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We Americans entered a new phase in our history - the era of integration - in 1954.

I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old - and I know that we are ready.

I'm an American first, and I think that's how most people are.

It may be the optimist in me, but I think America has a uniquely powerful and capacious glue internally. The American identity has always been ethnically and religiously neutral, so within one generation you have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Jamaican-Americans - they feel American. It's a huge success story.

It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.

I'm optimistic that we are actually seeing the opportunity of a generation being created in this.

I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class.

Each generation looks to its children to keep our society moving and to make life better.

The United States is no longer first in the world in upward mobility. We can reverse that trend by giving our young children an equal start in life as they begin their journey to fulfill the American Dream.