Inspiring words

It is a good week to have TV - the democratic convention is on and it makes for very exciting TV.
Last night I watched Michelle Obama's speech (video) and I was so impressed and so inspired by her words. Hope is a beautiful thing and i think her words, and similarly Obama's, make one dream and believe in ideals as opposed to the cynicism and pragmatism of the world.
There were two things that she said which I liked a lot.

"Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is - even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves - to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn't that the great American story?"
...
"And one day, they - and your sons and daughters - will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country - where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House - we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be."

I really liked the line that we have to listen to our hopes, instead of our fears. This is what the Bush era has done to us - it has made us so afraid that we are willing to forgo so much of our rights. Every time I pass the airport security (and it happened again last friday) I think well maybe it's ok for them to check security so rigorously, since it's better that i actually reach my destination. But when i heard the above words, I realized this mentality is the result of the fear that they raise in us; we are willing to accept anything.
Rather, we need to not forget our ideals and not lower our standards.

(this actually reminds me of some of what saenz said about Uribe)