Istand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trustyou have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. Ithank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as thegenerosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-fourAmericans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have beenspoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds andraging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simplybecause of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because Wethe People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, andtrue to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
Thatwe are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is atwar, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economyis badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on thepart of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices andprepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed;businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools failtoo many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we useenergy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
Theseare the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Lessmeasurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across ourland - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and thatthe next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to youthat the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they aremany. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But knowthis, America - they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
Onthis day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and falsepromises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too longhave strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but inthe words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our betterhistory; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passedon from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all areequal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their fullmeasure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of ournation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must beearned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling forless. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those whoprefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches andfame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers ofthings - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in theirlabor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperityand 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.
Timeand again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked tilltheir hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They sawAmerica as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greaterthan all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This isthe journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerfulnation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when thiscrisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and servicesno less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Ourcapacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, ofprotecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - thattime has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dustourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
Foreverywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economycalls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to createnew jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build theroads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed ourcommerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightfulplace, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's qualityand lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soilto fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform ourschools 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 somewho question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our systemcannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For theyhave forgotten what this country has already done; what free men andwomen can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, andnecessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is thatthe ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale politicalarguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. Thequestion we ask today is not whether our government is too big or toosmall, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at adecent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer isno, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollarswill be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and doour business in the light of day - because only then can we restore thevital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is thequestion before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Itspower to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but thiscrisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spinout of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favorsonly the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended notjust on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of ourprosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our commongood.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choicebetween our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced withperils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule oflaw and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood ofgenerations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not givethem up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples andgovernments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to thesmall village where my father was born: know that America is a friendof each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future ofpeace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recallthat earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just withmissiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does itentitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power growsthrough its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of ourcause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humilityand restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided bythese principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demandeven greater effort - even greater cooperation and understandingbetween nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people,and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends andformer foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, androll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize forour way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those whoseek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughteringinnocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot bebroken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For weknow that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We area nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - andnon-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn fromevery end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill ofcivil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter strongerand more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shallsomeday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as theworld grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and thatAmerica must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
Tothe Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interestand mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sowconflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that yourpeople will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. Tothose who cling to power through corruption and deceit and thesilencing 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.
Tothe people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to makeyour farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starvedbodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoyrelative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference tosuffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resourceswithout regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must changewith it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, weremember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this veryhour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have somethingto tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlingtonwhisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they areguardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit ofservice; a willingness to find meaning in something greater thanthemselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define ageneration - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
Foras much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faithand determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, theselflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see afriend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It isthe firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, butalso a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decidesour fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with whichwe meet them may be new. But those values upon which our successdepends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance andcuriosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These thingsare true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout ourhistory. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What isrequired of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, onthe part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, ournation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept butrather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing sosatisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving ourall 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.
Thisis the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women andchildren of every race and every faith can join in celebration acrossthis magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty yearsago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now standbefore you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this daywith remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In theyear of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band ofpatriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. Thecapital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stainedwith blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most indoubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to thepeople:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depthof winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that thecity and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet[it]."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in thiswinter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hopeand virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure whatstorms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when wewere tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turnback nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God'sgrace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom anddelivered it safely to future generations. 作者: lloydli 时间: 2009-1-20 20:19
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