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SUBJECT/TITLE
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001. draft
President William J. Clinton Inaugural Address, noon draft (8 pages)
1/8/97
P5
002. draft
President William J. Clinton Inaugural Address, noon draft (7 pages)
1/8/97
P5
003. draft
President William J. Clinton Inaugural Address, 2 am draft (4 pages)
1/8/97
P5
004. draft
President William J. Clinton Inaugural Address, 11:00 pm draft (1
page)
1/9/97
P5
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
OA/Box Number: 14539
FOLDER TITLE:
Inaugural Drafts - '97 [2]
2006-0469-F
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�Draft 1/8/97 noon
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
200 years ago, the Father of our Country, the man for whom this city is named, passed on
his office and this country to the next generation.
From that day forward, each generation that has followed has set out to meet the tests of
time and the challenges of change, and to build their dream into a reality. Today, once more, we
gather at a moment of national reflection — a time to take stock of our dream and of our joumey - the greatest odyssey of freedom, hope, and progress the world has ever known.
Today should not be a moment of individual triumph, but a moment in which we return to
the wellsprings of America's greatness.
This day, in the presence of my fellow Americans and Almighty God, I have sworn a
solemn oath. I am proud to be your servant and trustee of our common dreams. But the meaning
of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents alone. Every American shares
this solemn obligation - to preserve, protect, and defend the ideals upon which this nation was
founded. In each of our hands rests the promise of America.
�We face no war, no depression. The challenge of our time is to take this precious
moment, given to few generations, and to build an America in a new century that will be a light
unto the world. The education of our children; the strength of our families; the safety of our
streets; the force of our freedom: These are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood,
one community, one city — these are the challenges of one America — and we must meet them as
one nation. For in America, the challenges of one are the challenges of all.
[America was founded not as a plot of land or a race of people. It was consecrated to a
set of ideals — values so strong they support us to this day. Freedom. Equality. Opportunity for
all; responsibility from all. The fundamental belief that the future could be better than the past and that every one of us had a moral duty to make it so. At every moment of challenge and
change throughout our history, we have struggled to turn these words, scratched onto parchment,
into vivid ideals traced in our lives.] [OR]
[As Americans, we are nurtured by values as eternal as the land we call home. Freedom
is our horizon. Equality is our soil. The belief that our future can be better than our past is the
air we breathe. And most important of all, democracy is our great river — from which, for mofe
than 200 years, we have always drawn and renewed ourselves, in moments of crisis, in moments
of calm, and in which, I tell you, we will renew ourselves now once again.]
At certain moments, everything seemed on the line: A Civil War to test whether these
values would long endure. A Depression in which we fought fear itself. A fiery war against
�fascism and a long twilight struggle against tyranny. At other moments, it was the pace of
change itself that challenged us. One century ago, we mastered the dawning industrial age,
securing a new freedom for new times and bringing forth the greatest prosperity any nation has
known.
At other times, our values have called us to a special obligation. 34 years ago, in words
that rang across this Mall, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today told us he had a
dream, and summoned us to live out the true meaning of our creed. Martin Luther King, Jr.
changed America. But we have not reached the end of that joumey; we must continue to march
toward that dream.
Four years ago, as today, we stood at the dawn of another new century. We gathered in
hope, but we stood in the shadow of drift, division, even despair. That day, and in the days to
come, we called again on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action, and our action
became faith. And by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the record we have
built, we have begun to renew America.
We have brought down our deficit, we have given opportunity to our people, and our
economy is the strongest on earth.
After years in which our most vexing social problems seemed only to get worse, the
American people have patiently begun to restitch the torn threads of our social fabric. Crime,
�welfare, poverty, inequality -- all are down. More families are staying together; fewer children
are having children. We have begun to restore faith in ourselves and in our nation.
Our nation is as strong as it has ever been. From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the
Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast, those who love peace look to America for
inspiration and for hope.
And after years in which the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a
new center, and that center can hold. We, the Americans of our age and time, have forged a new
vision and shaped a new consensus, anchored in our oldest values, aimed at our newest
challenges, to realize the promise of America.
Today we proclaim: We do not want a government that does everything; we do not want
a government that does nothing; we want a government that helps give our people the tools to
make the most of their own lives. We must offer opportunity, but we must demand
responsibility. We all have fundamental rights, but we all have essential obligations ~ to give
back to our communities and our country. We will rise together, or we will fall together.
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us each one of us — they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans.
Our moment is driven by change as profound as any we have ever faced. The very store
�of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks a
revolution in information. Scientists unlock the veiy mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears earned their bread on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
As we look beyond our shores, for the first time in human history, more of our fellow
citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. Yet as the shackles of
totalitarianism drop away, ancient hatreds and dangerous forces are let loose to terrorize our
world.
But we see, too, before us, a new century, an even greater America, a more peaceful
world ~ within our reach if we dare to grasp it. As Americans, we must be strong, for there is
much to dare. We must finish the unfinished business of this century. We must continue our
work to prepare for the next century. We must seize the opportunity of this moment, and
imagine the America that can yet be.
[I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all of our
children, with every citizen feeling a part of our national community, with our dream of freedom
spreading throughout the world.
I see an America in which our children reap the bounty of the world's best education, not
the bitter fruit of a life on the streets.
�I see an America in which we lift millions from the dependency of welfare to the dignity
of work.
I see an America in which we help parents to be parents, and children do not have
children.
I see an America in which crime is the exception, not the rule.
I see an America in which the government answers to tomorrow's challenges, not
yesterday's arrangements; in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
I see an America that leads the world by the power of example of its power - and the
power of its example.
I see an America in which our children live next to parks, not poisons.]
I see an American city, any city, with factories full, with living rooms lit by the cathode
glow of a computer screen, in which every single child can look out the window in the moming
and see a whole community getting up and going to work, in which old people sit on their porch,
and watch the children rejoice in the street, and none are afraid.
This can be our America in the new century.
�We who stand before you, who are privileged to serve in government, must do our part.
The American people, with eyes open, returned to office a President of one party and a Congress
of another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. We will have our differences Democrats and Republicans, the President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to
waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the
precious gift of this moment. Let us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us
work to balance our budget and balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work
together for the American people.
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people.
As the role of government grows smaller, the responsibility of our people grows larger.
For not in the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000
towns and homes and neighborhoods, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there — we will be there.
And we will be there, united. Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E
�Pluribus Unum, out of many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not
separate camps, but family, white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share
basic American values and are willing to live by them. This must be the America that we
imagine, that we make real.
All this that we can imagine ahead, is not just a dream; it must be the work of our times.
We have come a great distance, but we are not there yet. It falls to us to finish the job of building
the bridge that will carry us from one century to the next — a bridge built on our sturdiest values,
a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, and to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they built
bridges to an America that was not yet within their reach. They built those bridges not so much
for themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some
day, in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, the dream lives on. Our joumey continues. It is our time
to build. So, in the words of Scripture, let us "strengthen our hands for the good work that lies
before us."
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
with patience the race that is set before us. "]
�Draft 1/8/97 11:00pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
This day, in the presence of Almighty God and before all of you, my fellow Americans, I
have sworn a solemn oath. I have pledged to be your servant and to be trustee of our common
dreams. But the meaning of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents
alone. Every American shares this solemn obligation ~ to preserve, protect, and defend the
ideals upon which this nation was founded. In our hands, together, rests the promise of
America.
In these short days of winter, we cherish the light. Let us take this day to remember the
kind of country we are and must always be. Freedom, equality, opportunity, the belief that the
future could be better than the past, and that each of us has a duty to make it so ~ for 220 years,
these ideas have defined America. They have not always been perfectly realized; but the course
of American history is the steady march of a nation striving to live up to them. In times of peril
and promise ~ through civil war and world war, settling the frontier and building the American
century — these ideals sustained us, challenged us, summoned us to do better. They are the
wellspring of our greatness.
The challenge of our time is to take this precious moment, given to few generations, and
to build an America in a new century that will be a light unto the world. The education of our
�children; the strength of our families; the safety of our streets; the force of our freedom: These
are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city — these are the
challenges of one nation - and we must meet them as one America. For in America, the
challenges of one are the challenges of all.
Four years ago, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift, division, even
despair. America seemed to stumble toward that new century with uncertain steps. That day,
and in the days to come, we called on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action,
and our action became faith. And by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the
progress we have built, we have begun to renew America.
America once again stands strong and alone as the world's indispensable nation. For the
first time in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship.
From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast,
those who love peace look first to America for inspiration and for hope.
America's economy once again is an engine of opportunity for our people. We have
brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made economy the strongest on
earth.
After years in which our most urgent social problems seemed only to get worse, we have
begun together mend the torn and fraying threads of our social fabric. Crime, welfare, poverty,
�inequality ~ all are waning. More families are staying together; fewer children are having
children.
Where once the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and
that center can hold. We have forged a new vision and shaped a new consensus ~ anchored in
our oldest values, aimed at our newest challenges ~ to realize the promise of America.
Today, let us use that vision to imagine the America that we can be. Let us finish the
unfinished business of this century. And let us prepare our people for the new century that lies
ahead.
We are living through a time of change as profound as any in our history. The very store
of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks an
information revolution. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears worked on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, tomorrow our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
»
This new time calls us to seek new solutions.
