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.
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 defending
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