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Aspen Terrorized; Israel Kills Hamas Militant Commander; Obama's Speech on Race

Aired January 01, 2009 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Making news right now: new information on the suspected bomber who terrorized Aspen on New Year's Eve.

Israel kills a Hamas militant commander.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a matter of principle to die in your house and to die as a martyr.

SANCHEZ: How it went down. We will take you inside Gaza.

While Israelis and Palestinians deal with real tragedy, bloggers here play the blame game, and it gets hateful.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT-ELECT: The most segregated hour of American life occurs on Sunday morning.

SANCHEZ: The make-or-break moment that arguably saved Obama's candidacy for president.

(on camera): This comes on Twitter.com/ricksanchezCNN. This was just written to me moments ago, seconds ago.

SANCHEZ: And how this newscast may be changing how we deliver news, not just to you, but with you.

Lunchtime in the Rockies, 3:00 p.m. in Times Square, your national conversation begins right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. We welcome you -- happy new year -- to the world headquarters of CNN.

The big story that is being talked about not only here in the United States, but all over the world, is the fact that the Israelis have taken out one of the top five commanders in all of Hamas. It has happened with a massive airstrike in Jabalia. It's north of Gaza City. It is an eight-story apartment building.

You're looking at it right now. And it was hit with -- get this -- as you look at these pictures, consider this. It's a one-ton bomb. They got him, but they also got 12 people in the process, four of them children. I am going to let you listen to process as it unfolds, natural sound up, again, one of those pictures that you and I have been talking about, Jim Clancy, as we have been taking people through this over the last week. Around the world, people will look at that and say, a one-ton bomb on an apartment building, they got the bad guy, but 13 other people were hit. What is the reaction?

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is what he wanted. He wanted to be a martyr. And you are going to find that out more. I know you are going to bring all of that up.

We are looking at a day here -- I have talked to my Palestinian, talking to the Israeli sources here. The Israelis say they got this guy. That is the big news. This is the biggest hit that they have gotten to go after him. He was in charge of some of these Qassam rockets there in the northern end. That is the Jabalia refugee camp.

(CROSSTALK)

CLANCY: You think about how did he grow up? That was a camp, Rick, where they had the classic guard tower and it must have been 100 feet tall.

SANCHEZ: Well, let me just ask the curious question that a lot of people out there are going to be asking themselves. By the way, we have got video of this guy.

Let me show you who this guy is, Nizar Rayan. Again, he's one of the top five commanders. And you heard Jim allude to this just a moment ago. He really wanted to be a martyr. He almost wanted to be taken out. Listen to him speaking just a little bit here. All right. That is good.

Reports are -- and you can leave him up if you want, Roger -- but reports are, he refused to hide, unlike other Hamas members. Let's do this.

"New York Times" reporter Taghreed El-Khodary is standing by right now. She is in Gaza and can bring us up to date and maybe give us a little more information on Mr. Rayan.

Go ahead.

TAGHREED EL-KHODARY, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes.

I met Mr. Rayan many times and one day he discussed his dissertation piece. He did his Ph.D. in (INAUDIBLE) He did it on martyrdom, the holy (INAUDIBLE) I couldn't believe the pages he wrote on martyrdom, collecting all the Prophet Mohammed's saying in regard to martyrdom.

He wanted to be martyred. He didn't want to evacuate his house. He was heading a campaign when Israel was trying to warn people to leave the house. He will employ all the residents, all the citizens around him to come and stand on the roof of each building, not to evacuate, like they did during the 48... (CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Taghreed, let me interrupt you for just a moment.

I mean, just in human terms, people are watching this newscast right now and they're watching this video and they're saying to themselves, if this man really wanted to be martyred, why would he allow himself to be in a position where his children and his family was around him at all times?

Isn't he -- couldn't you almost argue he is asking for harm to come to them?

EL-KHODARY: Yes, he did.

And when -- he is different from any political leader within Hamas or Qassam leader that I met, has many disagreements between him and the others who are interested in a truce, in two-state solution based on a truce.

