Beyond the sound bites

Until this afternoon, I had heard only sound bites from Barack Obama's Philadelphia speech on race yesterday. Finally, after several friends e-mailed the link to the speech, I listened.

If you haven't heard and watched the speech in its entirety, I urge you to do so. It is here.

As Obama so poignantly explains, race and fear have been used for years to divide us and keep us from confronting America's real problems — its inequities and injustices. It is time — at long last — to look those problems dead in the eye and deal with them once and for all.

For all — together.