Obama to Stress Responsibility at NAACP's 100th Anniversary
President is expected to talk about education and parents' responsibility.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2009— -- In themes similar to campaign trail rhetoric, President Obama will speak about personal responsibility tonight when he addresses the NAACP's 100th anniversary dinner in New York City.
White House aides say the president's remarks in front of the nation's oldest civil rights organization will focus on the need to recapture the same sense of responsibility in Washington and in one's personal life that made the civil rights movement a success.
The president will touch on education and the need for better standards in schools, excellent teachers, and parents doing their part to ensure that all children can succeed, no matter what their race, faith or station in life, White House aides say.
In remarks at the NAACP annual conference in the height of the campaign last year, then-Sen. Obama similarly pitched a message of tough love and personal responsibility.
"I know there's some who've been saying I've been too tough talking about responsibility. NAACP, I'm here to report, I'm not gonna stop talking about it," Obama said before the dinner in Cincinnati in July 2008.
"No matter how much money we invest in our communities, how many 10-point plans we propose, how many government programs we launch -- none of it will make a difference, at least not enough of a difference, if we also at the same time don't seize more responsibility in our own lives. Dr. King understood this, Dr. King talked about it's not an either or proposition, it's a both and proposition. We need societal responsibility and we need individual responsibility. We need politicians doing what they're supposed to do and CEO's doing what they're supposed to do, and we need parents doing what they're supposed to do."
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