He is against government. He is against Hamas being into government. He only believed in resistance, in what he called the liberation of all of Palestine. He was talking about why he thinks Israel (INAUDIBLE) He is extreme. But, at the same time, one must think about it. Israel did this to the head of Qassam during the second intifada. They killed the head of Qassam and his entire family same way. Same tactic was used.

But did Hamas...

(CROSSTALK)

EL-KHODARY: After the killing of Sheik Yassin, the founder, this head of Qassam, Hamas won the elections.

(CROSSTALK)

EL-KHODARY: So, killing (INAUDIBLE) and by...

SANCHEZ: Taghreed, it is an old story in this part of the world, where it's...

EL-KHODARY: It is an old story. And the sad part, nobody is learning from history.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Yes. All right. Taghreed, we got to let you go. You are breaking up on us a little bit. We are only catching every other word, but great job as usual. We thank you for bringing us that, Taghreed El-Khodary from "The New York Times" bringing us that report.

Nic Robertson, I have just been told, is going to be joining us in a little bit. We have got a couple of other videos that I want to take you through. All right. He's ready to go. A couple of the videos that we're going to be taking you to. There is also still rocket attacks going to southern Israel, which is another part of the story we're going to share with you. And then what about the tanks and the Israeli troops that are amassed there at the border? Will they go in? will they not go in? Some more information on that. Jim and I are going to be taking you through this and Nic is going to be joining us in just a little bit.

Stay with us. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: It is a difficult part of the story that we are about to tell you, not only the fact that some man decided he would martyr himself and do so around his family, and as a result, his children died, but other children who are now being affected.

What is the number now in terms of casualties since this thing started last week?

CLANCY: Well, I talked to Mustafa Barghouti, the independent Palestinian legislator who is keeping track of it -- from the Palestinian side, 416 dead, 2,020 wounded. And he is calling this, New Year's Day, the day of killing children and the day. They are particularly upset. He says that he is looking at...

SANCHEZ: And these are the pictures coming in now, Jim.

CLANCY: You bet. Yes.

SANCHEZ: This is exactly what you are talking about. This is tough to look at.

CLANCY: He said, these are children. This is not collateral damage.

SANCHEZ: Let's go ahead to play it up. I am going to be quiet and just let you listen to the reaction as it comes in.

You know, it is tough to look at, but there is another side to this story as well. I want to show you something now. This is in Ashdod. It is an apartment that has been hit by a Katyusha rocket. Let's go to that video, Rog, if you have got it, as we move from this one.

This is 23 miles from Gaza. There is also a death toll that we have been receiving. The death toll that we have been receiving is four so far in Israel. This is since Saturday, since this thing began.

But, go ahead, Jim.

CLANCY: You know, Mark Regev, I talked to him a short time ago, and he says what is interesting to the Israelis, what is really the surprise for them here, and he said there have not been many surprises in this, but there is only been -- they expected 200 rockets a day to fly into southern Israel from Gaza. And he said it has only been at most half of that, some days 30 -- 20, 30, 40 rockets, so much less than they expected.

SANCHEZ: Well, then, that begs the question. Let me look at another picture. Rog, do you have the shot of the tanks and the troops who are at the border preparing for a possible ground invasion? Let's show that.

And as we are looking at that video, I want to bring Nic Robertson in, because if you just heard what Jim Clancy says, and that is they that are getting fewer Katyusha and Qassam rockets in Israel than they expected, does that mean they less apt to actually go through with this ground assault, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I sat at a press conference today given by the vice minister (INAUDIBLE) and he was pretty clear.

He said, look, we know, in this offensive, we are going to get missiles fired back at us, but we believe the people of the south are ready to pay the price to go through the fear and concern and disruption to their daily lives that this means.

So, whether or not they get the 200 or what it has been, 30 or 40, everyday, government officials think that people here are ready to go through with it. We found today it's incredibly disruptive. We were driving around Ashkelon, which is just a few miles from the border with Gaza, and the sirens would go off. We would have to dive under the car. You would hear the missile, the rocket land.