The government that we Americans built over the past century achieved great things:
Being old no longer means being poor. Our environment is cleaner. Millions of men and women
who served their country earned the chance to go to college. But too many of the old ways of
�government of the past half century have run their course; in their time, they served us well, but
their time is done.
Let us resolve to change the relationship between the people and their government. For
America was built on challenges, not promises. The strength of our country depends on the spirit
of our people, and the spirit of our people depends on the responsibility of each citizen.
Government cannot ~ and must never again try - to do for Americans what Americans can only
do for themselves.
The lesson of our age is clear: Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only
give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.
While government must not grow, it must act. Our new government must challenge our
people; must stand up for fair play and safety; must bring out the best in us, not the worst.
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people. For not in
the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and
neighborhoods and homes, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
�standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there ~ we must be there, we will be there.
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us ~
each one of us -- they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans. We
must be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. Let us
imagine the America that can yet be, and make it so.
I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all our children,
where every citizen is a part of our national community, and where our dream of freedom spreads
throughout the world.
I see an America in which our children leam their lessons not on the streets, but in the
world's best schools.
I see an America in which millions rise from the dependency of welfare to the dignity of
work.
1 see an America whose inner cities are not trembling with fear but teeming with
commerce.
I see an America in which we help parents be parents, and children not have children.
�I see an America in which our politics serves the people and not tlie powerful.
I see an America that leads the world by the example of its power - and the power of its
example.
This can be the America toward which our joumey carries us in the new century. And we
will only make that joumey if we make it together.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black. Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, that we make real.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to prepare our people for the century ahead. I ask the Members of Congress,
on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The American people, with eyes open,
returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of another. They see, as we must, that
we must work together. We will have our differences ~ Democrats and Republicans, the
President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time
given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this moment. Let
us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us work to balance our budget and
balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work together for the American people.
�My fellow Americans, 34 years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
spoke to us in words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis
dream ~ deeply rooted in the American dream ~ "that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are
created equal."
And we will. Like him, we are dreamers — and more. We are the builders of bridges. It
falls to us to finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century ~ a bridge built on our
sturdiest ideals, a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge
that connects our oldest values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
joumey continues. It is our time to build.
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
with patience the race that is set before us. "]
�Draft 1/8/97 noon
/
(J
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
200 years ago, the Father of our Country, the man for whom this city is named, passed on
his office and this country to the next generation.
From that day forward, each generation that has followed has set out to meet the tests of
time and the challenges of change, and to build their dream into a reality. Today, once more, we
<
gather at a moment of national reflection — a time to take stock of our dream and of our joumey - the greatest odyssey of freedom, hope, and progress the world has ever known.
Today should not be a moment of individual triumph, but a moment in which we return to
the\ellsprings of America's greatness.
Tilisrtiaj, in the presence of my follow Amffniranc and Almighty GodJI have sworn a
solemn oath. I am piuud to be your servant and trustee of our common dreams. But tho mooning"t***
of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents alone. Every American shares
this solemn obligation ~ to preserve, protect, and defend the ideals upon which this nation was
founded. In eae+rrrf our hands rests the promise of America.
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moment, givejito few generations, and to build an America in a new century that will be a light
Tmtothe world. JThe education of our children; the strength of our families; the safety of our
streets; the force of our freedom: These are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood.
Q
one community, (aafi-city^- these are the challenges of one America _ind —r mu I ill I'I Th m V
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.[America was founded not as a plot of land or a race of people. It was consecrated to a
sei of ideals — values so strong they support us to this day. Freedom. Equality. Opportunity for
all responsibility from all. The fundamental belief that the future could be better than the past —
that every one of us had a moral duty to make it so. At every moment of challenge and
chahge throughout our history, we have struggled to turn these words, scratched onto parchment,
intfc vivid ideals traced in our lives.] \OK\
h
[As Americans, we are nurtured by values as eternal as & •land wo oall home. Freedom
is our horizon. Equality is our soil. The belief that our future can be better than our past is the
-sir we breathe. And most important of all, democracy is our great river ~ from which, for more
than 200 years, we have always drawn and renewed ourselves^in moments of crisis^in moments
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of calm^and in which, I tell you, we will renew ourselves now once again.]
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fascism and a long twilight struggle against tyrcmHy. At other moments, it wasjjfepaee of
change itself that challenged us. Qne.century
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At other times, our values have called us to a special obligation. 34^eafs"ago, in words
that rang across this Mall, the man whose birth and life we cejebrSte today told us he had a
dream, and summoned us to live out the true qieafting of our creed. Martin Luther King, Jr.
changed America. But^wejiaye-fi'dtlreached the end of that joumey; we must continue to march
toward that dteeflTf^'
.
Four years ^go,' asjQdajff^ffS'otood a* the dawn uf miuthui new cantuiyi Wc gatliciid i i r
stood in the shadow of drift, division, even despair. That day, and in the daysio.
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^
come, we called again on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action, and our action
became faith. A»d by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the record we have
built, we have begun to renew America.
We have brought down our deficit, wo havo givon opportunity to our people, ancLpur
economy is the strongest on earth.
After years in which our most voning social problems seemed only to get worse, the
American people have patiently begun to nestiteh the torn threads of our social fabric. Crime,
.
�welfare, poverty, inequality
are b»wn. More families are staying together; fewer children
are having children. We have begun to restore faith in ourselves and in our nation.
Our nation is as strong as it has ever been. From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the
Middle East, to the ^hhl^'Ttn^sireets of Belfast, those who love peace look to America for
A
inspiration and for hope.
And after years in which the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a
new center, and that center can hold. We, the Americans of our age and time, have forged a new
vision and shaped a new consensus, anchored in our oldest values, aimed at our newest
challenges, to realize the promise of America.
Today we proclaim: We do not want a government that does everything; we do not want
a government that does nothing; we want a government that helps give our people the tools to
make the most of their own lives. AVo muat offm opportunity, but wo mujt dimaifd
.
responsibility. Wo all have fundamental rightsibut WJ illi liavt essential qbligations _ tn pvr
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My fellow Americans, the demands of this particulartomeare great^ are different. Of us ~
each one of us — they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans.
Our moment is driven by change as profound as any we have ever faced. The very store
*
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of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks a
^
revolution in information. Scientists ualock tho 'I'O^' mjrrtrrirr of life. Where 100 years ago our
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;
forbearsjoamod their bread on farms, and 50 years ago^in factorie^, our children wiMJuorh in jobs
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that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
As W8 look boyond ourahoroo, for the first time in human history, inuic uf UlU fcllu-r
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Cltuuis uf tlie caith mc living under democracy than dictatorship.^^ as the jhucklLSTtf
.
^
JMlulilmiauMll diup umi*^ ancient hatreds and dangerous forces arg let loose to terrorize our
worldj,
But we see, too, before us, a new century, an even greater America, a more peaceful
world - within our reach if we dare tograsp it. As Americanize must be strong/for there is
much to dare. We must finish the unfinished Dmines^i ;his century. We W § t continue our
work to pifcpare for thepdxt century. We must seize the opportunity of this moment, and
imagine the America that can yet be.
I
[I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all of our
children, with every citizen feeling a part of our national community, with our dream of freedom
spreading throughout the world.
I see an America in which our children reanQhe bounty of the world's best education\iot
the bitter fruit of a life on the streets
»i
4- •
�I see an America in which we lift millions from the dependency of welfare to the dignity
of work.
>> *
childre:
I see an America in which crime i/the exception^not the rul<^
in which the government answers to tomorrow's challenges, not
;; in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
I see an America that leads the world by the power of example of its power ~ and the
power of its example.
I see an America i:
T.fift an Anwifan "ity, nirr nityi ivith f p ^ r r r full —ith li i
i nm lit h'th" ~nth~-1r
•gtomr pf a oomputop aefeen^in chilli Ul'ciy single child can look out the window in ihe nittHllhg
anft.gpp a w h n l p r n m m n n i t y getting up and g n i n g tn wnrW in w h i q h o l d people sit On their porch,
and watch the childiui icjuitL in the stieet, and nunc OIL afmid. ^ '
This can be our America in the new century.
f*
�We who stand before yoi r^whu aie privileged 16 ^fve In giiVLiiiiiii'inl) limit do our part.
,.
-
7 ,—-
tV )
The American pTph.-^vith ryp", npfrr returned to office a President of one party and a Congress
of another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. We will have our differences --
i*-*Jfy ^
V
^
Democrats and Republicans, the President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to
waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the
-ytf-'O
J>K
^
precious gift of this moment. Let us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us J l f j i ^ ^ J
work to balance our budget and balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work
together for the American people.
^
^
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people.
As the role of government grows smaller, the responsibility of our people grows larger.
For not in the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000
towns and homes and neighborhoods, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there — we will be there.
And we will be there, united. Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E
c
^
�Pluribus Unum, out of many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not
separate camps, but family, white, black. Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share
basic American values and are willing to live by them. This must be the America that we
imagine, that we make real.
" I I Illi
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We have come a gieai ditJIUliLc, but mt UIL nut lliu't j et.
falls to us to finish the job of building
the bridge that will carry us from one century to the next ~ a bridge built on our sturdiest values,
a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, and to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they built
bridges to an America that was not yet within their reach. They built those bridges not so much
for themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some
day, in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, the dream lives on. Our joumey continues. It is our time
to build. -Sajn the words of Scripture, let us "strengthen our hands for the good work that lies
before us."
