-
Thank you!
Chief
Justice
Rehnquist,
President
Carter,
President
Bush,
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.
And I thank Vice President Gore for a
contest conducted with spirit and ended with
grace.
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.
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.
小布什出任美国总统的就职演说
(
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)
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.
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.
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.