For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
[He’s downgraded the familiar slogan, “Diversity is our strength,” to “Our patchwork heritage is our strength.” He sees our nation as a patchwork. What a contemptuous way to talk about his own country. But he has to do that, to make America fit himself. For Obama, America is a “mutt nation,” a reflection of himself, since he’s called himself a mutt. ]
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus—and non-believers.
[Now Muslims, who number about three million in this country, and who only began immigrating here in large numbers 40 years ago, are of equal importance in America as Christians. We are no more a Christian society than we are a Muslim society. A religion that has been at war with Christendom since it was founded 1,400 years ago, a religion commanded by its god to our enslavement and destruction, is of equal importance and deserves equal respect with the historic religion of America.]
We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth;
[more patchwork imagery; America has no coherent identity and existence of its own.]
and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation,
[He’s turned the Civil War—the central, tragic event of American history—into “bitter swill.” Swill in my dictionary is “Wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk.” That’s what Obama thinks of America and how much feeling he has for American history. Can you imagine Lincoln, Obama’s supposed model, using Obama’s disdainful, vulgar put-down of America? In Obama’s hands, Lincoln’s, “this mighty scourge of war,” would become “this bitter swill of war”; Lincoln’s “The fiery trial through which we pass,” would become, “The bitter swill through which we pass.”]
and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass;
[So, the passing of hatred is now only a hope for the distant future! But Obama’s election was supposedly the certification that the old hatreds (hatred meaning white hatred of course) have passed, and that we’re now beyond race. I guess not. I guess we still have a lot of work to do to extirpate white hatred, as per Joseph Lowery’s prayer, whites have got to “get right.”]
that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
[By juxtaposing “the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve” with “as the world grows smaller,” he is clearly expanding his theme of ending of black-white divisions in America to the idea that all tribal divisions in the world, i.e., all national divisions in the world, must end. He’s calling for the disappearance of all nations and their merging into one humanity, which he calls a “new era of peace.” And America, the multiracial nation, is to lead to the way to this One Humanity.]
So, I see why you are so enthused about that passage in Obama’s speech. It represent your own ideal, as my questioning of you got you to