Mr.
Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Quayle,
Senator Mitchell, Speaker Wright, Senator Dole,
Congressman Michel, and fellow citizens, neighbors, and
friends:
There
is a man here who has earned a lasting place in our hearts
and in our history. President Reagan, on behalf of our
Nation, I thank you for the wonderful things that you have
done for America.
I
have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George
Washington 200 years ago, and the Bible on which I placed
my hand is the Bible on which he placed his. It is right
that the memory of Washington be with us today, not only
because this is our Bicentennial Inauguration, but because
Washington remains the Father of our Country. And he
would, I think, be gladdened by this day; for today is the
concrete expression of a stunning fact: our continuity
these 200 years since our government began.
We
meet on democracy's front porch, a good place to talk as
neighbors and as friends. For this is a day when our
nation is made whole, when our differences, for a moment,
are suspended.
And
my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow
your heads:
Heavenly
Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love.
Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and
the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make
us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your
will, and write on our hearts these words: "Use power
to help people." For we are given power not to
advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the
world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and
it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen.
I
come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich
with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but
we can make it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a
world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's
heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over.
The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away
like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new breeze
is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready
to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new
action to be taken. There are times when the future seems
thick as a fog; you sit and wait, hoping the mists will
lift and reveal the right path. But this is a time when
the future seems a door you can walk right through into a
room called tomorrow.
Great
nations of the world are moving toward democracy through
the door to freedom. Men and women of the world move
toward free markets through the door to prosperity. The
people of the world agitate for free expression and free
thought through the door to the moral and intellectual
satisfactions that only liberty allows.
We
know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right:
Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and
prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets,
free speech, free elections, and the exercise of free will
unhampered by the state.
For
the first time in this century, for the first time in
perhaps all history, man does not have to invent a system
by which to live. We don't have to talk late into the
night about which form of government is better. We don't
have to wrest justice from the kings. We only have to
summon it from within ourselves. We must act on what we
know. I take as my guide the hope of a saint: In crucial
things, unity; in important things, diversity; in all
things, generosity.
America
today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place
we cannot help but love. We know in our hearts, not loudly
and proudly, but as a simple fact, that this country has
meaning beyond what we see, and that our strength is a
force for good. But have we changed as a nation even in
our time? Are we enthralled with material things, less
appreciative of the nobility of work and sacrifice?
My
friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are
not the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what
matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a
bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give
them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a
loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his
neighborhood and town better than he found it. What do we
want the men and women who work with us to say when we are
no longer there? That we were more driven to succeed than
anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick
child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to
trade a word of friendship?
No
President, no government, can teach us to remember what is
best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to
lead this government can help make a difference; if he can
celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made not
of gold and silk, but of better hearts and finer souls; if
he can do these things, then he must.
America
is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high
moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today.
It is to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler
the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do.
There are the homeless, lost and roaming. There are the
children who have nothing, no love, no normalcy. There are
those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to
whatever addiction drugs, welfare, the demoralization
that rules the slums. There is crime to be conquered, the
rough crime of the streets. There are young women to be
helped who are about to become mothers of children they
can't care for and might not love. They need our care, our
guidance, and our education, though we bless them for
choosing life.
The
old solution, the old way, was to think that public money
alone could end these problems. But we have learned that
is not so. And in any case, our funds are low. We have a
deficit to bring down. We have more will than wallet; but
will is what we need. We will make the hard choices,
looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it
differently, making our decisions based on honest need and
prudent safety. And then we will do the wisest thing of
all: We will turn to the only resource we have that in
times of need always grows the goodness and the courage
of the American people.
I
am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of others, a
new activism, hands-on and involved, that gets the job
done. We must bring in the generations, harnessing the
unused talent of the elderly and the unfocused energy of
the young. For not only leadership is passed from
generation to generation, but so is stewardship. And the
generation born after the Second World War has come of
age.
I
have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the
community organizations that are spread like stars
throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in
hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led,
rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the
Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs
that are the brighter points of light, and I will ask
every member of my government to become involved. The old
ideas are new again because they are not old, they are
timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism
that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.
