loudest and most frequently-quoted voices in the Anglican communion, then, would be stridently anti-gay and anti-Islamic; supportive of American military adventurism; against a two-state solution in the Middle East; in favour of teaching creationism or intelligent design to school children; sceptical about climate change; and adamant that homosexuality can be cured.

Nothing about Williams suggests the will or the skill to prevail in a struggle for political (rather than ecclesial) supremacy with the Anglican right. To wit: Williams has remained steadfastly silent as Peter Akinola, the darling of American conservatives, has twice pushed for harshly restrictive anti-gay legislation in Nigeria. This legislation, which violates the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, has been condemned by every major human rights organisation and the European parliament. Even the State Department of President George W Bush expressed concern. But Rowan Williams made not a peep.

Nor has Williams forced from Akinola an accounting of the horrific 2004 massacre of 650 Muslims in Yelwa. The retributive massacre, documented by Human Rights Watch and reported in a cover story in The Atlantic, was perpetrated by organised militias wearing tags that identified them as members of the Christian Association of Nigeria. The massacre took place when Akinola was president of the CAN, a position from which his colleagues removed him at their next opportunity.

If the Archbishop gets his covenant, he will no longer be portrayed as the harried peacemaking father of an argumentative clan just trying to get everyone to sit down for dinner. He and his church will be the most visible symbols of a communion that has traded its good name to the American right and Peter Akinola simply to avoid admitting the possibility that people in loving, committed gay relationships can preach the Gospel and serve the church.

I suspect there will be consequences.

Hadn't planned to blog today ...

... but this email from the American Family Association popped up in my inbox while I was checking it during our lunch break here in St. Louis and ... well ... I couldn't resist "sharing the joy."

ObamaCare will put Planned Parenthood clinics inside your child's school
Urgent: E-mail your representative and two senators today!
September 10, 2009

Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire e-mail list of family and friends.

Dear Susan Russell,

There are many reasons to oppose President Obama's push to take over the nation's health care system, but among the most important is this one: his plan will put Planned Parenthood clinics inside your child's school.

Yes, you read that right. Under an innocuous-sounding section titled "School-Based Health Clinics," H.R. 3200 will authorize Planned Parenthood, as a "sponsoring facility," to run a clinic during school hours on the grounds of public schools, with absolutely no accountability either to parents or school administrators.

Clinics would be accountable only to the Secretary of Health & Human Services, the radically pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius, who was a fervent supporter of late-term abortionist George Tiller.

All this will be done at taxpayer expense. And unlike the rest of the bill, which isn't slated to go into effect until 2013, these clinics are scheduled to go into schools next fall.

The last thing we need is for President Obama to put these dangerous clinics inside our schools. Send an E-mail your congressmen and senators in Washington, D.C., today and urge them to vote "No" on any health care plan that invites Planned Parenthood onto our public school campuses.

It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.

====

OK. So I've done what they're asking. I'm alerting all y'all so YOU can make sure your congressional representatives hear from YOU that we want them to step up and do what our president asked of them last night: GIVE THIS NATION MEANINGFUL HEALTH CARE REFORM NOW!

This is too important to let the obstructionists have ANY more power to keep the work we know needs doing get done. They're clearly mobilizing. So should we.

Ready. Set. GO!!

Off to St. Louis

Writing from the Phoenix Airport (thumbs up for free wifi!) waiting for our flight to St. Louis for Integrity's "After Anaheim" Leadership Conference.

Looking forward to good work with great colleagues -- and feeling a little nostalgic a we return to the site of the 2002 Claiming the Blessing Conference.

More on that later. Blessings, all!

What a difference almost-a-decade makes!

So in preparation for Integrity's "After Anaheim" conference happening in St. Louis (starting tomorrow!) I've been doing some archive perusing in order to put together the powerpoint I'll be presenting.

In the process, I came across this July 2000 feature by then LA Times Religion Writer Larry Stammer. I saved it originally because it had my "It's not the whole enchilada but it has enough guacamole for me" quote -- regarding the passage of D039 ... the resolution that recognized for the first time that there WERE gay couples in the church.

Imagine.

Anyway, what caught my eye THIS time was this bit:

But Episcopal traditionalists also claimed victory.

