My
fellow citizens:
Today
we celebrate the mystery of American renewal.
This
ceremony is held in the depth of winter. But, by the words
we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the
spring.
A
spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy, that brings
forth the vision and courage to reinvent America.
When
our founders boldly declared America's independence to the
world and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew that
America, to endure, would have to change.
Not
change for change's sake, but change to preserve America's
ideals life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Though
we march to the music of our time, our mission is
timeless.
Each
generation of Americans must define what it means to be an
American.
On
behalf of our nation, I salute my predecessor, President
Bush, for his half-century of service to America.
And
I thank the millions of men and women whose steadfastness
and sacrifice triumphed over Depression, fascism and
Communism.
Today,
a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes
new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of
freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new
plagues.
Raised
in unrivaled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is
still the world's strongest, but is weakened by business
failures, stagnant wages, increasing inequality, and deep
divisions among our people.
When
George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to
uphold, news traveled slowly across the land by horseback
and across the ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds
of this ceremony are broadcast instantaneously to billions
around the world.
Communications
and commerce are global; investment is mobile; technology
is almost magical; and ambition for a better life is now
universal. We earn our livelihood in peaceful competition
with people all across the earth.
Profound
and powerful forces are shaking and remaking our world,
and the urgent question of our time is whether we can make
change our friend and not our enemy.
This
new world has already enriched the lives of millions of
Americans who are able to compete and win in it. But when
most people are working harder for less; when others
cannot work at all; when the cost of health care
devastates families and threatens to bankrupt many of our
enterprises, great and small; when fear of crime robs
law-abiding citizens of their freedom; and when millions
of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are
calling them to lead we have not made change our friend.
We
know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps.
But we have not done so. Instead, we have drifted, and
that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our
economy, and shaken our confidence.
Though
our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. And
Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful
people. We must bring to our task today the vision and
will of those who came before us.
From
our revolution, the Civil War, to the Great Depression to
the civil rights movement, our people have always mustered
the determination to construct from these crises the
pillars of our history.
Thomas
Jefferson believed that to preserve the very foundations
of our nation, we would need dramatic change from time to
time. Well, my fellow citizens, this is our time. Let us
embrace it.
Our
democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the
engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with
America that cannot be cured by what is right with
America.
And
so today, we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and
drift a new season of American renewal has begun.
To
renew America, we must be bold.
We
must do what no generation has had to do before. We must
invest more in our own people, in their jobs, in their
future, and at the same time cut our massive debt. And we
must do so in a world in which we must compete for every
opportunity.
It
will not be easy; it will require sacrifice. But it can be
done, and done fairly, not choosing sacrifice for its own
sake, but for our own sake. We must provide for our nation
the way a family provides for its children.
Our
Founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can
do no less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes
wander into sleep knows what posterity is. Posterity is
the world to come the world for whom we hold our ideals,
from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear
sacred responsibility.
We
must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to
all and demand responsibility from all.
It
is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for
nothing, from our government or from each other. Let us
all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and
our families but for our communities and our country.
To
renew America, we must revitalize our democracy.
This
beautiful capital, like every capital since the dawn of
civilization, is often a place of intrigue and
calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position and
worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up
and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and
sweat sends us here and pays our way.
Americans
deserve better, and in this city today, there are people
who want to do better. And so I say to all of us here, let
us resolve to reform our politics, so that power and
privilege no longer shout down the voice of the people.
Let us put aside personal advantage so that we can feel
the pain and see the promise of America.
Let
us resolve to make our government a place for what
Franklin Roosevelt called "bold, persistent
experimentation," a government for our tomorrows, not
our yesterdays.
Let
us give this capital back to the people to whom it
belongs.
To
renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well at
home. There is no longer division between what is foreign
and what is domestic the world economy, the world
environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world arms
race they affect us all.
Today,
as an old order passes, the new world is more free but
less stable. Communism's collapse has called forth old
animosities and new dangers. Clearly America must continue
to lead the world we did so much to make.
While
America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the
challenges, nor fail to seize the opportunities, of this
new world. Together with our friends and allies, we will
work to shape change, lest it engulf us.
When
our vital interests are challenged, or the will and
conscience of the international community is defied, we
will act with peaceful diplomacy when ever possible,
with force when necessary. The brave Americans serving our
nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia, and wherever
else they stand are testament to our resolve.
But
our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are
still new in many lands. Across the world, we see them
embraced and we rejoice. Our hopes, our hearts, our
hands, are with those on every continent who are building
democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause.
The
American people have summoned the change we celebrate
today. You have raised your voices in an unmistakable
chorus. You have cast your votes in historic numbers. And
you have changed the face of Congress, the presidency and
the political process itself. Yes, you, my fellow
Americans have forced the spring. Now, we must do the work
the season demands.
To
that work I now turn, with all the authority of my office.
I ask the Congress to join with me. But no president, no
Congress, no government, can undertake this mission alone.
My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our
renewal. I challenge a new generation of young Americans
to a season of service to act on your idealism by
helping troubled children, keeping company with those in
need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much
to be done enough indeed for millions of others who are
still young in spirit to give of themselves in service,
too.
In
serving, we recognize a simple but powerful truth we
need each other. And we must care for one another. Today,
we do more than celebrate America; we rededicate ourselves
to the very idea of America.
An
idea born in revolution and renewed through 2 centuries of
challenge. An idea tempered by the knowledge that, but for
fate, we the fortunate and the unfortunate might have
been each other. An idea ennobled by the faith that our
nation can summon from its myriad diversity the deepest
measure of unity. An idea infused with the conviction that
America's long heroic journey must go forever upward.
And
so, my fellow Americans, at the edge of the 21st century,
let us begin with energy and hope, with faith and
discipline, and let us work until our work is done. The
scripture says, "And let us not be weary in
well-doing, for in due season, we shall reap, if we faint
not."
From
this joyful mountaintop of celebration, we hear a call to
service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets. We have
changed the guard. And now, each in our way, and with
God's help, we must answer the call.
Thank
you and God bless you all.
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