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
with patience the race that is set before us. "]
'
�Draft 1/8/97 noon
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
200 years ago, the Father of our Country, the man for whom this city is named, passed on
his office and this country to the next generation.
From that day forward, each generation-that has followed has set out to meet the tests of
time and the challenges of changerand-te^uikHheit^
Today, once more, we
1 lA f
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V' ' ''
gather at a moment of national reflection - a time to take stock of our dream and of our joumey - the greatest odyssey of freedom, hope, and progress the world has ever known.
/t
—Today-should not-be a-moment of-individual triumphrbura moment in which we retum-to,
vJheLwellsprmgs-of"Atneric'a"'s"greatness.-
<L.. _
This day, in the presence of my fellow Americans and Almighty God, I have sworn a
solemn oath. I am proud to be your servant and trustee of our common dreams. But the meaning
of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents alone. Every American shares
this solemn obligation - to preserve, protect, and defend the ideals upon which this nation was
— —
- CVNA-IA-V^
founded. pln-eaeh-ofouHiands-fesfejhe(promise of America, rut; u-i
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iy^e face no war, no depression. The challenge of our time is to take this precious
; moment, given to few generations, and to build an America(i-i^a~ne\^ century that will be a light
) unto the world. The education of our children; the strength pf.our families;-the. safety, of our
...
\
.''streets; the force of our jreedomjyjhese are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, \ ^ ^
/'' one community, one city --these are the challenges of one America ~ and we must meet them as
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one nation. Fef4fl-? mierieeK he challenges of-one are. the challenges of all. M ^
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[America was founded not as a plot of land or a race of people. It was consecrated to a
./'
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set of ideals ~ values so strong they support us to thisday. Freedom. Equality. Opportunity for
all; responsibility from all'. The fundamenta|beiref that the future could be better than the past ~
and that every one of us had a moral duty to make it so. At every moment of challenge and
change throughout our history^e have struggled^to 'tum these words, scratched onto parchment.
inkf vivid ideals traced in our lives.] [O/?].
7
-4AS Americans, we are nurtured by values as eternal as the land we call home. Freedom
A
/,u'
is our horizon. Equality is our soil. The belief that our future can be better than our past is the
^ f r we breathe. And most importanj^jef-al^ democracy is our^gre^t river ~ from which, for more
v
, ; than 200 years, we have always drawn and renewed ourselves, in moments of crisis, in moments
of calm, and in which, I tell you, we will renew ourselves^new-efte^agaim]-^
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^At-eertain-moment^eve^thrng-seemed-on-the-line: A-Gml-Warto-teshwhetherthese
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-values-would long-endure. A Depression in which we fought fear itself. A fiery war against
'-^X
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�fascism and a long twilight struggle against tyranny.^ At otheymoment^, it was the pace ol
change itself that challenged^us: "One century ago, we mastered the dawning industrial age,
-5- ^securing a new freedom for new times and'bringing forth the greatest prosperity any nation has
known.
.^
1
-A-t-Gther-time^; our values have called us to a-speeiabobli^atie^. 34 years ago, in words
*
that rang across this Mall, the man whosefetrth-an^lifewe celebrate today told-uc he had adream, and summoned us to live out the true meaning of our creed. Martin Luther King, Jr.
changed America^. But we have not reached the end of thayoumey; we must continue to march
toward that dream.
;
Four years ago, as^oiay^w^-stood-at^the-dawn-of-another-new-eentur y--W©-gather-ed4n—1
'
hope, but we stood in the shadow of drift, division, even despair. That day, and in the days to
come, we called again on our most fundamental values. Our hope became aetien, and ourietienatkb*
-iwj-.'.A(-
-tw
~
"—^
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became fettb. And by4b©j6tands we hace taken^-ti^battles we have waged^ the record we have
built, we have begun to renew America.
We have brought down our deficit, ^we^m^-giA^n-^pportunity-to our-peopl^, and^our
economy^the strongest on earth.
After years in which our most vetting^social problems seemed only toj^-get-wors^, the
American people have patiently begun to restitchythe-tom threads-d^our social fabric. Crime,
�welfare, poverty, inequality — all are down. More families are staying together; fewer children
<
are having children. yW-e4Tavei7egttn-te-restore 'faith in ourselves-and-hrour nationt^
Our nation is as strong as it has ever been. From the^snews-ef-Besm^, to the sands of the
Middle East, to the eebblestone^tre^s of Belfast, those who love peace look to America for
inspiration and for hope.
And after years in which the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a
new center, and that center can hold. We, the Americans of our age and time, have forged a new
vision and shaped a new consensus, anchored in our oldest values, aimed at our newest
challenges, to realize the promise of America.
-Teday-we-prodaim^ We do not want a government that dees-everythir^; we do not want
a government that flees^othttig;Ave-want-a^GV£mment4haf
M
the tools to
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7
make the most of their own lives. We must offer opportunity, but we must demand
responsibility.^ We^l-l-have-fundameiital-rights,-but-we-all-hav^essential obligations - to give
0
back to our communities and our country. (We-will rl!Je toge^errer-we-wH-felHogeti^T^.fA ^^^
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My fellow Americans, the demands of -this /particulat^time are great, areldifferent. Of us
each one of us — they ask much. But they cannot ask^fe^ too much, for we are Americans.
^ y;,"^ 3ur moment is driven by change as profound as any we have ever faced. The very store
V ^
^ l>iM tr)
r^w^
�of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks a
revolution in information. Scientists tmleek-the very mysteritiS'of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears ^arned-thei^-brea^' on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, our children will ^iwork-^n jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot-yeft imagine.
^
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As we look beyond our shores, for the first time in human history, more of our fellow
citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. Yet as the shackles of
totalitarianism drop away, ancient hatreds and dangerous forces are let loose to terrorize our
world.
But we see, too, before us/a new C5nttn% an even greater America, a more peaceful
'jw> <i.xA.vv\ A
'
k ^ r ^ K v . ^.M
worl(^j within our reach if we dare to grasp it.^ As-Am^eansrwe-must-be-stfongrfeMhere is
much to dare^ We must finish the unfinished business of this century. We must continue «ur'C
W{ -iw} » V ^ / » J ^ "jf'nlvmL
^vei^to prepare for the next century. We must-8eiz&4he-opportnntty-of this memen^ and
imagine the America that can yet be.
0)
[I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all of our
children, with every citizen^fedirr^a part of our national community, with our dream of freedom
spreading throughout the world.
(yj
I see an America in which our children reap the bounty of the world's best education, not
the bitter fruit of a life on the streets.
-
�I see an America in which^we-ltf^millions^from the dependency of welfare to the dignity
of work.
^H)
I see an America inAvbich-weiiel^-p^errts-to-be parentSrand-ehi Idren-d€Hiot-have-C
-childrenc
-4-^ee-anA-meFiGa-irHwhi<^-^ime4s-thee
(f>)
I see an America in which the
^-..^
goverRmentranswe^eMomoirow-s-chaHeng^vRQ^^--
-yesterday^s-airangementsHn whic^our politics serve^the people and not the powerful.
^'
I see an America that leads the world by theypeweF-€^example of its power ~ and the
power of its example.
-We-ftn-Atnp.rirn in whjr.h pnr r.hildrprUivp.-PftvOn-packg .nnt.pnkftng.]
I see anAmerican city, any city, with factories full, with living rooms lit by the cathode
glow of a computer screen, in which every single child can look out the window in the moming
and see a/whole communi^ getting up and'going to work; in which old people sit on th^ir porch,
and watch the children rejoice in the street, and none are afraid.
This can be our America in the new century.
�We whc|-otand beforo yourwh^are privileged to serve in government, must do our part.
The American people/-with-eyes opei^retumed to office a President of one party and a Congress
of another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. We-wiH-have-eur-diffeFenees—
Democrats and Republicans, the President and the Congress^ But we are^taught: "It is wreflg-to
--wagte4he-precicuis^if^f-rim^iven-to-us-on-aei^^
We must not Waste-thr
M^<..A
sV^ \ f ^ t . r e
* -:-.s c
erv k •
precious gifr^&hts-meffte^E Let us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us
,
t
i
l
-wor-k-t^balance our budget and balance our values, and^et-uS make this a time when we work
together for the American people.
A
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people.
As the role of government grows smaller, the responsibility of our people grows larger.
For not in the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000
towns and homes and neighborhoods, together we will forge our destiny.
^
I^S^f when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must^be there —weAviH-be-there^
-And-we-will bc thererumted^ Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E
\
^
�Pluribus U n u m ^ t of many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not
separate camps, but family, white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share
basic American values and are willing to live by them. This must be the America that we
imagine, that we make real.
-All this that wc can tmagtne-aheaqf, is not just a dream; it must be the work of our times.
We have come a great distance, but we are not there yet. It falls to us to finish the job of building
the bridge that will carry us from one century to the next — a bridge built on our sturdiest values,
a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, and to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they built
bridges to an America that was not yet within their reach. They built those bridges not so much
for themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some
day, in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, the dream lives on. Our joumey continues. It is our time
to build. So, in the words of Scripture, let us "strengthen our hands for the good work that lies
before us."
