World of Shareware - Software Farm 2/wosw_2.zip/wosw_2/GENERAL/INAUGURA.ZIP/INAUGURA.TXT

Text File | 1993-01-20 | 10KB | 182 lines

    Following is the text of President Clinton's Inaugural
 Address as delivered before the US Capitol, Wed, Jan 20:
    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.
    END ADDRESS AS DELIVERED