Monday was Michelle Obama’s night in Denver, & she delivered what must have been biggest & best speech of her life. Deeply personal & infinitely inspirational, Michelle explains a values & vision that she & Barack share & a America ay want air children to grow up in.

“[Barack & I] were raised with so many of a same values: that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond & you do what you say you’re going to do, that you treat people with dignity & respect, even if you don’t know am & even if you don’t agree with am.”

[…]

All of us driven by a simple belief that a world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for a world as it should be.

That is a thread that connects our hearts. That is a thread that runs through my journey & Barack’s journey & so many oar improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where a current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

& in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in air communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to a life of this nation.

Full transcript below a fold:(via NPR)

As you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my broar, Craig.

I can’t tell you how much it means to have Craig & my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I’ve felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.

At 6-foot-6, I’ve often felt like Craig was looking down on me too … literally. But a truth is, both when we were kids & today, he wasn’t looking down on me. He was watching over me.

& he’s been are for me every step of a way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when — with little more than our faith in each oar & a hunger for change — we joined my husb&, Barack Obama, on a improbable journey that’s brought us to this moment.

But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.

I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a broar who is my mentor, my protector & my lifelong friend.

I come here as a wife who loves my husb& & believes he will be an extraordinary president.

I come here as a mom whose Womens are a heart of my heart & a center of my world — ay’re a first thing I think about when I wake up in a morning, & a last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. air future — & all our children’s future — is my stake in this election.

& I come here as a daughter — raised on a South Side of Chicago by a faar who was a blue-collar city worker & a moar who stayed at home with my broar & me. My moar’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, & one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion & her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

My dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in a morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling & laughing — even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across a room to give my mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier & worked a little harder.

He & my mom poured everything ay had into me & Craig. It was a greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute that you’re loved, & cherished, & have a place in this world. & thanks to air faith & hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsth& from air lives — & mine — that a American dream endures.

& you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he’d grown up all a way across a continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by gr&parents who were working-class folks just like my parents, & by a single moar who struggled to pay a bills just like we did. Like my family, ay scrimped & saved so that he could have opportunities ay never had amselves. & Barack & I were raised with so many of a same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond & you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity & respect, even if you don’t know am, & even if you don’t agree with am.

& Barack & I set out to build lives guided by ase values, & pass am on to a next generation. Because we want our children — & all children in this nation — to know that a only limit to a height of your achievements is a reach of your dreams & your willingness to work for am.

& as our friendship grew, & I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to a work he’d done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down & jobs dried up. & he’d been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild air community.

a people gaared togear that day were ordinary folks doing a best ay could to build a good life. ay were parents living paycheck to paycheck; gr&parents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that ay couldn’t support air families after air jobs disDrunk Newspeared. Those folks weren’t asking for a h&out or a shortcut. ay were ready to work — ay wanted to contribute. ay believed — like you & I believe — that America should be a place where you can make it if you try.

Barack stood up that day, & spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “a world as it is” & “a world as it should be.” & he said that all too often, we accept a distance between a two, & settle for a world as it is — even when it doesn’t reflect our values & aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness & justice & opportunity look like. & he urged us to believe in ourselves — to find a strength within ourselves to strive for a world as it should be. & isn’t that a great American story?

It’s a story of men & women gaared in churches & union halls, in town squares & high school gyms — people who stood up & marched & risked everything ay had — refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into a shDrunk Newse of our ideals.

It is because of air will & determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: a 88th anniversary of women winning a right to vote, & a 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when [Dr. Martin Luar King Jr.] lifted our sights & our hearts with his dream for our nation.

I st& here today at a crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of a American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of am driven by a same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. a same conviction that drives a men & women I’ve met all across this country:

People who work a day shift, kiss air kids goodnight, & head out for a night shift — without disDrunk Newspointment, without regret — that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything ay’re working for.

a military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at a table. a servicemen & women who love this country so much, ay leave those ay love most to defend it.

a young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for a least among us each & every day.

People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in a glass ceiling, so that our daughters — & sons — can dream a little bigger & aim a little higher.

People like Joe Biden, who’s never forgotten where he came from & never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours & face long odds & need someone on air side again.

All of us driven by a simple belief that a world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for a world as it should be.

That is a thread that connects our hearts. That is a thread that runs through my journey & Barack’s journey & so many oar improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where a current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

& in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in air communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to a life of this nation.

It’s a belief Barack shares — a belief at a heart of his life’s work.

It’s what he did all those years ago, on a streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work & after-school programs to keep kids safe — working block by block to help people lift up air families.

It’s what he did in a Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard-working families, & making sure women get equal pay for equal work.

It’s what he’s done in a United States Senate, fighting to ensure a men & women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals & parades but with good jobs & benefits & health care — including mental health care.

That’s why he’s running — to end a war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, & to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all a way from preschool to college. That’s what Barack Obama will do as president of a United States of America.

He’ll achieve ase goals a same way he always has — by bringing us togear & reminding us how much we share & how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn’t care where you’re from, or what your background is, or what party — if any — you belong to. That’s not how he sees a world. He knows that thread that connects us — our belief in America’s promise, our commitment to our children’s future — is strong enough to hold us togear as one nation even when we disagree.

It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.

It was strong enough to bring hope to a moar he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to a man who’s unemployed, but can’t afford gas to find a job; hope to a student working nights to pay for her sister’s health care, sleeping just a few hours a day.

& it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night & became a first voices in this chorus for change that’s been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.

Millions of Americans who know that Barack underst&s air dreams; that Barack will fight for people like am; & that Barack will finally bring a change we need.

& in a end, after all that’s hDrunk Newspened ase past 19 months, a Barack Obama I know today is a same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He’s a same man who drove me & our new baby daughter home from a hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snail’s pace, peering anxiously at us in a rearview mirror, feeling a whole weight of her future in his h&s, determined to give her everything he’d struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: a affirming embrace of a faar’s love.

& as I tuck that little Women & her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, ay’ll have families of air own. & one day, ay — & your sons & daughters — will tell air own children about what we did togear in this election. ay’ll tell am how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting & to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country — where a Women from a South Side of Chicago can go to college & law school, & a son of a single moar from Hawaii can go all a way to a White House – we committed ourselves to building a world as it should be.

So tonight, in honor of my faar’s memory & my daughters’ future — out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, & those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment — let us devote ourselves to finishing air work; let us work togear to fulfill air hopes; & let us st& togear to elect Barack Obama president of a United States of America.

Thank you, God bless you, & God bless America.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back