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
with patience the race that is set before us. "]
�0'
Draft 1/8/97 2am
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
This ceremetyyreveiy-fQafcyearsrts a time for ourjiatioiytake stock -- to look at where we
^
have been, at where we are, and vrfaore wc are going on ' o u m e j f r - ^ i ^ ^ t ^ :
This day, in the presence of my fellow Americans and Almighty God, I have sworn a
solemn oath. I am proud to be your servant and trustee of our common dreams. But the meaning
of this oath, as old as our history, JBI*!* not bc rfcfefrvcd fen-Presidents alone.
Every American has a solemn obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the ideals upon
which this nation was founded. For in each of our hands rests the promise of America. feKBnl
by joining together can we move forward on our American joumey -fthe greatest odyssey of—
freedom, hope, and progress the world has ever known^^?
y
0
America was founded not as a plot of land or a race of people. If was founded as a set of
ideals - values so strong they support u^to this day. For at every moment of challenge and
change throughout our history, wewwrfi return to the wellspring of our greatness. Freedom.
Equality. Opportunity for all; responsibility from all. The fundamental belief that the future
cettkt'be better than the past - and that every one of us had a moral duty to make it so.
[OR] [As Americans, w©-a^ nurtured by values as eternal as the landfCve call home.
Freedom is our horizon. Equality is our soil. The belief that our future can be better than our
pas^rthe air we breathe. And most important of all, democracy is our great river ~ from which,
or more than 200 years, we have always drawn and renewed ourselves, in moments of crisis, in
moments of calm, and i^vhich, I tell you, we l$3^ene\£3>urselves ft^v once again.
<
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us each one of us ~ they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans.]
From the day, almost exactly 200 years ago, that our first President passed on his office
and this country to the next generation, we have written our own history. We have struggled to
turn these words scratched on parchment into vivid ideals t r a c e d j i ^ i r l i v e ^
At certain moments, everything seemed on the Urle: A Civil War to test whether these
values would long endure. A Depression in which wdffoughrt fear itself. A.fie:
fascism and a long twilight struggle against tyranny. At same-moments, ^ L ^ ^ r c ^ a l i ^ g t t S ^ ^ c s ^ ^
Ijhc pace of changcriTSdfr? ^century ago, we mastered the-ag0^4awnmg industrial era,
^
^
�the greatest prosperity any
guaidiiteuiug a new freedom for new times and
nation has knowr^ C A - - * J 7 ^ V-*-^
In words that rang across this Mall, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
called us to live out the true meaning of our creed - and in so doing, Martin Luther K i n g ^ j - .
changed America, [another sentence on values]
Four years ago, we last gatnerefl nere at-a-tmre or ai vision and despair, / i hat day andjn
gathere4 here
of division ana aespair.
ears agq,
s we reached nacK ancyo/ice again called on our most fundamental values.
the days fe^eeMe, we reacnea back anoronce again canea on our most lunaamemai values. v ^ y ^ j L J ^
the days te
willed ourselves to hope; and hope befcafne faith. By the stands we have taken, the battles we / j e _ i ^ L ^
have waged, the record we have builjf, wfc have forged a new American vision, a new consensus, c i a ^ L j /
•FeotcdTTrouToldest valuejipattuned tp ouit newest challenges, that can govern our country. We Q ^ Q
have begun to renew America.
\
\ ^
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7
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Our deficit is shrinking, incomes are growing, and our economy is the strongest on earth.
Jos- ^Js^auut,"
*
•
"
From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of
Belfast, those who love peace look to America for strength and for hope.
After years in which our m^ve>cing social problems seemed only to get worse, the
American people have patientlyjtfegun to restitch the torn threads of our social fabric. Crime,
welfare, poverty, inequality ~ all are down. More families are staying together; fewer children
are having children. We have begun to restore faith in ourselves and in our nation.
"After years when the very ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new
enter. We, the Americans of our age and time, have forged a new vision of how to realize the
omise of American life.
.
Today we proclaim: We do not want a government that does evemhing; we do not want
a M\jrnn^em that ^ S ^ P ^ I n g ^
g9 ernment
helps give ourpeople the tools to
6
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a
v
Government shouldn't do for people what they can do for themselves; but Sa&iyricai?should have the chance to make the most of tt&#tjod-given potential.
/tjLaj)
LajJ^
6L|UL
Today we proclaim: Citizenship is based on responsibilities as well as rights F.verv ^ — ^ ^ 15L
American has a dutv to give something back to their community and their country. Wo aro all in T K A J ^
'it together. > U J •€ Uj-t-M /
My fellow Americans, we face no war, no depression. But let this not be a time of
satisfied contentment, a time when we nestle intojbe coqifort of prosperity and retreat from our
great public purpose. For we have earqejl^pfecious mqmeht^given to few generations, the
chance to create an America in tIiie2UiK?eW
unto the world. Let us use
1
this era of good feelings to create an era of great c
ments.
�3^e-afc living Lluwagh IT time change as profound as any we have ever faced ~ change
in the way we work, the way we live, the way^wejg^^peach other. The very store of
knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks a
reyolution in information. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
-^rofffremied their bread on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, ^wxhildren will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in inH|]£trips we cannot yet imagine.
<-.
As we look beyond our shores, for the first time in human history, more of our fellow
citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. Yet as the shackles of
totalitarianism drop away, ancient hatreds are let loose to haunt and terrorize our world.
We see before us a new century, an even greater America that is within our reach if we
.We can, we must, make real our valugsyet again ~ bring opportunity alive for
ec^glTtvj^lat aJime when education)matters more than ever. We can, we
unity of^^tfiomenT;andhnaglne the America that can yet be.
must set^tho opportvawfrj
dare
I see an America in which our children reap the bounty of the world's best education, not
the bitter fruit of a life on the streets.
I see an America in which we lift millions from the dependency of welfare to the dignity
of work.
I see an America in which families stay together, and xxx comes apart.
I see an America in which crime is the exception, not the rule.
I see arj^America ffrwhich the government answers to tomorrow's challenges, not
yesterday's^rrangements; in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
/^~~X see an America that leads the world by the power of example of its power -- and the j u . ^
ZKrwer of its example.
/
I see an America in which our children live next te parks, not poisons.
I seejin^American ciw afty-6jjy .with factories full, with living rooms lit by the cathode
glow of a computer screen, in which every single child can look out the window in the moming
and see a whole community getting up and going to work, in which^flcTpeople sit on their porch,
and walch the children rejoice in the street, and none are afraid.
r
r
America roncwod, itn faith rpntnrirh that enters this-rrew century with its promise alive
^ ~w of our children, with every citizen feeling a pajl-ofour national community, with our ^ f i a ^
dream of freedom spreading throughout the worlckThis can be our America in the 2lat CentuffiT CaJLh.
All Americans must do their part.
�We on this platform, in the temples of government
alabaster city, we must do our
part. The American people, with eyes open, retumedtooffise a£resident of one party and a
Congress of another. They see, as we must see, tEat32a*ftisi*work together. We will have our
differences - Democrats and Republicans, the President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It
-b ), .8J Vi'nfltffTrtfrt*rrirrni gift of time given to us on acrimony and division." We rvaffixint^'* ~^'
recious gift of this moment. Let us reach outjttiuss the lines ojjjau^aji^^usuphy^.
let us work to balance our budget and balance our values, and let us make^nsnaTim^
work together for the American people.
1|Vr(
n
0
LU
We^wjll. attempt great things tor Americans. But we should expect great things from
AmericansYidur nation was built on challenges^not promises.•^^our_^^^caJlonIy be as
great as thefgreatness we inspire in our people^ We must be strong; for there is much to dare. \
*
?
As governmen^growg^maller, ffir rnnpnri.^KlitiQr. gro\^I«fer. We must marshal all the
forces in our society, n^a^ng"o]ir citizens, our communities, our businesses, our schools to
cTt^^i
meet our challepgesTOut across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and homes and
^
neighborjjetfcls, we will forge our destiny.
'^So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and state legislators work to establish and uphold
the toughest standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to
bring values, discipline and hope to their children ~ adopting school uniforms, imposing,
ctufcws, enforcing traawcy-lavys - we must be there - we will be there.
i > <
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a-ry. vJ/tf
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F^r thfftiSiirf nit the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one
city -- they are the challenges of one America - and we must meet them as one nation, -frrr ^L^_ ^
Americajp the challeng^f one are the challenges of all.
Io-aH-Anieiiidiis, iu all walks uf life, wt sayrTfifcniumeirt VJ youi uiumuit, this tinic-ts—
^your time, this burden is your burdenr
~~
To all Americans we say: we must shoulder the burden of living with one another,
together. Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of
many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but
family, white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values
and are willing to live by them.
T"
Here, as we close one century and begin another, we have a special responsibility: to
redeem the promise and sacrifice of all who came before u^by finishing the unfinished business
of this century, and by keeping that promise alive for all who come after us. Let no debts be
carried over i^b this new time. Let us sa>\on this short_dayof winter, that we will work
/
throught th/night, so that our children rafC^rakp a cleanstarTTTt^fresh centurv.
%~ - -li_ f
/
< x
We look around us, at stately monuments to Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. We may
think to ourselves: Once, giants walked this ground: we are not fit to follow in their path. But
�now, it is our turn to lead on the path. Now, we. must cast ourselves against the wheel of history,
joining together in a community of purpose and moral clarity.
