I speak from my own heart, and the heart of my country, the deep concern
we have for those who suffer, and those who sorrow.
I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymen to
uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. To that oath I
now add this sacred commitment: I shall consecrate my office, my
energies, and all the wisdom I can summon, to the cause of peace among
nations.
Let this message be heard by strong and weak alike:
The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people, but the
peace that comes "with healing in its wings"; with compassion for those
who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposed us;
with the opportunity for all the peoples of this earth to choose their
own destiny.
Only a few short weeks ago, we shared the glory of man's first sight of
the world as God sees it, as a single sphere reflecting light in the
darkness.
As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface on Christmas
Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth--and in that voice so clear
across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessing on its
goodness.
In that moment, their view from the moon moved poet Archibald MacLeish
to write:
"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that
eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the
earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal
cold--brothers who know now they are truly brothers."
In that moment of surpassing technological triumph, men turned their
thoughts toward home and humanity--seeing in that far perspective that
man's destiny on earth is not divisible; telling us that however far we
reach into the cosmos, our destiny lies not in the stars but on Earth
itself, in our own hands, in our own hearts.
We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But as our eyes
catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse the
remaining dark. Let us gather the light.
Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of
opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness--and,
"riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in our faith,
steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers; but sustained by our
confidence in the will of God and the promise of man.
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