Then, we would get up, move on. One time today, when we were right on the border with our team with Ben Wedeman today, a rocket went right over our heads, whistled right over our heads, and impacted a few hundred yards away. So, you can't take these things for -- these sirens for granted and it is a real disruption here.

SANCHEZ: Nic Robertson, doing -- I'll tell you what. You guys are tough, doing that job out there, following that situation on both sides.

But I understand -- Jim, let me bring you back into this. Is there a possibility that Western reporters will be allowed into Gaza to cover this story? And what have we learned on that today?

CLANCY: Well, Israel's Supreme Court says yes. The foreign ministry says, yes, you're going to be allowed in.

SANCHEZ: How many? Like eight or so?

CLANCY: The details are still being worked out. Eight, could be more, could be a dozen, all different agencies.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Will it include a CNN correspondent?

CLANCY: Well, we're hoping.

SANCHEZ: Ben Wedeman?

CLANCY: Yes, I think so.

These are kinds of things that are negotiated. And I should not speak out of turn here, because that is not my...

(CROSSTALK)

CLANCY: The assignment desk does it right behind us.

SANCHEZ: No, but nothing is cast in stone.

CLANCY: No, it's not.

SANCHEZ: But it is an important part of the story.

CLANCY: And the question is, Nic Robertson raising the point, too, the Palestinians think the ground invasion, the ground moves, start tomorrow.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

CLANCY: And, so, that could have a lot to do with your timing when are going to get somebody in there.

Some of the Arab news agencies are in. And we have got some incredible pictures from inside Gaza.

SANCHEZ: We're going to keep an eye on it. We certainly thank you for bringing us up to date on this with your knowledge.

(CROSSTALK)

CLANCY: Happy new year. There's not much to celebrate on Gaza, but glad you're here.

SANCHEZ: My thanks to you as well.

When we come back, well, what about here? With all the people who are experiencing what we just showed you there in Gaza, what it is like for people in the United States who have decided to write about this? And just how vehement are they with what they have to say? We are going to show you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez here in the world headquarters of CNN.

Obviously, a lot going on and we're going to stay on top of It.

But there's something else that I want to take note of, something important that happened here on our air yesterday. I hope you saw it. After almost a full week of talking to officials and correspondents and ambassadors and spokespeople, pundits, and spinners, about all things related to the Gaza conflict, we decided to talk to real people, real people affected by this.

This was producer/writer Gary Dodder's (ph) idea. And it was brilliant. Here's why. What we found was, these people had plenty to say, but none of it was political. I'm talking about people who are inside this thing, Karen in Israel, who told us about the fear of Palestinian militant rocket fire, about people coming together to protect one another, about real fear and real frustrations.

From Hasan, who is living inside Gaza, we learned about desperation, about hearing the sound of unmanned drones and then preparing for what followed afterward, death.

You know, not once did Karen in Israel or Hasan in Gaza mention politics. They didn't spin. They didn't talk about blame. They didn't talk about hate. Now, that is ironic, because they more than anybody else had plenty of reason to be angry about this, right? They are there. They are experiencing it.

And this had a big effect on a lot of you folks. Check the Twitter board, Johnny, if you could.

Look at this, trulove: "Thanks." This is from yesterday, and they are still writing. "Thanks for Karen and Hasan in Gaza, touching and raw."

Come back to me, if you would, Roger. Compare this now to those who are not there, but have plenty to say about this story, the ones who blog everyday here hatefully to me and probably everybody else who covers this story.

Some write in that the Palestinians are right, that the Israelis are wrong, and that Rick Sanchez is an idiot for not understanding that. Others write that the Israelis are right, the Palestinians are wrong, and Rick Sanchez is an idiot for not understanding that.

They are angry. They're nasty. They're generally ill-informed. They are bloggers. Are they entitled to their opinions, no matter how hateful, no matter how wrong? Of course they are. But doesn't it say something about them? They don't live there. They are not experiencing it firsthand. They are not there at all. They usually only read what affirms what they think.

