In a concession to the world that the United States isn’t perfect, President Obama invoked the rioting in Ferguson, Mo. this summer during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
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“I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals — that America has plenty of problems within its own borders. This is true,” the president said. “In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri, where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.”
The Middle Eastern “instability” of which Obama spoke includes Hamas’ armed conflict with Israel, and the Islamic State’s mass killings and beheading of journalists as it runs roughshod over Iraqi and Syrian territory.
“But we welcome the scrutiny of the world,” the president continued, “because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect.”
