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There are moments -- increasingly rare in modern political domains -- when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does more than balm the current political wound, he or she illuminates larger, troubling issues. Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does presidential candidate John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state.

On Sept. 12, 1960, Kennedy gave a major speech in Houston, Texas to a group of Protestant ministers, on the issue of his religion. At the time, many Protestants questioned whether Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith would allow him to make important national decisions as President of the United States, independent of the Catholic Church.

He said "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office".

On Tuesday this week, Senator Barack Obama, Democratic candidate for President of the United States, delivered a major speech addressing the issues of race and religion, two of the most toxic subjects in politics (another being language). He drew a line between religious connection to his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his political connection to the Reverend. The distinction was significant after seven years of a president (Bush) who worked to blur the line between church and state.

Senator Obama acknowledged his strong ties to the Reverend Wright. He embraced him as the man "who helped introduce me to my Christian faith," and said that "as imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me." Wisely, he did not claim to be unaware of Mr. Wright's radicalism or bitterness.

Mr. Obama spoke of the United States' ugly racial history, which started with slavery and continues today in racial segregation, school achievement gaps and discrimination in everything from banking and credit services to law enforcement.

Against this backdrop, Obama said, he could not repudiate his pastor. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," he said. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother". That woman, whom he loves deeply, "once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street" and more than once "uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

In his Philadelphia speech, Obama reminded people that 221 years ago "in a hall still standing across the street" a group of men gathered to declare American independence with these simple words "We the people, in order to form a perfect union . . . " He also reminded his audience that "the document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately remained unfinished. It was stained by his "nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years".

Barack Obama tells the American people "we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together -- unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction -- towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren".

Contrast these defining and forward looking speeches by Kennedy and Obama with Kelly Lamrock's regressive announcement that he is cancelling Early French Immersion in Canada's only "officially bilingual" province. In New Brunswick, most of us may look the same but clearly we follow different paths when it comes to language. "Intensive French" as a replacement for the existing core program appears to make a lot of sense. Sacrificing Early Immersion to the program does not.

Obama talks about solving problems by working together. Mr. Lamrock appears to suggest it is better to go it alone. In my view, this province will never be bilingual unless we work together to meet the challenges of second language learning.

* W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com