Barack Obama. Presidential Victory Speech Page #3

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and a new dawn of American leadership

is at hand.

To those...

To those who would tear the world down:

we will defeat you.

To those who seek peace and security:

we support you.

And to all those who have wondered

if America's beacon

still burns as bright:

tonight we proved once more

that the true strength of our nation

comes not from the might of our arms

or the scale of our wealth,

but from the enduring power

of our ideals:

democracy, liberty, opportunity

and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America:

that America can change.

Our union can be perfected.

What we've already achieved

gives us hope

for what we can

and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts

and many stories that will be told

for generations.

But one that's on my mind tonight's

about a woman

who cast her ballot in Atlanta.

She's a lot like the millions of others

who stood in line

to make their voice heard

in this election, except for one thing:

Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born

just a generation past slavery;

a time when there were no cars

on the road or planes in the sky;

when someone like her couldn't vote

for two reasons:

because she was a woman

and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about

all that she's seen

throughout her century in America.

The heartache and the hope,

the struggle and the progress,

the times we were told that we can't,

and the people who pressed on

with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices

were silenced and their hopes dismissed,

she lived to see them stand up

and speak out

and reach for the ballot.

Yes we can.

When there was despair

in the Dust Bowl

and depression across the land,

she saw a nation conquer

fear itself with a New Deal,

new jobs,

a new sense of common purpose.

Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor

and tyranny threatened the world,

she was there to witness a generation

rise to greatness and a democracy was saved.

Yes we can.

She was there for the buses

in Montgomery,

the hoses in Birmingham,

a bridge in Selma,

and a preacher from Atlanta

who told a people that

"We Shall Overcome."

Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon,

a wall came down in Berlin,

a world was connected

by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election,

she touched her finger to a screen,

and cast her vote,

because after 106 years in America,

through the best of times

and the darkest of hours,

she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far.

We have seen so much.

But there is so much more to do.

So tonight, let us ask ourselves:

if our children should live

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