Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President
Bush, President Clinton, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow
citizens:
On this day, prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the
durable wisdom of our Constitution, and recall the deep commitments that
unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of
the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the
oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.
At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use,
but by the history we have seen together. For a half century, America
defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the
shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose,
years of sabbatical--and then there came a day of fire.
We have seen our vulnerability--and we have seen its deepest source.
For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment
and tyranny--prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse
murder--violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and
cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There
is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and
resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes
of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.
We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival
of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty
in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of
freedom in all the world.
America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the
day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this
earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear
the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we
have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is
fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these
ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable
achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our
nation's security, and the calling of our time.
So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth
of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture,
with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves
and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature,
must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule
of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation
finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and
traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own
style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others
find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.
The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of
generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it.
America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed,
America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in
freedom's cause.
My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against
further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test
America's resolve, and have found it firm.
We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every
nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and
freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed
dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and
servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of
bullies.
We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that
success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own
people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet
rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are
secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the
long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human
rights without human liberty.
Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty--though this
time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom
ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should
never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call
of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the
existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility
of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.
Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world:
All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States
will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you
stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.
Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know:
America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free
country.
The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham
Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."
The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To
serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of
progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.
And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your
friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help.
Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The
concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to
our enemies' defeat.
Today, I also speak anew to my fellow citizens:
From all of you, I have asked patience in the hard task of securing
America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has
accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be
dishonorable to abandon. Yet because we have acted in the great
liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved
their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By
our efforts, we have lit a fire as well--a fire in the minds of men. It
warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress,
and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners
of our world.
A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause--in
the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy...the idealistic work of
helping raise up free governments...the dangerous and necessary work of
fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in
deaths that honored their whole lives--and we will always honor their
names and their sacrifice.
All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time.
I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You
have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers.
You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage
triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants,
larger than yourself--and in your days you will add not just to the
wealth of our country, but to its character.
America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential
work at home--the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving
toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of
liberty.
In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of
economic independence, instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence.
This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead
Act, the Social Security Act, and the G.I. Bill of Rights. And now we
will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the
needs of our time. To give every American a stake in the promise and
future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our
schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of
homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance--preparing
our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every
citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow
Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more
prosperous and just and equal.
In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private
character--on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of
conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the
governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families,
supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national
life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the
Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in
every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came
before--ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday,
today, and forever.
In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by
service, and mercy, and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not
mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women
who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at
our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember
that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the
habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the
baggage of bigotry at the same time.
From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication,
the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint
of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did
our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring
credit to that cause?
These questions that judge us also unite us, because Americans of every
party and background, Americans by choice and by birth, are bound to one
another in the cause of freedom. We have known divisions, which must
be healed to move forward in great purposes--and I will strive in good
faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt
the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack,
and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can
feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good, and the
victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice,
and the captives are set free.
We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of
freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it
is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves
a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence
because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark
places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order
of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based
on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner
"Freedom Now"--they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be
fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has
a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.
When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the
Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said, "It rang as if
it meant something." In our time it means something still. America, in
this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to
all the inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength--tested, but not
weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of
freedom.
May God bless you, and may He watch over the United States of America.
*****
Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as
prepared for delivery and released by the Presidential Inaugural
Committee.
OBAMA: My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust
you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I
thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the
generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words
have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters
of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds
and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply
because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we
the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and
true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is
at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our
economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility
on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard
choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs
shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools
fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use
energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics.
Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across
our land -- a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and
that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are
serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short
span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of
purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and
false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too
long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has
come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our
enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that
precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation:
the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a
chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness
is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of
shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the
faint-hearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only
the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers,
the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated but more often men
and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long,
rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across
oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash
of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg;
Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked
till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw
America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than
all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous,
powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when
this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and
services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last
year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat,
of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions --
that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up,
dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the
economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to
create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build
the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed
our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its
rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's
quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and
the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform
our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new
age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions -- who
suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their
memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has
already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is
joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted
beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us
for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether
our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether
it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a
retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move
forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who
manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely,
reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because
only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their
government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or
ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but
this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can
spin out of control -- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it
favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always
depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the
reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every
willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route
to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our
safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can
scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the
rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those
ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for
expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are
watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my
father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every
man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that
we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not
just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring
convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor
does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power
grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness
of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of
humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more,
we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort -- even
greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to
responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in
Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly
to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming
planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in
its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing
terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is
stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat
you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and
non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from
every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of
civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger
and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall
someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the
world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that
America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest
and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow
conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West -- know that your
people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To
those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing
of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we
will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make
your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies
and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy
relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to
suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources
without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change
with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble
gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off
deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today,
just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the
ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty,
but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find
meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment --
a moment that will define a generation -- it is precisely this spirit
that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith
and determination of the American people upon which this nation
relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break,
the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a
friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the
firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a
parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may
be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and
honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and
patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have
been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is
demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is
a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every
American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world,
duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in
the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so
defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on
us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women
and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration
across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty
years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand
before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we
have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months,
a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an
icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow
was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution
was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read
to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter,
when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the
country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our
hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue,
let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may
come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested
we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we
falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we
carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to
future generations.
*****