[applause] good morning. Good morning, rainbow push. It is so good to be here this morning. It is good to be in the house of the lord. Oh, yes. I am here this morning because this country is in a time of crisis. We are in a fight for the very soul of our nation. When we are in this kind of fight, when we are in this kind of battle, we need allies who know how to fight and how to win. We need strong, persistent fighters. We need fighters who know giving up is not an option. We need principled leaders who have the courage to fight for their convictions. We need giants who know social change is possible. Social change is possible only when we join together across lines of difference. We need a champion, like our reverend jesse jackson. [applause] thank you. Thank you for generations under the leadership of our reverend jesse jackson. The National Push coalition has been on the front lines in the fight for justice. I am here today to let you know how proud i am to stand shoulder to shoulder with reverend jackson and with you in this fight. And now, more than ever, the mission and mandate of rainbow Push Coalition is vitally important. Heres the truth. The fight for social, racial, and Economic Justice is far from over. Every day, we wake up to a new attack. Attacks on our values. Attacks on our democracy. Attacks on the most vulnerable among us. These fights are hard. At times, it can seem like our labor is in the vein. I am here today to remind each and every one of you our fight is a righteous fight. A righteous fight. In a righteous fight, we fight until we win. I grew up out in oklahoma, in the methodist church. Every sunday in the methodist church, my mother every wednesday. Methodist womens circle. We know some of you in that. When i had babies, i took my babies to church. By this point, i was down in texas, a Little Church down there. I tried to help out. Like most people do. I would bring a covered dish for our meeting. Sometimes we would have them on friday nights. You could count on me for costumes for the christmas pageant, the easter pageant, or whatever the kids were putting together. One day, the pastor came up to elizabeth, he said, i would like you to teach sunday school. I said, i got little kids. I have my own teaching job. You know how that goes. He said, i really would like you to teach sunday school. The fifth graders. We had a teacher quit. We need you to teach fifth Grade Sunday School. I am backpedaling the whole time. He finally reaches out and grabs my arm. He said, no, i really need you to teach sunday school. You are the third teacher who has quit. I said, oh. Is there a problem in the fifth grade . No. He said it is not that hard. Hurtso long as nobody gets it will be a success. Am thinking, woah the pastor, like reverend jackson, he puts the arm on you, you come through. I show up to teach my fifth Grade Sunday School class. I dont know how to describe this. These kids are wild. They are everywhere. They are having a big time. But not there to do much of a sunday school lesson. In the space of the 23 weeks, first they cut each others hair. That was a highlight. They glue a bunch of stuff together, including our equipment. We are in the first floor, fortunately, because at one point all the little boys climbed out the window. It is a chaotic mess. I finally decided i know this is , awful, i am not doing a good job. There is one thing i do know how to do. It is teach. Come on. I was a special needs teacher. I am now teaching in law school, surely i can do this. I got my kids together. About the fourth sunday, i said everyone sit down. We are going to read a story from the bible. Im going to ask you some questions. I gave them a little piece to read about noah. All all about they read about noah. They are giggling and twisting, but they read about noah. How do you think noah felt when he heard god . They give lots of giggling answers. Answers like, am i going crazy . Is it a space talking to me . After a while, the kind of start to get engaged. What would that mean that god spoke directly to you . Told you about something that was going to happen in this world . They got a little bit engaged and they started answering the questions. We made it through the juice time. Actually had a pretty good class. So did it again the next week. Brought in a different story, started asking questions. They got more engaged. We gave up art, cutting each others hair, and got focused on these bible questions. One day, we were reading a passage about charity. The children were struggling with a question about charity and the difference for charity, you give but you dont have to give. You need to think about what do you owe . That is where the conversation turned. I asked the question, what do we owe each other . What do we owe each other . They go back and forth. They figure out some parts of it that are pretty good. You dont push your brother down. I get that. You dont hit kids. I get that. Another kid said you dont put boogers in your brothers food. Note to self, dont eat at their house. I had one kid who was pretty quiet. He was bigger than the other kids, but always pretty quiet. A kid named jesse. He didnt volunteer too much. I would try to draw him in. Finally, jesse said i said, do you have an idea what we owe each other . Jesse said, everybody gets a turn. I thought, yeah. He said, everybody gets a turn. I thought of that as very much like the passage from matthew. If you will forgive me, i know you know the message but i when i know you know the passage, but i want to remind everyone and see if we can link these up. Matthew 25. You ready . A little matthew here. I am old school so this is going to be king james version. Ok . Let me set the story up. If there is anyone who does not know the story, it is