"If the resolution makes them feel good, OK. But I don't see it as any major advance for them," said the Rev. David C. Anderson of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, a leader of the American Anglican Council, a traditionalist group. When delegates voted to delete the paragraph calling for same-sex rituals, gays had lost the battle, Anderson said.

Really???? I thought this one was listed on their long list of straws-that-broke-the-Anglican-Communion's back! At least that's how it's been "spun" ever since.
Anyway, thought you might enjoy this little peek into the "way back" machine ... so here's the whole text of the piece (more later!)

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Episcopalians Officially Recognize Gay Couples
By LARRY B. STAMMER, TIMES RELIGION WRITER
July 12, 2000

DENVER — The Episcopal Church on Tuesday narrowly rejected a drive by gay rights advocates to formally bless same-sex unions, but for the first time officially acknowledged homosexual couples in the church and declared that they will be held to the same standard of love and fidelity expected of married couples.

In a church long divided over the issue of homosexuality, both traditionalists and gay rights advocates walked away from the vote at the church's triennial General Convention here able to claim at least half a victory.

At the same time, those on both sides of the controversy--which has dogged the church for decades--said the church had once again stepped back from a definitive stand that might have led to schism, or at least some parishes leaving the denomination. The vote marked the third time in recent months that a mainline Christian denomination said no to blessing same-sex unions. Earlier this year, both the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) took similar stands.

But the vote by Episcopalians was far closer, and priests who have been blessing such unions are expected to continue doing so. On the key vote on rituals for same-sex unions, gay rights advocates fell just a handful of ballots short of the majority required for passage among priest and lay delegates in the church's House of Deputies.

The key vote was to remove from a resolution a paragraph that would have directed the denomination's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to prepare rites for blessing same-sex unions. Although the terms "same sex" and "blessing" were never used in the resolution, both sides agreed that was the paragraph's intent.

After that vote, the delegates approved the compromise resolution, which the church's House of Bishops is expected to approve today. The compromise resolution includes language officially acknowledging that within the church there are, in addition to married couples, couples "living in other lifelong committed relationships."

"It acknowledges that there are relationships. There is no denial there," said church spokesman Jim Solheim.

The resolution makes clear the church expects couples--whether gay or straight--to be faithful to each other. "We expect such relationships will be characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect," the resolution states, adding that "we denounce promiscuity, exploitation and abusiveness in the relationships of any of our members."

Because of the resolution, "the church is on official record saying that it recognizes same-sex couples are in the church. It has never said that before," said the Rev. J. Edwin Bacon Jr., rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, where priests have long officiated at gay and lesbian unions. The resolution will lead to an escalation of same-sex blessings "as never before," he predicted.

"It's not the whole enchilada, but there's enough guacamole here for me," added the Rev. Susan Russell, associate rector at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in San Pedro and a member of Integrity, an Episcopalian gay rights group. "This is a huge step forward."

But Episcopal traditionalists also claimed victory.

"If the resolution makes them feel good, OK. But I don't see it as any major advance for them," said the Rev. David C. Anderson of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, a leader of the American Anglican Council, a traditionalist group. When delegates voted to delete the paragraph calling for same-sex rituals, gays had lost the battle, Anderson said.

In an hour long debate, opponents of same-sex unions repeatedly warned that their parishioners would leave the church if the convention--the church's highest policymaking body--ordered the preparation of liturgical rites for blessing same-sex unions.

"I can imagine no recipe for greater confusion or further division than this," said the Rev. J.A. Cook of the Western Louisiana diocese.

But a delegate from Mississippi said the time had come to set aside hatred of gay men and lesbians, as the church had set aside biblical justifications for slavery.

"It will not be without risk or struggle," said the Rev. Stan Runnels of Laurel, Miss. "It will not be without pain. But it will be guided by the Holy Spirit. . . . I ask you to step into the great unknown."

Ahead of the vote, advocates on both sides pressed their cases in styles reminiscent of a political convention. The conservative American Anglican Council rented the entire third floor of the nearby Denver Athletic Club as a command center. About 200 volunteers put out daily briefings, and a legislative report for delegates recommending how to vote on hundreds of resolutions.

Integrity set up headquarters at a local hotel and reported it had 70 volunteers.

President Obama's "Back to School" Address

[So THIS was what all the knickers were in a knot about??? Oy vey!]

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama:
Back to School Event [text link]

Arlington, Virginia -- September 8, 2009

Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn.

Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work.

You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn.

But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.