And they only think that they are right. If they had to walk for one day in the shoes of Karen, who talked to us yesterday, who was in southern Israel, or Hasan in Gaza, they would likely know so much more than they do, and they probably, and ironically enough, would hate so much less.

What do you think? CNN.com/ricksanchez.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez, here in the world headquarters of CNN.

What a situation. Imagine you are in Aspen, Colorado, where people from all over the country get together for New Year's Eve, and, suddenly, everything is shattered. All celebrations have to stop. The town is all but shut down. Why? Because a bomber announced that he was going to be setting off his bombs all over town.

The good news is they never went off. And it turns out the bomber actually killed himself later. Now, we have heard from the police today, and they say this guy was no stranger to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL LINN, ASPEN ASSISTANT POLICE CHIEF: Mr. Blanning was known to local law enforcement, and we had a previous high-profile incident involving Mr. Blanning back in the mid-1990s here at the courthouse.

He -- he basically set himself up on one of the roofs of the courthouse with a rope around his neck threatening to hang himself and making some, making some other threats against the community. And I know that he and the sheriff had a discussion at that point, and that was instrumental in bringing that incident to a close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: When we come back, there is a brand-new poll on Barack Obama, surprising results. We will share it with you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: There is a new CNN public opinion research poll that we would like to share with you. It asks this question: Can Barack Obama somehow unite this country?

Remember, the election results were nothing like this, but this is the result of this question and it may say an awful lot about us. Yes, 77 percent, no, 21 percent.

There is at least one example of Barack Obama needing to unite the country. It happened in the middle of his campaign. It is when his pastor, of all people, came out and was recorded or heard by almost every American saying things that were hateful and inflammatory.

It could have been the very end of the Barack Obama candidacy. So, he needed to go before the microphones and say something. But what do you say? It may have been the make-or-break moment.

Here now is taking you back to March and that day and that speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We've heard my former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation, and that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned in unequivocal terms the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy and in some cases pain. For some, nagging questions remain -- did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course.

Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely. Just as I am sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's efforts to speak out against perceived injustice.

Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America. A view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong, but divisive. Divisive at a time when we need unity, racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems -- two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis, and potentially devastating climate change. Problems that are neither black or white, or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideas, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?

I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television sets and YouTube, if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there's no doubt that I would react in much the same way. But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man.

The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another, to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a United States Marine and who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country. And who over 30 years has led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on earth by housing the homeless, administering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. In my first book, "Dreams From My Father," I described the experience of my first service at Trinity, and it goes as follows: "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters.

"And in that single note -- hope -- I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones."

"Those stories of survival and freedom and hope became our story, my story. The blood that spilled was our blood; the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.

"Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black. In chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a meaning to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about -- memories that all people might study and cherish and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing and clapping and screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear.

The church contains, in full, the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America. This helps explain perhaps my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthens my faith, officiated my wedding and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.

He contains within him the contradictions, the good and the bad, of the community that he has served diligently for so many years. I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I cannot more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in the world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are part of me and they are part of America, this country that i love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So here is a candidate who is black and white and gives a speech where he castigates both. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez. We are bringing you something a little different now on this New Year's Day. We want you to experience something which may have been historic. Many of you think so here. This is on MySpace, came on just a little while ago. Obama race speech will and should go down in history as one of the greatest speeches in U.S. history.

Well, I suppose that is for historians to decide, but I will tell you the sense I got as I was watching the speech at home the day he delivered it back in March. The sense I got was that this wasn't just a speech. It was something that he had inside of him that he had been looking to say for a long time and here had come the day to let it out. Here now, second part of Barack Obama on race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America, to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality. The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks, reflect the complexities of race in this country that we have never really worked through, a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding --

(APPLAUSE)

...understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, the past isn't dead and buried, in fact, it isn't even past. We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country, but we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist between the African-American community and the larger American community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation who suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Segregated schools were and are inferior schools. We still haven't fixed them 50 years after "Brown versus Board of Education."