We
need a new engagement, too, between the Executive and the
Congress. The challenges before us will be thrashed out
with the House and the Senate. We must bring the Federal
budget into balance. And we must ensure that America
stands before the world united, strong, at peace, and
fiscally sound. But, of course, things may be difficult.
We need compromise; we have had dissension. We need
harmony; we have had a chorus of discordant voices.
For
Congress, too, has changed in our time. There has grown a
certain divisiveness. We have seen the hard looks and
heard the statements in which not each other's ideas are
challenged, but each other's motives. And our great
parties have too often been far apart and untrusting of
each other. It has been this way since Vietnam. That war
cleaves us still. But, friends, that war began in earnest
a quarter of a century ago; and surely the statute of
limitations has been reached. This is a fact: The final
lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can long afford
to be sundered by a memory. A new breeze is blowing, and
the old bipartisanship must be made new again.
To
my friends and yes, I do mean friends in the loyal
opposition and yes, I mean loyal: I put out my hand. I
am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker. I am putting
out my hand to you, Mr. Majority Leader. For this is the
thing: This is the age of the offered hand. We can't turn
back clocks, and I don't want to. But when our fathers
were young, Mr. Speaker, our differences ended at the
water's edge. And we don't wish to turn back time, but
when our mothers were young, Mr. Majority Leader, the
Congress and the Executive were capable of working
together to produce a budget on which this nation could
live. Let us negotiate soon and hard. But in the end, let
us produce. The American people await action. They didn't
send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the
merely partisan. "In crucial things,
unity" and this, my friends, is crucial.
To
the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow:
We will stay strong to protect the peace. The
"offered hand" is a reluctant fist; but once
made, strong, and can be used with great effect. There are
today Americans who are held against their will in foreign
lands, and Americans who are unaccounted for. Assistance
can be shown here, and will be long remembered. Good will
begets good will. Good faith can be a spiral that
endlessly moves on.
Great
nations like great men must keep their word. When America
says something, America means it, whether a treaty or an
agreement or a vow made on marble steps. We will always
try to speak clearly, for candor is a compliment, but
subtlety, too, is good and has its place. While keeping
our alliances and friendships around the world strong,
ever strong, we will continue the new closeness with the
Soviet Union, consistent both with our security and with
progress. One might say that our new relationship in part
reflects the triumph of hope and strength over experience.
But hope is good, and so are strength and vigilance.
Here
today are tens of thousands of our citizens who feel the
understandable satisfaction of those who have taken part
in democracy and seen their hopes fulfilled. But my
thoughts have been turning the past few days to those who
would be watching at home, to an older fellow who will
throw a salute by himself when the flag goes by, and the
women who will tell her sons the words of the battle
hymns. I don't mean this to be sentimental. I mean that on
days like this, we remember that we are all part of a
continuum, inescapably connected by the ties that bind.
Our
children are watching in schools throughout our great
land. And to them I say, thank you for watching
democracy's big day. For democracy belongs to us all, and
freedom is like a beautiful kite that can go higher and
higher with the breeze. And to all I say: No matter what
your circumstances or where you are, you are part of this
day, you are part of the life of our great nation.
A
President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek a
window on men's souls. In fact, I yearn for a greater
tolerance, an easy-goingness about each other's attitudes
and way of life.
There
are few clear areas in which we as a society must rise up
united and express our intolerance. The most obvious now
is drugs. And when that first cocaine was smuggled in on a
ship, it may as well have been a deadly bacteria, so much
has it hurt the body, the soul of our country. And there
is much to be done and to be said, but take my word for
it: This scourge will stop.
And
so, there is much to do; and tomorrow the work begins. I
do not mistrust the future; I do not fear what is ahead.
For our problems are large, but our heart is larger. Our
challenges are great, but our will is greater. And if our
flaws are endless, God's love is truly boundless.
Some
see leadership as high drama, and the sound of trumpets
calling, and sometimes it is that. But I see history as a
book with many pages, and each day we fill a page with
acts of hopefulness and meaning. The new breeze blows, a
page turns, the story unfolds. And so today a chapter
begins, a small and stately story of unity, diversity, and
generosity shared, and written, together.
Thank
you. God bless you and God bless the United States of
America.
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