This, then, must be our task. To us, then, it falls to build the bridge to the future. Not so
much for ourselves, as for those who come after. Let us take on that task humbly, but full of the
certain knowledge that if we hold to the ideals that brought us this far, we reach the land that
glows ahead.
»
Heaven is not gained at a single bound; the bridge we are building will not be completed
overnight. But every span that we lay before us . . . and every step that we take across ... will
bring us closer to the dream we share.
Scripture tells 14s that even when we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, even when
we are faced with the weight of the past, we can shape a future even greater than our brilliant
past. Let us build our bridge, wide enough and strong enough, on the solid foundation of
freedom, and "run with patience the race that is set before us. " [get terry s ending...]
�Draft 1/8/97 2am
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20, 1997
Fellow citizens:
This ceremony, every four years, is a time for our nation take stock — to look at where we
have been, at where we are, and where we are going on our journey.
This day, in the presence of my fellow Americans and Almighty God, I have sworn a
solemn oath. I am proud to be your servant and trustee of our common dreams. But the meaning
of this oath, as old as our history, must not be reserved for Presidents alone.
Every American has a solemn obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the ideals upon
which this nation was founded. For in each of our hands rests the promise of America. Ji&fonly
by joining together can we move forward on our American joumey -- the greatest odyssey of
freedom, hope, and progress the world has ever known.
America was founded not as a plot of land or a race of people. If was^fpunded as^ set of
ideals ~ values so strong they support us to this day. ^qi\at every moment of challenge and
change throughout our history, we still return to the wellspring of our greatness.^Freedom.
Equality. Opportunity for all; responsibility from all. The fundamental belief that the future^
could be better than the past -- and that every one of us had a moral duty to make it so.
\OR\ [As Americans, we are nurtured by values as eternal as the land we call home.
Freedom is our horizon. Equality is our soil. The belief that our future can be better than our
past is the air we breathe. And most important of all, democracy is our great river ~ from which,
for more than 200 years, we have always drawn and renewed ourselves, in moments of crisis, in
moments of calm, and in which, I tell you, we will renew ourselves now once againQ
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us ~
each one of us - they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans.]
From the day, almost exactly 200 years ago, that our first President passed on his office
and this country to the next generation, we have written our own history. We have struggled to
turn these words^scratched on parchmentynto vivid ideals traced in our lives.
At certain moments, everything seemed on the line: A Civil War to test whether these
values would long endure. A Depression in which we fought fear itself. A fiery war against
fascism and a long twilight struggle against tyranny. At some moments, we were challenged by
the pace of change itself A century ago, we mastered the newly dawning industrial era,
�guaranteeing a new freedom for new times and setting the stage for the greatest prosperity any
nation has known.
In words that rang across this Mall, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
called us to live out the true meaning of our creed - and in so doing, Martin Luther King
changed America, [another sentence on values]
Four years ago, we last gathered here at a time of division and despair. That day and in
the days to come, we reached back and once again called on our most fundamental values, we
willed ourselves to hope; and hope became faith. By the stands we have taken, the battles we
have waged, the record we have built, we have forged a new American vision, a new consensus,
rooted in our oldest values, attuned to our newest challenges, that can govern our country. We
have begun to renew America.
Our deficit is shrinking, incomes are growing, and our economy is the strongest on earth.
^ From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of
Belfast, those who love peace look to America for strength and for hope.
After years in which our most vexing social problems seemed only to get worse, the
American people have patiently begun to restitch the torn threads of our social fabric. Crime,
welfare, poverty, inequality -- all are down. More families are staying together; fewer children
are having children. We have begun to restore faith in ourselves and in our nation.
After years when the very ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new
center. We, the Americans of our age and time, have forged a new vision of how to realize the
promise of American life.
^^u^)
Today we proclaim: We do not want a government that does everything; we do not want
a government that does nothing; we want a government that helps give our people the tools to
solve their own problems.
Iwemment shouldn't do for people what they can do for themselves; but every
AmericSffshould have the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.
Today we proclaim: Citizenship is based on responsibilities as well as rights. Every
American has a duty to give something back to their community and their country. We are all in
it together.
My fellow Americans, we face no war, no depression. But let this not be a time of
satisfied contentment, a time when we nestle into the comfort of prosperity and retreat from our
great public purpose. For we have earned a precious moment given to few generations, the
chance to create an America in the 21 st Century that will be a light unto the world. Let us use
this era of good feelings to create an era of great accomplishments.
�We are living through a time of change as profound as any we have ever faced - change
in the way we work, the way we live, the way we relate to each other. The very store of
knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks a
revolution in information. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
parents earned their bread on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in industries we cannot yet imagine.
As we look beyond our shores, for the first time in human history, more of our fellow
citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. Yet as the shackles of
totalitarianism drop away, ancient hatreds are let loose to haunt and terrorize our world.
We see before us a new century, an even greater America that is within our reach if we
dare to grasp it. We can, we must, make real our values yet again ~ bring opportunity alive for
the digital age, make equality real at a time when education matters more than ever. We can, we
must seize the opportunity of this moment and imagine the America that can yet be.
I see an America in which our children reap the bounty of the world's best education, not
the bitter fruit of a life on the streets.
I see an America in which we lift millions from the dependency of welfare to the dignity
of work.
I see an America in which families stay together, and xxx comes apart.
I see an America in which crime is the exception, not the rule.
I see an America in which the government answers to tomorrow's challenges, not
yesterday's arrangements; in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
c
!
*" /'-—
I see an America that leads the world by the power of example of its power -- and the
power of its example.
I see an America in which our children live next to parks, not poisons.
I see an American city, any city, with factories full, with living rooms lit by the cathode
glow of a computer screen, in which every single child can look out the window in the moming
and see a whole community getting up and going to work, in which old people sit on their porch,
and watch the children rejoice in the street, and none are afraid.
An America renewed, its faith restored, that enters this new century with its promise alive
for all of our children, with every citizen feeling a part of our national community, with our
dream of freedom spreading throughout the world. This can be our America in the 21st Century.
All Americans must do their part.
�We on this platform, in the temples of government in this alabaster city, we must do ou£,
part. The American people, with eyes open, returned to office a President of one party and a
Congress of another. They see. as we must see, that we must work together. We will have our
differences - Democrats and Republicans, the President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It
is wrong to waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony and division." We must not
waste the precious gift of this moment. Let us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy,
let us work to balance our budget and balance our values, and let us make this a time when we
work together for the American people.
We will attempt great thingsfoEAmericans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation was built on challenges, not promises. For our nation can only be as
great as the greatness we inspire in our people. We must be strong; for there is much to dare.
As government grows smaller, our responsibilities grow larger. We must marshal all the
forces in our society, mobilizing our citizens, our communities, our businesses, our schools to
meet our challenges. Out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and homes and
neighborhoods, we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and state legislators work to establish and uphold
the toughest standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to
bring values, discipline and hope to their children - adopting school uniforms, imposing
curfews, enforcing truancy laws ~ we must be there — we will be there.
For these are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one
city — they are the challenges of one America ~ and we must meet them as one nation. For
Americans, the challenge of one are the challenges of all.
To all Americans, in all walks of life, we say: This moment is your moment; this time is
your time; this burden is your burden.
To all Americans we say: we must shoulder the burden of living with one another,
together. Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of
many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but
family, white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values
and are willing to live by them.
Here, as we close one century and begin another, we have a special responsibility: to
redeem the promise and sacrifice of all who came before us, by finishing the unfinished business
of this century, and by keeping that promise alive for all who come after us. Let no debts be
carried over into this new time. Let us say, on this short day of winter, that we will work
throught the night, so that our children can make a clean start in a fresh century.
We look around us, at stately monuments to Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. We may
think to ourselves: Once, giants walked this ground; we are not fit to follow in their path. But
�now. it is our turn to lead on the path. Now, we. must cast ourselves against the wheel of history,
joining together in a community of purpose and moral clarity.
This, then, must be our task. To us, then, it falls to build the bridge to the future. Not so
much for ourselves, as for those who come after. Let us take on that task humbly, but full of the
certain knowledge that if we hold to the ideals that brought us this far, we reach the land that
glows ahead.
Heaven is not gained at a single bound; the bridge we are building will not be completed
overnight. But every span that we lay before us . . . and every step that we take across ... will
bring us closer to the dream we share.
Scripture tells us that even when we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, even when
we are faced with the weight of the past, we can shape a future even greater than our brilliant
past. Let us build our bridge, wide enough and strong enough, on the solid foundation of
freedom, and "run with patience the race that is set before us. " [get terry's ending ...J
�Four years ago, we gathered at a time of drift and discord. Our great nation was adrift on
strong currents of change. For decades, we failed to face our problems and confront our decline.
TWe resolved to renew America, to xx. [we - americans - doubted that we could master this
moment of chang.e,]
We began our journey with a strategy to renew America. Our mission and vision was
clear: we would
Today, a renewed America, confident and proud, stands ready to face the challenges of
the bright new century ahead ~ our economy restored, peace. Most fundamental, our people in
their homes and communities are medning our social fabric. In community after community,
citizens on patrol are reclaiming streets once scarred by crime. In state after state, we are
offering millions the chance to move fromt he indignity of welfare to the dignity of work;
reversing the trend of income inequality that flew in the face of our fdalasf.
We have begun to build our bridge to a future that glows with promsie ahead. We have
begun, in our time, to make our values real.