(APPLAUSE)

And the inferior education they provided then and now helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students. Legalized discrimination where blacks were prevented often through violence from owning property, where loans were not granted to African-American business owners or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages or blacks were excluded from unions or the police force or the fire department, meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between blacks and whites and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persist in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families, a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods, parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pickup, building code enforcement -- all helped to create a cycle of violence, blight and negligent that continues to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late '50s and early '60s, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What is remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but how many men and women overcame the odds, how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American dream, there were many who didn't make it, those who were ultimately defeated in one way or another by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations, those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons without hope nor prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race and racism continued to define their world view in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away, nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public in front of white coworkers or white friends, but it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop around the kitchen table. At times that anger is exploited by politicians to gin up votes along racial lines or to make up for a politician's own failings. And occasionally, it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour of American life occurs on Sunday morning. That --

(APPLAUSE)

...that anger is not always productive. Indeed, all too often, it distracts attention from solving real problems. It keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our own condition. It prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change, but the anger is real. It is powerful. And to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And still another poll that I'm going to share with you which has just come out. It's a CNN Public Opinion research poll. We'll have that for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Here is the other poll I was telling you I wanted to share with you. The question is, is Barack Obama tough enough? Americans asked that question responded this way, 80 percent said yes and 19 percent said no. Here is a comment that is coming in on Facebook from us. This is Max Pearly (ph) who is watching us now in regards to the speech to save his candidacy and why Obama addressed the recent criticisms and at the same time took up an issue McCain would not touch, race. This is the pinnacle of Obama's campaign. Very similar comments like those are coming into us, almost as if it is a bit of consensus forming going on. Here now, the final part of Barack Obama's speech on race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: This is where we are right now. It is a racial stalemate that we have been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle or with a single candidate. Particularly --

(APPLAUSE)

particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that in fact, we have no choice. We have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past.

It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances for better health care and better schools and better jobs to the larger aspirations of all Americans, the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling. the white man who has been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family and it means also taking full responsibility for our own lives by demanding more from our fathers and spending more time with our children and reading to them and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to the despair or cynicism. They must always believe --

(APPLAUSE)

-- they must always believe that they can right their own destiny. Ironically, this quintessentially American and yes, conservative notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons, but what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress had been made, as if this country, a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino, Asian, rich, poor, young and old is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

(APPLAUSE)

What we know, what we have seen is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope, the audacity to hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people, that the legacy of discrimination and current incidents of discrimination while less overt than in the past, that these things are real and must be addressed, not just with words, but with deeds, by investing in our schools, in our communities, by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system, by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams. That investing in the health, welfare and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

(APPLAUSE)

In the end then, what is called for is nothing more and nothing less than what all of the world's great religions demand, that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper, let us find that common stake we all have in one another and let the let our politics reflect that spirit, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: It was born in a hurricane. But it's become more of a firestorm these days with people talking about it, blogging about it, saying maybe it's the right course or the wrong course? Talking about doing the news the way we have been doing it, actually letting you share in the process, actually letting what you have to say go on the air or be seen on the air as we were just doing with that speech. We'll talk about that when we come back.

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SANCHEZ: This is coming into twitter.com. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That's the one that we're -- where we first started this on a weekend one day. We decided we'd just take the laptop out and we'd set it down there, and I would listen to what people were saying on twitter. Well, then came a hurricane in Texas. Watch this.

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SANCHEZ: I'm Rick Sanchez. I am in Morgan's Point, Texas. What you see behind me is Galveston Bay. Galveston Bay has been going up ever so slightly. I mentioned awhile ago that people were upset about this. Listen to this. This comes on twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn. This is just written to me moments ago, seconds ago. People with kids in the evacuation area do not, that, do not evacuate should be charged with child endangerment.

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SANCHEZ: Everyone started talking about it, the idea that we maybe were hitting on something, doing a newscast while you're actually talking to people immediately, live. And they're giving you their responses and giving you ideas and opinions about the news itself. Was it novel? I guess it was. Chris Hall, one of our producers, said this is maybe the thing we should do. Then Jon Klein (ph), the president of CNN said go for it. Maybe it will work. It seems to be working not only on the air in terms of the response that we've gotten from you, but also from people who have been noticing it and deciding to, well, brand it themselves like this.

