Remarks by D. Brent Hardt, Chargé d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean

08-18-2009

Remarks by D. Brent Hardt, Chargé d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, August 4, 2009

Acting Governor General Francis and Mrs. Francis,
Prime Minister The Honorable Baldwin Spencer,
Honorable Ministers,
Members of Parliament,
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and Councilwoman Una Clarke,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the great privilege to be here today to represent President Barack Obama and to convey to the Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda his heartfelt thanks for the distinction you bestow on him in renaming Antigua's highest peak in his honor. 

An American President receives many gifts, awards, and honors in the course of his or her presidency, but I can say with no exaggeration that it is not every day a president has a mountain named after him! 

The Government of Antigua's decision to honor our President in this way speaks volumes to the close relationship that the United States enjoys with Antigua and Barbuda.  It is a much appreciated tribute to a man who will forever hold a unique place in American history.

Our President has brought to his office an extraordinary life story and a story that is also quintessentially American.   His father was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his father. 

His mother grew up in small-town Kansas where her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army.  

President Obama’s parents met at the University of Hawaii, where his mother was a student and his father had won a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America.    
     
The future President would grow up in Hawaii and Indonesia, graduating from Columbia University in 1983 and later earning a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American to head the Harvard Law Review.  

With this recognition in hand, the President could have had any job he wanted, but he decided to set out for Chicago to work as a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor areas.  He eventually decided that real change would require changes in laws and politics, so he entered politics, winning election to the Illinois State Senate and, in 2004, to the United States Senate.

Throughout his life, he has shown a strong desire to overcome divisions and bring our country together.  It was this vision that first brought Barack Obama to national prominence at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 when he proclaimed: 

“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America.  There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America – there's the United States of America."

Instead, President Obama introduced what he termed “the politics of hope.”  This hope, he explained, was “the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs.  The hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores. . . Hope in the face of difficulty.  Hope in the face of uncertainty.  The audacity of hope!  In the end,” he concluded, “that is God’s greatest gift to us” and “the bedrock” of our nation:  “A belief that there are better days ahead” and that “as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices and meet the challenges that face us.”  

And I hope you will agree with me that, in his first months in office, President Obama has carried his passion to unite people and to engage the world into his leadership of the United States and into the direction he has charted for America's relations with the rest of the world.  He has taken on the challenges facing our nation and the world and set a creative yet steady course towards prosperity, security, and justice.

In April, at the Summit of the Americas, he reached out to our friends and neighbors in the Western Hemisphere and the CARICOM region, pledging to work more closely with our hemispheric partners to address your security and development priorities.  He announced additional support to combat our shared concerns about crime and drugs, proposed new avenues for partnership on renewable energy, and announced plans for a micro-enterprise fund for the region. 

Closer to home for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, President Obama is ensuring that we maintain our strong traditional commitment to your country.  The recent visit of the U.S. Navy Medical Ship, the USNS Comfort is perhaps the most tangible sign of our continuing commitment.  This extraordinary ship and its dedicated crew treated or provided medical services for nearly one-third of all Antiguans and Barbudans, 

Under President Obama's leadership, we continue to enjoy close cooperative relationships between our law enforcement agencies, providing extensive training for Antigua and Barbuda’s law enforcement and security personnel through partnerships with the FBI, Treasury, DEA and the U.S. Southern Command.  To deepen and expand these ties, President Obama is developing a multi-year Caribbean Basin Security Initiative in close consultation with our Caribbean partners.  We will be meeting in Barbados next week to advance preparations for this major initiative.

Already, we have made a commitment to establish a regional cyber forensics laboratory in Antigua, and have constructed a Coast Guard base in English Harbor that we hope to be able to dedicate as soon as the Government is able to complete the final preparatory work to make the facility operational.
 
Our Peace Corps volunteers have continued their tradition of exemplary service in Antigua and Barbuda, working in small business development, information technology, and community development.  USAID has partnered with your Customs Department to modernize the Customs service to facilitate trade and development.  More recently, USAID has been working to develop a specially tailored program to address the pressing needs of at-risk youth in Antigua.  In the months ahead, Antigua and Barbuda will also benefit from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, as we launch our first ever regional PEPFAR program in the Caribbean – a multi-year, multi-million dollar program.

American-supported universities and charities are active in Antigua, and American-owned businesses continue to be a part of your economic fabric.  The presence of a U.S. consular agency in Antigua is another example of our commitment to support the many American citizens who visit and live in Antigua each year.

So it is perhaps not surprising that I should be here today on behalf of President Obama to thank the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda for bestowing this singular honor upon our nation's first African-American president. 

President Obama personifies in many ways our strong historical ties and our continued common goals: for security and prosperity for both our countries and for respect for human rights and the rule of law in our countries and in the world beyond our borders. 

On behalf of President Obama, thank you once again for your generous tribute.  May it always stand as a reminder of the close ties that bind our nations and of the heights we can reach when we work together.

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