that the sheep are being divided from the goats. Just so you understand, sheep are going to heaven. The goats most definitely are not. The shepherd has divided them. He put the sheep on one side and the goats on the other. Here is the passage. And then he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come, the blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For i was hunger and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came in to me. And then shall the righteous answer him, saying sword, when saw we thee, gave the drink, the sheep are saying, i dont remember seeing the lord and doing these things for the lord. When we took thee in, or be sick or in prison and came into the. And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily i say unto you, in as much as the have done it, unto one of these least of my brethren, he have done it on to ye. And that, for me, is what all of this is about. For me, there are three lessons in that passage. The first is there is god in every one of us. There is god in every one of us. Not god just in those who look like the lord, god and everyone of us. There is god in the children. There is god in the hungry. There is god and those who are in prison. The second thing it says to me, is that we are not called simply to observe. We are not called just to have a good heart. We are called to act. To feed the hungry. To bring water to the thirsty. To visit the imprisoned. And the third is we are called to act without promise of reward. We are called to act because it is right. As i traveled this country and i hear from the american people, they share their struggles, they share their fears, they share their concerns. But the people know what is right and they are ready to act. They know they have been called for such a time as this. They are willing to step up. Say none ofday to us is alone in this fight. When i am president , we will answer this call together. [applause] this is not a call for another round of empty promises. This is not a call for another round of vague ideas. This is a call for real plans to make real changes in our lives and in our communities. Yes, i have a plan for that. Too many for today, but let me mention just a few. To remind everyone. Some of you may know i have proposed a 0. 02 wealth tax. On the richest fortunes in this country. Everything over 50 million, . 02. Heres what we can do with two cents. We can provide universal childcare. For every one of our babies. Every one of them. We can provide universal prek. We can raise the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher in america. We can make public technical school, community college, and fouryear State College free to every one of our kids. We can level the Playing Field and put 50 billion into our historically black colleges and universities. [applause] sen. Warren and we can cancel Student Loan Debt for 95 of the kids who have got it. Warren we can begin to close the blackwhite wealth gap with these plans. But theres so much more. I have a plan to fund black entrepreneurs. Lets close the entrepreneurship gap. I have a plan to counter the effects of redlining. I have a plan to end the mass incarceration of millions of our brothers and sisters by banning private prisons. No one should make a profit from locking people up. [applause] sen. Warren i have a plan to make sure that every american citizen gets to vote and gets that vote counted. This is a moment of tremendous challenge. I believe this is the moment we have been called to. I make the you this promise. It when i am president , we will answer this call together. We will answer this call and we will stand with one another. We will answer the call. Making health care, affordable high quality education for every child a basic human right. We will answer the call to build an america where the difference between a good education and a prison sentence isnt just a few blocks. We will answer the call to make certain every working person, every working person, regardless of race, creed, or economic background, every working background is paid a living wage so they can build a secure future for themselves and their families. We will answer the call to build an america that commits to educating our children before it criminalizes them. We will answer the call to build an america where they runin where a run in with Law Enforcement or a turn down the wrong Street Corner doesnt cost you your life because of the color of your skin. We will answer the call to build an america where federal solutions to local problems are made by communities, for communities. Where no one is forced to leave their community to find equal opportunity. We will answer the call to and to end mass incarceration in this country. And when i am president , we will create a country in which like matthew 25, every human being has value and we turn our backs on no one. We will start right here in chicago. I know the challenges we face are enormous and the forces that stand against us will stop at nothing to divide us. To turn us against each other. In times of struggle, in times of uncertainty, i often turn to scripture for inspiration. To keep the faith and stay in the fight. For me, it is second timothy. For god hath not given us the spirit of fear. But of power. And of love. And of a sound mind. I am in this fight because i am not afraid. I know our fight is a righteous fight. If we stand together, if we fight together, if we persist together, if we dream big and fight hard, we will win this and make this the america of our best dreams. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much, reverend, for your wisdom, for your witness, all you have done to advance truth and justice. Thank you to the bishop, this great church. Thank you for the work you do