Barack Obama: "Inaugural Speech"
My fellow citizens.
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have
bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush
for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown
throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been
spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so
often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments,
America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office,
but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and
true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against
a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened,
a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective
failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been
lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail
too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen
our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no
less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's
decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.
They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will
be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose
over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises,
the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside
childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better
history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to
generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance
to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given.
It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.
It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or
seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers,
the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their
labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in
search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and
plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and
Khe Sahn. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked
till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger
than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth
or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation
on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are
no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last
month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of
protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely
passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again
the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for
action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new
foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital
lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful
place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.
We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.
And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of
a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our
system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have
forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve
when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that
the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The
question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but
whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can
afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move
forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the
public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our
business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between
a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to
generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that
without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot
prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has
always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach
of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out
of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our
ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted
a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the
blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for
expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching
today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know
that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks
a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles
and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our
power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they
knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness
of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet
those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and
understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people,
and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work
tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.
We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those
who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to
you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we
will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation
of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by
every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have
tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter
stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday
pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our
common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in
a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual
respect.
To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills
on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you
destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of
dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if
you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms
flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.
And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford
indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources
without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude
those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant
mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in
Arlington whisper through the ages.
We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they
embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than
themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is
precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and
determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness
to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would
rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest
hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but
also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new.
But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage
and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old.
These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.
What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new
era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties
to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but
rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit,
so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an
uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children
of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and
why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local
restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.
In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots
huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned.
The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the
outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these
words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope
and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger,
came forth to meet it."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us
remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy
currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children
that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back
nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we
carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Biography: BARACK OBAMA (1961 - )
Barack Obama was born 1961 to a white American mother, Ann Dunham,and a black Kenyan father, Barack Obama, Sr., who were both young
college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for
Harvard, she and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned
alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist.
Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta
when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush
and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where
he was brought up largely by his grandparents.
The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman
and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank -
but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy.
His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on
official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten.
Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension
inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based
group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant
closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first
African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.
He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice
civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment
discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching
at the University of Chicago Law School. Eventually he ran as a Democrat for
the state senate seat from his district, which included both Hyde Park and some
of the poorest ghettos on the South Side, and won.
In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois,
and gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech
at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
On February 10, 2007, Obama entered the race for President of the United States.
The competition for Democratic nominee was narrowed down fairly quickly to be
a race between Obama, the first serious African American candidate, and Hillary
Clinton, the first serious woman candidate for US president. In the end, Obama
beat Clinton and then the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain.
He was inaugurated as the 44th - and the United States' first African American
- President on January 20, 2009, with Joseph Biden as his second-in-command.
© Herbert Paukert