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FULL TEKST:
President George W. Bush's innsettingstale som ny president i USA,
Washington, 20. januar 2001:
‘Single Nation of Justice and Opportunity’
«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.
(APPLAUSE)
And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit
and ended with grace.
(APPLAUSE)
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 the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator
of the old, a 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. And 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 the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation.
And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation
of justice and opportunity.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite
challenge.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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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