Bill Clinton Inaugural (1993)
My fellow citizens, today we celebrate
the mystery of American renewal. This ceremony is
held in the depth of winter, but by the words we speak
and the faces we show the world, we force the spring,
a spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy that
brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America.
When our Founders boldly declared America's independence
to the world and our purposes to the Almighty, they
knew that America, to endure, would have to change;
not change for change's sake but change to preserve
America's ideals: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
Though we marched to the music of our time, our mission
is timeless. Each generation of Americans must define
what it means to be an American.
On behalf of our Nation, I salute my
predecessor, President Bush, for his half-century
of service to America. And I thank the millions of
men and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed
over depression, fascism, and communism.
Today, a generation raised in the shadows
of the cold war assumes new responsibilities in a
world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened
still by ancient hatreds and new plagues. Raised in
unrivaled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is
still the world's strongest but is weakened by business
failures, stagnant wages, increasing inequality, and
deep divisions among our own people.
When George Washington first took the
oath I have just sworn to uphold, news traveled slowly
across the land by horseback and across the ocean
by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this ceremony
are broadcast instantaneously to billions around the
world. Communications and commerce are global. Investment
is mobile. Technology is almost magical. And ambition
for a better life is now universal.
We earn our livelihood in America today
in peaceful competition with people all across the
Earth. Profound and powerful forces are shaking and
remaking our world. And the urgent question of our
time is whether we can make change our friend and
not our enemy. This new world has already enriched
the lives of millions of Americans who are able to
compete and win in it. But when most people are working
harder for less; when others cannot work at all; when
the cost of health care devaStates families and threatens
to bankrupt our enterprises, great and small; when
the fear of crime robs law-abiding citizens of their
freedom; and when millions of poor children cannot
even imagine the lives we are calling them to lead,
we have not made change our friend.
We know we have to face hard truths
and take strong steps, but we have not done so; instead,
we have drifted. And that drifting has eroded our
resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence.
Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths.
Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful
people. And we must bring to our task today the vision
and will of those who came before us. From our Revolution
to the Civil War, to the Great Depression, to the
civil rights movement, our people have always mustered
the determination to construct from these crises the
pillars of our history. Thomas Jefferson believed
that to preserve the very foundations of our Nation,
we would need dramatic change from time to time. Well,
my fellow Americans, this is our time. Let us embrace
it.
Our democracy must be not only the envy
of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There
is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured
by what is right with America. And so today we pledge
an end to the era of deadlock and drift, and a new
season of American renewal has begun.
To renew America, we must be bold. We
must do what no generation has had to do before. We
must invest more in our own people, in their jobs,
and in their future, and at the same time cut our
massive debt. And we must do so in a world in which
we must compete for every opportunity. It will not
be easy. It will require sacrifice, but it can be
done and done fairly, not choosing sacrifice for its
own sake but for our own sake. We must provide for
our Nation the way a family provides for its children.
Our Founders saw themselves in the light
of posterity. We can do no less. Anyone who has ever
watched a child's eyes wander into sleep knows what
posterity is. Posterity is the world to come: the
world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have
borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility.
We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity
to all and demand more responsibility from all. It
is time to break the bad habit of expecting something
for nothing from our Government or from each other.
Let us all take more responsibility not only for ourselves
and our families but for our communities and our country.
To renew America, we must revitalize
our democracy. This beautiful Capital, like every
capital since the dawn of civilization, is often a
place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people
maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who
is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting
those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and
pays our way. Americans deserve better. And in this
city today there are people who want to do better.
And so I say to all of you here: Let us resolve to
reform our politics so that power and privilege no
longer shout down the voice of the people. Let us
put aside personal advantage so that we can feel the
pain and see the promise of America. Let us resolve
to make our Government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt
called bold, persistent experimentation, a Government
for our tomorrows, not our yesterdays. Let us give
this Capital back to the people to whom it belongs.
To renew America, we must meet challenges
abroad as well as at home. There is no longer a clear
division between what is foreign and what is domestic.
The world economy, the world environment, the world
AIDS crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all.
Today, as an older order passes, the new world is
more free but less stable. Communism's collapse has
called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly,
America must continue to lead the world we did so
much to make.
While America rebuilds at home, we will
not shrink from the challenges nor fail to seize the
opportunities of this new world. Together with our
friends and allies, we will work to shape change,
lest it engulf us. When our vital interests are challenged
or the will and conscience of the international community
is defied, we will act, with peaceful diplomacy whenever
possible, with force when necessary. The brave Americans
serving our Nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia,
and wherever else they stand are testament to our
resolve. But our greatest strength is the power of
our ideas, which are still new in many lands. Across
the world we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our
hopes, our hearts, our hands are with those on every
continent who are building democracy and freedom.
Their cause is America's cause.
The American people have summoned the
change we celebrate today. You have raised your voices
in an unmistakable chorus. You have cast your votes
in historic numbers. And you have changed the face
of Congress, the Presidency, and the political process
itself. Yes, you, my fellow Americans, have forced
the spring. Now we must do the work the season demands.
To that work I now turn with all the authority of
my office. I ask the Congress to join with me. But
no President, no Congress, no Government can undertake
this mission alone.
My fellow Americans, you, too, must
play your part in our renewal. I challenge a new generation
of young Americans to a season of service: to act
on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping
company with those in need, reconnecting our torn
communities. There is so much to be done; enough,
indeed, for millions of others who are still young
in spirit to give of themselves in service, too. In
serving, we recognize a simple but powerful truth:
We need each other, and we must care for one another.
Today we do more than celebrate America.
We rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America,
an idea born in revolution and renewed through two
centuries of challenge; an idea tempered by the knowledge
that, but for fate, we, the fortunate, and the unfortunate
might have been each other; an idea ennobled by the
faith that our Nation can summon from its myriad diversity
the deepest measure of unity; an idea infused with
the conviction that America's long, heroic journey
must go forever upward.
And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand
at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin anew
with energy and hope, with faith and discipline. And
let us work until our work is done. The Scripture
says, "And let us not be weary in well doing:
for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
From this joyful mountaintop of celebration we hear
a call to service in the valley. We have heard the
trumpets. We have changed the guard. And now, each
in our own way and with God's help, we must answer
the call.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
