President Obama's speech was televised live on state TV here late last night.
Good afternoon, everybody. There are very few moments
in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking
place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The
people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt
will never be the same.
By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people’s
hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt’s transition. It’s
a beginning. I’m sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many
questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of
Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and
in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks. For
Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy
will carry the day.
The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker
to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is
credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people. That means protecting the
rights of Egypt’s citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the
constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and
laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free. Above
all, this transition must bring all of Egypt’s voices to the table.
For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian
people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this
change.
The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt.
We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary — and asked
for — to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. I’m also
confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the
young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to
create new opportunity — jobs and businesses that allow the
extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight. And I know
that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership
not only in the region but around the world.
Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years.
But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding
pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights.
We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders
to show them what true freedom might look like.
We saw a young Egyptian say, “For the first time in my life, I really
count. My voice is heard. Even though I’m only one person, this is the
way real democracy works.”
We saw protesters chant “Selmiyya, selmiyya” — “We are peaceful” —
again and again.
We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were
sworn to protect.
And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for
those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that
they were unarmed.
We saw people of faith praying together and chanting – “Muslims,
Christians, We are one.” And though we know that the strains between
faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will
close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not
be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common
humanity that we share.
And above all, we saw a new generation emerge — a generation that uses
their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a
government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a
government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One
Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few
days…that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from
them anymore, ever.
This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied.
Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to
the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt,
it was the moral force of nonviolence — not terrorism, not mindless
killing — but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history
toward justice once more.
And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian,
we can’t help but hear the echoes of history — echoes from Germans
tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi
leading his people down the path of justice.
As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in
Ghana while trying to perfect his own, “There is something in the soul
that cries out for freedom.” Those were the cries that came from
Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note.
Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are
moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are
as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up
in.
The word Tahrir means liberation. It is a word that speaks to that
something in our souls that cries out for freedom. And forevermore it
will remind us of the Egyptian people — of what they did, of the
things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in
doing so changed the world.
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