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 are 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 pursue
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,
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. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this
storm.
God bless you all, and God bless America.
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