The "America Forward!" tour will crisscross the nation, reaching as many voters as possible about the critical choice in this election -- moving America forward toward an economy built to last with a strong middle class versus going back to the same policies that crashed our economy in the first place.
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Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they served us. That includes giving them the care and benefits they have earned -- which is why we've increased annual VA spending every year I've been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our Nation.
With the bipartisan support of this Congress, we are providing new tax credits to companies that hire vets. Michelle and Jill Biden have worked with American businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. And tonight, I'm proposing a Veterans Job Corps that will help our communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters, so that America is as strong as those who defend her.
Which brings me back to where I began. Those of us who've been sent here to serve can learn from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn't matter if you're black or white; Asian or Latino; Native American, conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. When you're marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you're in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one Nation, leaving no one behind.
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Which brings me back to where I began. Those of us who've been sent here to serve can learn from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn't matter if you're black or white; Asian or Latino; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. When you're marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you're in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one Nation, leaving no one behind.
One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn't matter. Just like it didn't matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates -- a man who was George Bush's defense secretary; and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president.
All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves. One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn't deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job -- the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other -- because you can't charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there's someone behind you, watching your back.
So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I'm reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other's backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we're joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong.
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Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let's offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren't helping kids learn.
We also know that when students aren't allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma. So tonight, I call on every State to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.
When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July. Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars. And give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.
Stand with the President: https://my.barackobama.com/sotujobshomevid
Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.
We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it.
So let's change it. First, if you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home.
Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here.
Third, if you're an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you're a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers.
My message is simple. It's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I'll sign them right away.
During President Obama's address to the Congressional Black Caucus recently, besides riling some columnists with his message, he was, as one might phrase it, dropping some Ebonics. Or especially some g's, spiritedly advising the assembled to "stop complainin' " and "grumblin'."
The audience seemed to like it, but news sources varied on how they recorded the speech. Many outlets decided that the president needed some "correcting" in print, and had him referring to "complaining" and "grumbling." But the Associated Press transcribed it complete with the missing g's. Did the AP dis the president?
To some, the president's ability to use Black English -- or, as academic specialists often term it, African American Vernacular English -- demonstrates an ability to tailor his message effectively to a different audience. However, just as many -- and likely more -- think that in this case, the medium of the message is inherently deficient. Under this analysis, "correcting" Obama's language would seem germane. Wouldn't not doing so imply that he, and black people in general, have a grammar deficit?
Easy as it is to think so, no. African slaves heard a mixture of colloquial dialects of Great Britain that few Americans hear today and created a new hybrid language. Adults rarely learn new languages perfectly, so Black English involves possibly a dash of African melody, plus some scattered elisions and reinterpretations.
For the record, a quick aside for linguist geekery: the "-in' " for "-ing" is not a drop but a switch. The "-ng" is a single sound, not an "n" and a "g." Notice that with another consonant pair, like the "ld" in fold, if you say "fold it," you keep the "d" and say "fol-dit." But now say "sing it" -- you don't say "sin-git." The "ng" is two letters -- but a single little sound for which there is no letter. It's the one in Debra Winger as opposed to fin-ger. One does not "drop a g" -- one substitutes a single "n" sound for a single Debra Winger "ng" sound.
And in any case, before we clutch at our pearls on hearing "-in' " for "-ing" in public speech, if you still hear "-in' " as "short," we hardly consider ourselves slumming to mention, in business clothes to a superior, "Looks like rain," instead of "It looks like rain." Or: On public language standards, despite what grammar books say about "I" as subject and "me" as object, would you chirp, "It is I!" -- even if at the door of the White House, whoever was occupying it?
Thus the question is not whether the president is committing an insult to linguistic sanity by saying "complainin'," but whether it is appropriate to indicate him doing so in print. And if we understand that Black English is an alternative rather than a degradation, we might ask why, if it pops its head up in public language, it must be carefully expunged from the official record.
In earlier times, except in dialect literature and court transcripts, one was to use only standard language in print, and translate casual statements into formalese. But the same era assumed that men wore hats and women wore dresses, and the two of them slept in twin beds on television.
That era is gone. In our informal society, translating vernacular language "upward" in print is arbitrary and antique. Some may feel that black speech is a special matter, and that we must alter Obama's funkier language in print to avoid playing to a stereotype of black inarticulateness. However, of all the slurs lobbed at Obama -- socialist, elitist, etc. -- isn't "inarticulate" the one least likely to stick?
Vice President Joe Biden deemed him "articulate" out of the starting gate, after all, and Obama is considered one of the most gifted orators in American history -- in standard English. Surely he can say "complainin' " before a black audience without being suddenly perceived as congenitally thick of tongue.
The fiction that black speech is a mere collection of errors is something that all of America, black and other, must get beyond. If Black English is broken English, then, for one, about every second person in the United Kingdom -- the source of most Black English patterns -- is learning broken English at their mummies' knees. More to the point, since Modern English is quite different from Old English and overall less complex, the authors of Beowulf would have deemed what is today thought of as the best English as an egregious faux pas.
Sen. Harry Reid got it right two years ago, despite the media storm it predictably evinced, in praising Obama for being able to speak both standard and Black English. In controlling two ways of speaking English, Barack Obama speaks a larger English than, say, Mitt Romney's. There is no reason to coyly disguise this in print, any more than there is a reason not to overall celebrate the fact that language in America comes in more flavors than vanilla.
John McWhorter, a contributing editor to The Root, is a linguist.
