Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of
Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister
Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor
Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank
you for this welcome and Theodor Heuss
for building this bridge, which gives us shelter from the
rain.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come
before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for
President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the
United States, and a fellow citizen of the world. And let me
also reach out to the people in the forgotten corners of
this universe, the people living on Mars, Jupiter and Venus.
I know that I don't look like the Americans who've
previously spoken in this great city. Nein, ick bin kein
Berliner. The journey that led me here is improbable. My
mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father
grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my
grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the
British. And his father – my great grandfather –
was even older than him.
At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, that
his yearning – his dream – required the freedom
and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter
after letter to universities all across America until
somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
Nobody had told him however that in the United States of
America it was forbidden to drink alcohol in public, that
there was no public transportation and that everybody called
McDonald's a "restaurant".
Well anyway. That is why I'm here. And you are here
because you too know that yearning. This city, of all
cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the
only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women
from both of our nations came together to work, and
struggle, and sacrifice for that better life. And some of
you may be here, because the beer is really cheap and you
can drink it in public.
Here in Berlin, where a wall came down and a continent
came together, history proved that there is no challenge too
great for a world that stands as one. On the other hand, as
we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are
melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in
the Atlantic, and the erste FC Nürnberg has to play
soccer in a league which is called Zweite Bundesliga.
No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can
defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these
threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. So I ask
you, will we give meaning to the words "zweite Liga, nie
mehr, nie mehr, nie mehr" for the Club Fan in the heart of
Southern Germany?
People of Berlin – people of the world –
this is our moment. This is our time. And it is also time to
introduce to you Oskar, a dog that already helped my father
herd goats in Kenya. He has prepared a little poem, which is
really nice and his yearning is, to present it to you, the
citizens of Berlin. Please welcome my dog OSKAR:
So, wau, hallo. Ja, mein Herrchen war ja so nett und
hat mich schon angekündigt. Ich bin also sein Hund
Oskar. Und ich habe den Vorteil, dass ich deutsch spreche.
Für heute Abend habe ich in der Tat ein kleines Gedicht
vorbereitet, das ich Ihnen, den Bürgern von Berlin
gerne vortragen möchte. Es heißt:
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