We do this at a time of change.
WE gather loday in democracy's [front yard]. A presidential inaurual is a time every
four years to take stock - at where we have been, where we stand and where we are headed on
our long journey of [greatness].
This we remember: This nation — unique in the world — was founded not by race or even
geography. It was founded on precepts so strong that they support us to this day.
That every human being has a right to be free ~ that every one of us has a spark of the
divine - that we were cdreated equal by a just creator - that opportunity to pursue our dreams is
our most basic birthright.
Two centuries ago, at a ceremony much like this one, our founder passed on to the next
generation the duty to uphold those values and keep them alive. Each generation of americans
has been called upon to make these values real in their time.
Sometimes we have been called upon simjply to live up to their plain meaining. And
sometimes, we have been called upon to make them real for new times ~ not just words
scratched on parchment but living principles that glow with promise into fjkjlaf.
Sometimes our people have been called upon to act at a time when everything was at
stake. George Washington shivering at valley forge, [check the "inaug nts"]
When Martin Luther King, in words that rang across this mall, called us to live up to the
true meaning of our creed.
�What these generations of americans did before us, we, too, have been called upon to do.
Through hard work, through xx, we have afj.
But we have more to do.
To bring our values to life in the digital age, xxx. We are going
I see an america where eveyr chid will learn ..
I see an america where xx
To build our bridge, how we gonna do it?
I pledge to work with congsss. [bb, cfr]
But more important by far is the role played by you, the american people.
Xx
[diversity thing]
then.
�1/9/97 DRAFTS
�Draft 1/9/97 11:00pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
This day, in the presence of Almighty God and before all of you, my fellow Americans, I
have sworn a solemn oath. I have pledged to be your servant and to be trustee of our common
dreams. But the meaning of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents
alone. Every American shares this solemn obligation — to preserve, protect, and defend the
ideals upon which this nation was founded. In our hands, together, rests the promise of
America.
In these short days of winter, we cherish the light. Let us take this day to remember the
kind of country we are and must always be. Freedom, equality, opportunity, the belief that the
future could be better than the past, and that each of us has a duty to make it so - for 220 years,
these ideas have defined America. They have not always been perfectly realized; but the course
of American history is the steady march of a nation striving to live up to them. In times of peril
and promise - through civil war and world war, settling the frontier and building the American
century — these ideals sustained us, challenged us, summoned us to do better. They are the
wellspring of our greatness.
[The challenge of our time is to take this precious moment, given to few generations, and
to build an America in a new century that will be a light unto the world. The education of our
\
\
�children; the strength of our families; the safety of our streets; the force of our freedom: These
are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city - these are the
challenges of one nation — and we must meet them as one America. For in America, the
challenges of one are the challenges of all.]
Four years ago, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift, division, even
despair. America seemed to stumble toward that new century with uncertain steps. That day,
and in the days to come, we called on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action,
and our action became faith. And by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the
progress we have built, we have begun to renew America.
America once again stands strong and alone as the world's indispensable nation. For the
first time in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship.
From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast,
those who love peace look first to America for inspiration and for hope.
America's economy once again is an engine of opportunity for our people. We have »
brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made economy the strongest on
earth.
After years in which our most urgent social problems seemed only to get worse, we have
begun together mend the torn and fraying threads of our social fabric. Crime, welfare, poverty,
�inequality - all are waning. More families are staying together; fewer children are having
children.
Where once the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and
that center can hold. We have forged a new vision and shaped a new consensus - anchored in
our oldest values, aimed at our newest challenges -- to realize the promise of America.
Today, let us use that vision to imagine the America that we can be. Let us finish the
unfinished business of this century. And let us prepare our people for the new century that lies
ahead.
We are living through a time of change as profound as any in our history. The very store
of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks an
information revolution. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears worked on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, tomorrow our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
This new time calls us to seek new solutions.
The government that we Americans built over the past century achieved great things:
Being old no longer means being poor. Our environment is cleaner. Millions of men and women
who served their country earned the chance to go to college. But too many of the old ways of
�government of the past half century have run their course; in their time, they served us well, but
their time is done.
Let us resolve to change the relationship between the people and their government. For
America was built on challenges, not promises. The strength of our country depends on the spirit
of our people, and the spirit of our people depends on the responsibility of each citizen.
Government cannot — and must never again try — to do for Americans what Americans can only
do for themselves.
The lesson of our age is clear: Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only
give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.
While government must not grow, it must act. Our new government must challenge our
people; must stand up for fair play and safety; must bring out the best in us, not the worst.
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people. For not •in
the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and
neighborhoods and homes, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
�standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there ~ we must be there, we will be there.
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us -each one of us -- they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans. We
must be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. Let us
imagine the America that can yet be, and make it so.
I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all our children,
where every citizen is a part of our national community, and where our dream of freedom spreads
throughout the world.
1 see an America in which our children learn their lessons not on the streets, but in the
world's best schools.
I see an America in which millions rise from the dependency of welfare to the dignity of
work.
I see an America whose inner cities are not trembling with fear but teeming with
commerce.
I see an America in which we help parents be parents, and children not have children.
�I see an America in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
I see an America that leads the world by the example of its power -- and the power of its
example.
This can be the America toward which our journey carries us in the new century. And we
will only make that journey if we make it together.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black. Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, that we make real.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to prepare our people for the century ahead. I ask the Members of Congress,
on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The American people, with eyes open,
returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of another. They see, as we must, that
we must work together. We will have our differences ~ Democrats and Republicans, the
President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time
given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this moment. Let
us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us work to balance our budget and
balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work together for the American people.
�My fellow Americans, 34 years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
spoke to us in words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis
dream - deeply rooted in the American dream - "that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are
created equal."
And we will. Like him, we are dreamers — and more. We are the builders of bridges. It
falls to us to finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century - a bridge built on our
sturdiest ideals, a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge
that connects our oldest values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
joumey continues. It is our time to build.
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
�with patience the race that is set before us. "]
�Draft 1/9/97 11:00pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
This day, in the presence of Almighty God and before all of you, my fellow Americans, I
have sworn a solemn oath. I have pledged to be your servant and to be trustee of our common
dreams. But the meaning of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents
alone. Every American shares this solemn obligation ~ to preserve, protect, and defend the
ideals upon which this nation was founded. In our hands, together, rests the promise of
America.
In these short days of winter, we cherish the light. Let us take this day to remember the
kind of country we are and must always be. Freedom, equality, opportunity, the belief that the
future could be better than the past, and that each of us has a duty to make it so ~ for 220 years,
these ideas have defined America. They have not always been perfectly realized; but the course
of American history is the steady march of a nation striving to live up to them. In times of peril
and promise ~ through civil war and world war, settling the frontier and building the American
century - these ideals sustained us, challenged us, summoned us to do better. They are the
wellspring of our greatness.
[The challenge of our time is to take this precious moment, given to few generations, and
to build an America in a new century that will be a light unto the world. The education of our
�children; the strength of our families; the safety of our streets; the force of our freedom: These
are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city — these are the
challenges of one nation — and we must meet them as one America. For in America, the
challenges of one are the challenges of all.]
Four years ago, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift, division, even
despair. America seemed to stumble toward that new century with uncertain steps. That day,
and in the days to come, we called on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action,
and our action became faith. And by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the
progress we have built, we have begun to renew America.
America once again stands strong and alone as the world's indispensable nation. For the
first time in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship.
From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast,
those who love peace look first to America for inspiration and for hope.
America's economy once again is an engine of opportunity for our people. We have brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made economy the strongest on
earth.
After years in which our most urgent social problems seemed only to get worse, we have
begun together mend the torn and fraying threads of our social fabric. Crime, welfare, poverty,
�inequality — all are waning. More families are staying together; fewer children are having
children.
Where once the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and
that center can hold. We have forged a new vision and shaped a new consensus - anchored in
our oldest values, aimed at our newest challenges — to realize the promise of America.
Today, let us use that vision to imagine the America that we can be. Let us finish the
unfinished business of this century. And let us prepare our people for the new century that lies
ahead.
We are living through a time of change as profound as any in our history. The very store
of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks an
information revolution. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears worked on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, tomorrow our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
This new time calls us to seek new solutions.
The government that we Americans built over the past century achieved great things:
Being old no longer means being poor. Our environment is cleaner. Millions of men and women
who served their country earned the chance to go to college. But too many of the old ways of
�government of the past half century have run their course; in their time, they served us well, but
their time is done.
Let us resolve to change the relationship between the people and their government. For
America was built on challenges, not promises. The strength of our country depends on the spirit
of our people, and the spirit of our people depends on the responsibility of each citizen.
Government cannot -- and must never again try ~ to do for Americans what Americans can only
do for themselves.
The lesson of our age is clear: Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only
give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.
While government must not grow, it must act. Our new government must challenge our
people; must stand up for fair play and safety; must bring out the best in us, not the worst.
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people. For noUn
the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and
neighborhoods and homes, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
�standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there — we must be there, we will be there.
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us -each one of us - they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans. We
must be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. Let us
imagine the America that can yet be. and make it so.
I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all our children,
where every citizen is a part of our national community, and where our dream of freedom spreads
throughout the world.
I see an America in which our children learn their lessons not on the streets, but in the
world's best schools.
