[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]

From the 2001 Presidential Documents Online via GPO Access [frwais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:pd29ja01_txt-2]

[Page 209-211]

Monday, January 29, 2001

Volume 37--Number 4

Pages 209-230

Week Ending Friday, January 26, 2001

Inaugural Address

January 20, 2001

Thank you, all. Chief Justice Rehnquist, President Carter, President

Bush, President Clinton, distinguished guests, and my fellow citizens.

The peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our

country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new

beginnings.

As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our Nation,

and I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and

ended with grace.

I am honored and humbled to stand here where so many of America's

leaders have come before me, and so many will follow. We have a place,

all of us, in a long story, a story we continue but whose end we will

not see. It is a story of a new world that became a friend and liberator

of the old, the story of a slave-holding society that became a servant

of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but

not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

It is the American story, a story of flawed and fallible people

united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest

of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs,

that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever

born.

Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our

laws. And though our Nation has sometimes halted and sometimes delayed,

we must follow no other course.

Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and

democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind,

taking root in many nations. Our democratic faith is more than the creed

of our country. It is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry

but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. Even after nearly 225

years, we have a long way yet to travel.

While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even

the justice of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans are

limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of

their birth. And sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we

share a continent but not a country. We do not accept this, and we will

not allow it.

Our unity, our Union, is a serious work of leaders and citizens and

every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a

single nation of justice and opportunity. I know this is in our reach

because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves, who creates us

equal, in His image, and we are confident in principles that unite and

lead us onward.

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are

bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our

interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must

be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every

immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less,

American.

Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our Nation's promise

through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America at its

best matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A

civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair

dealing and forgiveness.

Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty

because in a time of peace the stakes of our debates appear small. But

the stakes for America are never small. If our country does not lead the

cause of freedom, it will not be led. If we do not turn the hearts of

children toward knowledge and character, we will lose their gifts and

undermine their idealism. If we permit our economy to drift and decline,

the vulnerable will suffer most.

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We must live up to the calling we share. Civility is not a tactic or

a sentiment; it is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of

community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to

shared accomplishment.

America at its best is also courageous. Our national courage has

been clear in times of depression and war, when defeating common dangers

defined our common good. Now we must choose if the example of our

fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage

in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on

to future generations.

Together we will reclaim America's schools before ignorance and

apathy claim more young lives. We will reform Social Security and

Medicare, sparing our children from struggles we have the power to

prevent. And we will reduce taxes to recover the momentum of our economy

and reward the effort and enterprise of working Americans.

We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite

challenge. We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new

century is spared new horrors. The enemies of liberty and our country

should make no mistake: America remains engaged in the world, by history

and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom.

We will defend our allies and our interests. We will show purpose

without arrogance. We will meet aggression and bad faith with resolve

and strength. And to all nations, we will speak for the values that gave

our Nation birth.

America at its best is compassionate. In the quiet of American

conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our

Nation's promise. And whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that

children at risk are not at fault.

Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God; they are failures of

love. And the proliferation of prisons, however necessary, is no

substitute for hope and order in our souls. Where there is suffering,

there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers; they are citizens--

not problems but priorities. And all of us are diminished when any are

hopeless.

Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public

health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet, compassion is the work

of a nation, not just a government. And some needs and hurts are so deep

they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church

and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity,

and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws.

Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty. But we can

listen to those who do. And I can pledge our Nation to a goal: When we

see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to

the other side.

America at its best is a place where personal responsibility is

valued and expected. Encouraging responsibility is not a search for

scapegoats; it is a call to conscience. And though it requires

sacrifice, it brings a deeper fulfillment. We find the fullness of life

not only in options but in commitments. And we find that children and

community are the commitments that set us free.

Our public interest depends on private character, on civic duty and

family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted, unhonored acts of

decency, which give direction to our freedom.

Sometimes in life we're called to do great things. But as a saint of

our times has said, ``Every day we are called to do small things with

great love.'' The most important tasks of a democracy are done by

everyone.

I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions

with civility, to serve the public interest with courage, to speak for

greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to

live it, as well. In all these ways, I will bring the values of our

history to the care of our times.

What you do is as important as anything Government does. I ask you

to seek a common good beyond your comfort, to defend needed reforms

against easy attacks, to serve your Nation, beginning with your

neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: Citizens, not spectators; citizens,

not subjects; responsible citizens building communities of service and a

nation of character.

Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe

in ourselves

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but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of

citizenship is missing, no Government program can replace it. When this

spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman

John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson, ``We know the race is not to the

swift, nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in

the whirlwind and directs this storm?''

Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration.

The years and changes accumulate, but the themes of this day, he would

know: our Nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of

dignity.

We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity with his

purpose. Yet, his purpose is achieved in our duty. And our duty is

fulfilled in service to one another. Never tiring, never yielding, never

finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just

and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life. This

work continues, the story goes on, and an angel still rides in the

whirlwind and directs this storm.

God bless you all, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. at the West Front of the

Capitol. Prior to the address, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist

administered the oath of office.