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Barack Obama Inauguration Speech Page #3
- Year:
- 2009
- 42 Views
The time has come to
reaffirm our enduring spirit,
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
measure of happiness.
In reaffirming
the greatness of our nation,
we understand
that greatness is never a given.
It must be earned.
one of short-cuts 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
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 Sanh.
Time and again, these
men and women struggled
and sacrificed and worked
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
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
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
a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether
the market is a force for good or ill.
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,
between our safety and our ideals.
Our Founding Fathers...
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
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
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,
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