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SANCHEZ: I'm Rick Sanchez. The market is tanking.

I'm looking over and oh, boy.

Oh, my God. Who in the hell where in the world, where in the heck.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

It is terrible.

Let's go ahead. Michael in the control room. If we can, Michael in the control room. Can go down Michael to our twitter board. Let's go over to twitter now, see if we can put the twitter board back up. If you happen to have an Internet close by. It's different, interactive. I've gotten a lot of tweets, as well.

We're going to check on some of the tweets, thousands, 15,000, 16,000, almost 15,000 people who are twitting with us. My twitter board is about to explode here. Let's go to my Facebook page, MySpace, Facebook, the Lehman fallout, the Lehman story. The next domino to fall. AIG, AIG. Who is AIG? AIG Watch this AIG, AIG, AIG says 123 raw girl. AIG, AIG, AIG.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: AIG.

SANCHEZ: Speaking of AIG, why is AIG so important? Right now, we're looking at the Dow. Whoops, wait right there. See it? Right about there.

A little while ago I looked just right where Susan Lisovicz's chest area is. It's up 28, just went back to 286. Will it go under 400? The market just topped 400. What's it at right now? Tell me in my ears. It's at 350 right now. Thanks Michael. That's a problem. That might be a problem. That's not good.

I've read a lot of Ronald Reagan's theories, very important announcement. From the Fed really just about any moment now. We're waiting and we're going to take a quick break now. Let's try and sneak a break in here. If we're in the break, we'll come out of it. Stand by. Here we go. We've just received the decision to not lower interest rates. Not, not, ixay (ph) nixay (ph). Where is this heading in? I don't know where to begin. What does that mean. What do you mean by that? What is going on? What's going on? What are the markets doing? Who are you talking about? I am totally confused by what you're saying.

We'll be back.

Here we are. We started the idea. We decided that we'd put the laptop out. That day we had 100 people who were responding and following us. I was so impressed. You want to see what the number is now? This thing's caught on. There it is, 39,241 followers and growing every single moment of every single day. All right. What you are saying about this phenomenon. You like it? You don't like it? You think we ought to improve it, change it? What do you think? It's about you. We call this a national conversation. And we'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: We welcome you back. I'm checking the responses and they're coming in in droves. First MySpace. Let's go there. Who is that, you Robert or John? Robert, move on in, baby. There it is. All you can do is present both sides of a story. There will always be people out there who believe what they believe. Even if you present them with truth and facts, they are the idiots. Nothing you can do about them. Just keep doing what you do. That's why we love you. Hey that's nice. (INAUDIBLE) that means kisses in Spanish by the way.

Let's go over to the twitter board. I asked the question, what do you all think of the way we're doing this news now by basically making it a little more interactive. These are the responses that we're getting from you. Ready? No, that's not where I wanted to be. I'm skipping down, skipping up. We got a hiccup. I think this is the greatest thing. This may be the future of the news media. Yes, wish more of other CNN shows did it, too. Very cool. I love it. Gylon Jackson seems to think so, (INAUDIBLE) experiment. This is great to let others know how we feel. This is all good so far. Yes, it works and I like the dimension of viewer participation that it adds.

The interaction of news with social networking makes staying on top of current events fun. Thank you! That's neat because that's kind of part of the reason that we've decided to do this all along. So many people were saying I'd love to watch CNN but I can get everything on my laptop or on my computer. Here's a chance to integrate both. That's part of the reason that we've been doing that and going to continue to do it this year.

One final one. We got time, let's do it. This is on Facebook. And it's Edwin who's writing to us. He says, you know, it was his calm approach referring to Obama that helped convey his perspective on the subject of race. If the words had been pitted in anger and bitterness, the speech would have been a failure. It proves how you say things is so important to get your views across.

Boy, what a great year. It's going to be another good one this year, as well. Thanks so much for being with us. Let us know what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong.

And here now, "THE SITUATION ROOM" with my fav, Suzanne Malveaux.