I see an America in which millions rise from the dependency of welfare to the dignity of
work.
I see an America whose inner cities are not trembling with fear but teeming with
commerce.
I see an America in which we help parents be parents, and children not have children.
�I see an America in which our polilics serves the people and not the powerful.
I see an America that leads the world by the example of its power — and the power of its
example.
This can be the America toward which our journey carries us in the new century. And we
will only make that journey if we make it together.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black. Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, that we make real.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to prepare our people for the century ahead. I ask the Members of Congress,
on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The American people, with eyes open,
returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of another. They see, as we must, that
we must work together. We will have our differences ~ Democrats and Republicans, the
President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time
given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this moment. Let
us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us work to balance our budget and
balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work together for the American people.
�My fellow Americans, 34 years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
spoke to us in words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis
dream — deeply rooted in the American dream — "that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are
created equal."
And we will. Like him, we are dreamers ~ and more. We are the builders of bridges. It
falls to us to finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century - a bridge built on our
sturdiest ideals, a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge
that connects our oldest values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
joumey continues. It is our time to build.
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
�with patience (he race that is set before us. "]
�Draft 1/9/97 11:00pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20, 1997
Fellow citizens:
This day, in the presence of Almighty God and before all of you, my fellow Americans, I
have sworn a solemn oath. I have pledged to be your servant and to be trustee of our common
dreams. But the meaning of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents
alone. Every American shares this solemn obligation ~ to preserve, protect, and defend the
ideals upon which this nation was founded. In our hands, together, rests the promise of
America.
In these short days of winter, we cherish the light. Let us take this day to remember the
kind of country we are and must always be. Freedom, equality, opportunity, the belief that the
future could be better than the past, and that each of us has a duty to make it so ~ for 220 years,
these ideas have defined America. They have not always been perfectly realized; but the course
of American history is the steady march of a nation striving to live up to them. In times of peril
and promise - through civil war and world war, settling the frontier and building the American
century -- these ideals sustained us, challenged us, summoned us to do better. They are the
wellspring of our greatness.
[The challenge of our time is to take this precious moment, given to few generations, and
to build an America in a new century that will be a light unto the world. The education of our
�children; the strength of our families; the safety of our streets; the force of our freedom: These
are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city — these are the
challenges of one nation - and we must meet them as one America. For in America, the
challenges of one are the challenges of all.]
Four years ago, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift, division, even
despair. America seemed to stumble toward that new century with uncertain steps. That day,
and in the days to come, we called on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action,
and our action became faith. And by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the
progress we have built, we have begun to renew America.
America once again stands strong and alone as the world's indispensable nation. For the
first time in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship.
From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast,
those who love peace look first to America for inspiration and for hope.
America's economy once again is an engine of opportunity for our people. We have «
brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made economy the strongest on
earth.
After years in which our most urgent social problems seemed only to get worse, we have
begun together mend the torn and fraying threads of our social fabric. Crime, welfare, poverty,
�inequality - all are waning. More families are staying together; fewer children are having
children.
Where once the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and
that center can hold. We have forged a new vision and shaped a new consensus — anchored in
our oldest values, aimed at our newest challenges ~ to realize the promise of America.
Today, let us use that vision to imagine the America that we can be. Let us finish the
unfinished business of this century. And let us prepare our people for the new century that lies
ahead.
We are living through a time of change as profound as any in our history. The very store
of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks an
information revolution. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears worked on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, tomorrow our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
»
This new time calls us to seek new solutions.
The government that we Americans built over the past century achieved great things:
Being old no longer means being poor. Our environment is cleaner. Millions of men and women
who served their country earned the chance to go to college. But too many of the old ways of
�government of the past half century have run their course; in their time, they served us well, but
their time is done.
Let us resolve to change the relationship between the people and their government. For
America was built on challenges, not promises. The strength of our country depends on the spirit
of our people, and the spirit of our people depends on the responsibility of each citizen.
Government cannot — and must never again tiy — to do for Americans what Americans can only
do for themselves.
The lesson of our age is clear: Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only
give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.
While government must not grow, it must act. Our new government must challenge our
people; must stand up for fair play and safety; must bring out the best in us, not the worst.
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people. For noUn
the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and
neighborhoods and homes, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
�standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there — we must be there, we will be there.
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us —
each one of us - they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans. We
must be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. Let us
imagine the America that can yet be, and make it so.
I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all our children,
where every citizen is a part of our national community, and where our dream of freedom spreads
throughout the world.
I see an America in which our children leam their lessons not on the streets, but in the
world's best schools.
I see an America in which millions rise from the dependency of welfare to the dignity of
work.
I see an America whose inner cities are not trembling with fear but teeming with
commerce.
I see an America in which we help parents be parents, and children not have children.
�I see an America in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
1 see an America that leads the world by the example of its power ~ and the power of its
example.
This can be the America toward which our journey carries us in the new century. And we
will only make that journey if we make it together.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, that we make real.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to prepare our people for the century ahead. I ask the Members of Congress,
on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The American people, with eyes open,
returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of another. They see, as we must, that
we must work together. We will have our differences ~ Democrats and Republicans, the
President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time
given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this moment. Let
us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us work to balance our budget and
balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work together for the American people.
�My fellow Americans, 34 years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
spoke to us in words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis
dream — deeply rooted in the American dream ~ "that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are
created equal."
And we will. Like him, we are dreamers - and more. We are the builders of bridges. It
falls to us to finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century — a bridge built on our
sturdiest ideals, a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge
that connects our oldest values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
joumey continues. It is our time to build.
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
�with patience the race that is set before us. ")
�Draft 1/9/97 11:00pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20, 1997
Fellow citizens:
This day, in the presence of Almighty God and before all of you, my fellow Americans, I
have sworn a solemn oath. I have pledged to be your servant and to be trustee of our common
dreams. But the meaning of this oath, as old as our history, is not the province of Presidents
i
alone. Every American shares this solemn obligation ~ to preserve, protect, and defend the
ideals upon which this nation was founded. In our hands, together, rests the promise of
America.
In these short days of winter, we cherish the light. Let us take this day to remember the
kind of country we are and must always be. Freedom, equality, opportunity, the belief that the
future could be better than the past, and that each of us has a duty to make it so ~ for 220 years,
these ideas have defined America. They have not always been perfectly realized; but the course
of American history is the steady march of a nation striving to live up to them. In times of peril
and promise - through civil war and world war, settling the frontier and building the American
century — these ideals sustained us, challenged us, summoned us to do better. They are the
wellspring of our greatness.
[The challenge of our time is to take this precious moment, given to few generations, and
to build an America in a new century that will be a light unto the world. The education of our
�children; the strength of our families; the safety of our streets; the force of our freedom: These
are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city — these are the
challenges of one nation — and we must meet them as one America. For in America, the
challenges of one are the challenges of all.]
Four years ago, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift, division, even
despair. America seemed to stumble toward that new century with uncertain steps. That day,
and in the days to come, we called on our most fundamental values. Our hope became action,
and our action became faith. And by the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the
progress we have built, we have begun to renew America.
/^T^JL
bo*
T"*^
America once again stands strong and alone as the world's indispensable nation. For the
first time in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship.
From the snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast,
those who love peace look first to America for inspiration and for hope.
America's economy once again is an engine of opportunity for our people. We have
brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made economy the strongest on
earth.
After years in which our most urgent social problems seemed only to get worse, we have
begun together mend the torn and fraying threads of our social fabric. Crime, welfare, poverty,
�inequality — all are waning. More families are staying together; fewer children are having
children.
Where once the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and
that center can hold. We have forged a new vision and shaped a new consensus — anchored in
our oldest values, aimed at our newest challenges — to realize the promise of America.
Today, let us use that vision to imagine the America that we can be. Let us finish the
unfinished business of this century. And let us prepare our people for the new century that lies
ahead.
We are living through a time of change as profound as any in our history. The very store
of knowledge doubles and redoubles before our eyes. A chip as small as a thumbnail sparks an
information revolution. Scientists unlock the very mysteries of life. Where 100 years ago our
forbears worked on farms, and 50 years ago in factories, tomorrow our children will work in jobs
that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot yet imagine.
O^U^S?^-
This new time calls us to seek new solutions.
The government that we Americans built over the past century achieved great things:
Being old no longer means being poor. Our environment is cleaner. Millions of men and women
who served their country earned the chance to go to college. But too many of the old ways of
0
�government of the past h< f century have run their course; in their time, they served us well, but
their time is done.
Let us resolve to change the relationship between the people and their government. For
America was built on challenges, not promises. The strength of our country depends on the spirit
of our people, and the spirit of our people depends on the responsibility of each citizen.
Government cannot ~ and must never again try ~ to do for Americans what Americans can only
do for themselves.
The lesson of our age is clear: Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only
give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.
While government must not grow, it must act. Our new government must challenge our
people; must stand up for fair play and safety; must bring out the best in us, not the worst.
We will attempt great things for Americans. But we should expect great things from
Americans. Our nation can only be as great as the greatness we inspire in our people. For not in
the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in 10,000 towns and
neighborhoods and homes, together we will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
�standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there ~ we must be there, we will be there.
My fellow Americans, the demands of this particular time are great, are different. Of us ~
each one of us — they ask much. But they cannot ask for too much, for we are Americans. We
must be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. Let us
imagine the America that can yet be, and make it so.
