As many of you know, I like to write about Barack Obama's speeches. I have listened to almost every major speech he has given over the course of his campaign. And I know something particular about the key to their powerful narrative structure. Almost all of his major speeches contain three elements - the Story of Self, the Story of Us and the Story of Now.
Why do I know this? In Northern California and many other places, we use Obama's 2004 Convention Address as part of our "Camp Obama" organizer training for volunteers, to show how storytelling can be a powerful motivator. We show video of the speech and talk about how these three stories are embedded in the text. Then we talk about why those particular stories are such effective political language, and how to tell stories in a way that mobilizes people to act. Marshall Ganz, the former United Farm Workers organizer who is now a noted social movements scholar, developed this training. Here is how he described it during Camp Obama training in Georgia :
One final audience member gave [Ganz] the answer that perfectly set up the rest of the weekend: "I get hope from stories. Obama's story that he told at the convention--that gave me hope."
"Yes! 'To inspire'--it literally means to breathe life into each other," Ganz replied, "And we can do that by telling our stories to each other. That's what Barack did for us when he told his story. And that's what we can do for others when we tell them our stories."
The next morning, Ganz followed up by playing a video of the first seven minutes of Obama's famous 2004 speech, and then dissected those seven minutes into three parts. First came the "story of self," Obama's challenges and choices. Second came the "story of us," when Obama pivoted to connect his own story with the challenges and choices that now face Americans as a people. Finally there was the "story of now," where Obama laid out what we have do to make the world a better place right now.
Today in his speech in Berlin, Barack Obama's Story of Self focused on his father's dream to come to America, and about what America stands for - freedom and opportunity:
I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning – his dream – required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.
In telling his Story of Us, Obama told Berliners part of their story - the story of the Berlin airlift. It is an heroic story, but in Obama's telling, it especially about the partnership between Germany and the United States, and the valiant determination of the individuals of both nations to face down fear and privation together. It is a Story of Us - not just Obama and his listeners, but two nations who share a common story. And by the end, it is a Story of Us that encompasses the entire world:
Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.
On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.
This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.
The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.
And that’s when the airlift began – when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.
The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.
But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won…The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty…People of the world, look at Berlin!”
People of the world – look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.
Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.
Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.
People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.
Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall – a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope – walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.
Telling a story about Berlin, about a city that overcame war, economic ruin and decades of division, is a story that inspires us all. We face grave challenges, yet we see it is possible to surmount them. Most importantly, to succeed we must work together - our lives are interwoven. It is a story of Us.
Then Obama moves to the Story of Now - the dangers we face and why we must act now in response:
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers – dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.
The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.
As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.
In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we’re honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.
"We cannot afford to be divided." This moment is too important to waste. Failure to act could have devastating consequences. Then Obama expands on the Story of Now, describing a vision for cooperation between the United States and Europe that can lead not just to greater peace and prosperity, but to greater justice, freedom and openness around the world. From creating a secure and strong nation in Afghanistan, to eliminating nuclear weapons, to stopping global warming, he lays out serious challenges.
And then he makes his call for the West to take on poverty, human rights abuses across the globe, and injustice within our own nations. Now is the time:
And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust – not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.
Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words “never again” in Darfur?
Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?
People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.
John McCain does not do this. He simply does not talk about a world where our nation's security and economic growth are intertwined with the decisions of people around the world, even though in an era of globalization that is surely true. He does not understand that there is a Story of Us. And he knows nothing of the Story of Now, content to forget Afghanistan and ignore the economy, and blind to the global concerns Obama spoke of today.
Obama's closing was an unabashed embrace of American values, but also a claiming of them for everyone. His Story of Self as an American become a story of Us as a nation, and a greater Story of Us as a global community.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
Standing in a city literally divided by walls, Barack Obama told us stories about who we are and who we can be. Today, 200,000+ who cheered his words, who waved American flags, who chanted USA told us they are ready to heal the divide wrought by the last eight years. That's a good thing, because it will take that kind of a shared commitment to do what needs to be done:
People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.
So, no. I disagree. This is not a speech McCain could ever give. And not just because he is teleprompter-challenged or completely uninspiring. Because he doesn't believe is the Story of Us or the Story of Now. And we can't afford that any longer.
Disclaimer: I am a volunteer with the Obama campaign in California. When I write here I speak for myself and not for the campaign, who does not vet or influence my diaries in any way. The ideas, and all the words in them, are my own.
