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Thank you!
Chief Justice Rehnquist, President Carter, President Bush,
President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens,
the peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet
common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions
and make new beginnings.
As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to
our nation.
And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with
spirit and ended with grace.
I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of
America's leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.
We have a place, all of us, in a long story -- a story we
continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of
a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old,
a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of
freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to
protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.
It is the American story -- a story of flawed and fallible
people, united across the generations by grand and enduring
ideals.
The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise
that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that
no insignificant person was ever born.
Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and
in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes halted, and
sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course.
Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom
and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed
upon the wind, taking root in many nations.
Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country,
it is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but
do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after
nearly 225 years, we have a long way yet to travel.
While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise,
even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions of some
Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice
and the circumstances of their birth. And sometimes our differences
run so deep, it seems we share a continent, but not a country.
We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. Our unity,
our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in
every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work
to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.
I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power
larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His image.
And we are confident in principles that unite and lead us
onward.
America has never been united by blood or birth or soil.
We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds,
lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to
be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles.
Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing
these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.
Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's
promise through civility, courage, compassion and character.
America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with
a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each
of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness.
Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty
because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear
small.
But the stakes for America are never small. If our country
does not lead the cause of freedom, it will not be led. If
we do not turn the hearts of children toward knowledge and
character, we will lose their gifts and undermine their idealism.
If we permit our economy to drift and decline, the vulnerable
will suffer most.
We must live up to the calling we share. Civility is not
a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust
over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment,
if we keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment.
America, at its best, is also courageous.
Our national courage has been clear in times of depression
and war, when defending common dangers defined our common
good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and
mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage
in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing
them on to future generations.
Together, we will reclaim America's schools, before ignorance
and apathy claim more young lives.
We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our
children from struggles we have the power to prevent. And
we will reduce taxes, to recover the momentum of our economy
and reward the effort and enterprise of working Americans.
We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness
invite challenge.
We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new
century is spared new horrors.
The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake:
America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice,
shaping a balance of power that favors freedom. We will defend
our allies and our interests. We will show purpose without
arrogance. We will meet aggression and bad faith with resolve
and strength. And to all nations, we will speak for the values
that gave our nation birth.
America, at its best, is compassionate. In the quiet of American
conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy
of our nation's promise.
And whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children
at risk are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse are not acts
of God, they are failures of love.
And the proliferation of prisons, however necessary, is no
substitute for hope and order in our souls.
Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need
are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities.
And all of us are diminished when any are hopeless.
Government has great responsibilities for public safety and
public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion
is the work of a nation, not just a government.
And some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond
to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity,
synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity,
and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our
laws.
Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but
we can listen to those who do.
And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded
traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other
side.
America, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility
is valued and expected.
Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats,
it is a call to conscience. And though it requires sacrifice,
it brings a deeper fulfillment. We find the fullness of life
not only in options, but in commitments. And we find that
children and community are the commitments that set us free.
Our public interest depends on private character, on civic
duty and family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted, unhonored
acts of decency which give direction to our freedom.
Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as
a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to
do small things with great love. The most important tasks
of a democracy are done by everyone.
I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions
with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage,
to speak for greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility
and try to live it as well.
In all these ways, I will bring the values of our history
to the care of our times.
What you do is as important as anything government does.
I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend
needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation,
beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: citizens,
not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens,
building communities of service and a nation of character.
Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because
we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond
ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no
government program can replace it. When this spirit is present,
no wrong can stand against it.
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia
statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: "We know
the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong.
Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs
this storm?"
Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration.
The years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day
he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its
simple dream of dignity.
We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity
with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty,
and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.
Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that
purpose today, to make our country more just and generous,
to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.
This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still
rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.
God bless you all, and God bless America.
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