I see an America that enters this new century with its promise alive for all our children,
where every citizen is a part of our national community, and where our dream of freedom spreads
throughout the world.
I see an America in which our children learn their lessons not on the streets, but in the
world's best schools.
I see an America in which millions rise from the dependency of welfare to the dignity of
work.
I see an America whose inner cities are not trembling with fear but teeming with
commerce.
I see an America in which we help parents be parents, and children not have children.
�I see an America in which our politics serves the people and not the powerful.
I see an America that leads the world by the example of its power — and the power of its
example.
a
This can be the America toward which our journey carries us in the new century. And we
will only make that journey if we make it together.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, that we make real.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to prepare our people for the century ahead. I ask the Members of Congress,
on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The American people, with eyes open,
returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of another. They see, as we must, that
we must work together. We will have our differences ~ Democrats and Republicans, the
President and the Congress. But we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time
given to us on acrimony and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this moment. Let
us reach out across the lines of party and philosophy, let us work to balance our budget and
balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work together for the American people.
�My fellow Americans, 34 years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today
spoke to us in words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis
dream ~ deeply rooted in the American dream ~ "that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are
created equal."
And we will. Like him, we are dreamers - and more. We are the builders of bridges. It
falls to us to finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century — a bridge built on our
sturdiest ideals, a bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge
that connects our oldest values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
journey continues. It is our time to build.
[Alternate ending: Tony Campolo suggests using the passage from Hebrews, "let us run
with patience the race that is set before us. "]
�1/13/97 DRAFTS
�01/13/97 3:15 PM
Over the last four years, we've seen the glimmer of the wonders the 21st century can bring. For
the first time in history, more people across the globe are living under democracy than
dictatorship. Scientists are decoding the blueprint of human life ~ with tremendous implications
for improving human health. An information revolution, sparked by a chip the size of a dime,
allows billions of dollars to cross the globe at the speed of light... and children in their classrooms
to explore the world of ideas by logging on to the Internet. 100 years ago, our forbears worked
on farms; 50 years ago in factories. Tomorrow, our children will work in jobs that have not been
invented, in enterprises we cannot even imagine.
This progress has given us great opportunities, but we also have seen its darker side. Ancient
threats like ethnic and religious hatreds have taken on new and dangerous dimensions. Modem
technology makes old demons even fiercer ~ such as rogue states, terrorists, drug traffickers, and
organized criminals, who exploit the very openess we cherish, while seeking increasingly lethal
means to murder and destroy.
In this new age of tremendous promise — but also peril — blah blah blah.
*****
An America that has the world's strongest defense ~ and defends most strongly freedom's flag
around the world, that draws on the power of our own diversity to help others beyond our
borders who seek to bridge their own divides; that keeps our children safe from terrorism and
weapons of mass destruction; that opens markets and widens trade; that upholds our
responsibilities in the community of nations by meeting our obligations to the United Nations.
[ Our destiny is tied to the rest of the world, but we remain the indispensable nation. We will not
walk away from 50 years of success. We will shape a more peaceful and prosperous world for the
21st century and beyond .J
�1/14/97 DRAFTS
�January 14, 1997 12:30PM
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
We gather at the last American inauguration of the 20th Century, 200 years almost to the
day after George Washington passed on his office and this country to the generations that
followed.
It is our time to recall the greatness of our past, to understand the progress of our present,
to chart the potential of our future.
We thank God that we face no Depression to sap our strength, no war to test our spirit.
But this time of peace and prosperity is no ordinary time -- it is an extraordinary moment of
opportunity. We must use this moment in our history to seize hold of the age of possibility
before us. Here, after the great American triumph of the 20th Century, our time has come to
prepare for the 21 st Century.
Our nation was founded on the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the
18th Century. Our union was preserved and our unity deepened in the 19th Century. And we
exploded onto the world stage in this, the American Century.
�Wc buill the world's greatest industrial power. We abandoned isolationism to fulfill our
responsibilities for freedom and peace in the world. We won two world wars. We waged a long
Cold War to defeat the forces of communism. And we have waged peace in the world.
Here at home, we created the greatest opportunity in human history for people to make
the most of their our own lives. Our people built the great American middle class. We lifted the
elderly out of poverty; began to restore and preserve our environment; extended the circle of
human dignity to include women and minorities.
Thirty-four years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today spoke to us in
words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis dream - deeply
rooted in the American dream — "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal.'"
Our history has been the steady march of a nation striving to live up to our basic ideals.
They are the wellspring of our greatness. At every moment of challenge and change, our forbears
imagined that the future could be better than the past, and they assumed the moral responsibility
to make it so. Each new age has required us to reestablish the balance we have forged in
America between individual freedom and the duty we owe one another.
Now it is our time to ask: How do we redeem the sacrifice and brilliance of all who have
gone before us? What future will we build for our children, and their children?
�Four years ago, many Americans feared that our triumphant march would falter as we
approached century's end.
On that short day of winter, we gathered in hope, but still in the shadow of drift and
division. We sanctified our commitment to change, to press on with a course required by our
challenges, consistent with our enduring values, demanded by our proud heritage. Together, we
vowed to force the spring, to renew our nation in America's tradition of change.
Since that day, in the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, the progress we
have built, we have begun together to renew America. Where once the ground seemed to shift
beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and that center can hold.
Once again, America stands strong as the world's indispensable nation. For the first time
in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. From the
snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast, those who
love peace look first to America for inspiration and for hope.
Once again, America's economy is an unrivaled engine of opportunity for our people.
We have brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made our economy the
strongest on earth.
Once again, we have put family and faith and community at the center of our concerns.
�Our most urgent social problems, which seemed destined to deepen - crime, welfare, poverty,
inequality among working people -- all are bending to our efforts.
Above all, once again we are putting more opportunity in the hands of individuals, and
demanding more responsibility in return, changing the relationship between the people and their
government.
Four years ago, we doubted that we could cut our deficit even as we increase investment;
we doubted that we could prevent pollution even as we promote industry; we doubted that we
could ever tame the social cancers of crime and violence and dependency and decay, which grew
and compounded for so long. Now we know that nothing is impossible when we work together
for our future.
For we have proved, in these last four years, that we can move beyond the competing
philosophies that threatened our progress. Today we declare: Government is not the problem;
government is not the solution. We, the American people, are the solution. Government cannot
solve our problems for us; it can only give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.
We must build a new kind of government for a new century. Where it can stand up for
the values and interests of ordinary Americans and give them the power to make a real
difference in their everyday lives, then our government should do more, not less. Helping
citizens to keep their streets safe from gangs and drugs. Helping communities protect the
�environment God gave us. Helping parents to protect their children Irom harmful outside
influences. Challenging every student with higher standards and expectations. Protecting the
food we eat and the water we drink. It must offer the opportunity that the Bill of Rights
guarantees to us all; it must bring out the best in us, not the worst in us.
Our government must shrink - but we together must never shrink from our great national
challenges. The strength of our country depends on the spirit of our people; and the spirit of our
people depends on the responsibility of each citizen. It is not in the narrow halls of government,
but out across the great sweep of America, in the towns and neighborhoods and homes, that we
will forge our destiny.
So when business and community leaders join forces to provide jobs for welfare
recipients - we must be there. When parents and teachers and civic leaders demand the toughest
standards for our schools - we must be there. When communities band together to bring values,
discipline and hope to their children, we must be there ~ we must be there. We the people. All
of us. Together.
My fellow Americans, for four years, we have worked to finish the unfinished business of
this century, and to prepare our people for the demands of the next. We stand together, in the
closing years of the first American century, and on the leading edge of a limitless second.
Over the past four years, we have seen the new century's wonders.
�All around us, we see dramatic change in the way we work, the way we live, the way we
relate to one another. An information revolution, sparked by a chip the size of a dime, allows
billions of dollars to cross the globe at speed of light... and children in their classrooms to
explore the world of ideas by logging on to the Internet. Scientists are decoding the blueprint of
human life. 100 years ago, our forbears worked on farms; 50 years ago in factories. Tomorrow,
our children will work in jobs that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot even
imagine.
Our progress gives us great opportunities, but we also see its darker side. Ancient threats
like ethnic and religious hatreds take on new and dangerous dimensions. Modem technology
makes old demons even fiercer — rogue states, terrorists, drug traffickers, and organized
criminals who exploit the very openness we cherish.
My fellow Americans, the demands of our time are great, are different. Of us ~ each one
of us ~ they ask much. But they cannot ask too much, for we are Americans. We must be
strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. In our hands,
together, rests the promise of America.
It falls to us to make the most of this age of possibility, to push back the forces of peril, to
connect our oldest values to our newest challenges. It falls to us to choose the future we believe
in, and step by step, to build our bridge to the 21 st Century.
�We must build an America for the 21st century where the American promise is alive for
all our children, where every citizen is a part of our national community, and whose dream of
freedom spreads throughout the world.
An America that leads the world in the next century as it has in this one ~ promoting
peace, opening trade, and fighting the forces of destruction. If we want the benefits of
leadership, we must shoulder the burdens.
We must build an America where we have connected all our schools to the Information
Superhighway, established the highest standards for learning in the world, and opened the doors
of college to all our people.
An America where anyone struggling to move from welfare to work can find a job, where
children aren't bom to children, and where all parents live up to their sacred responsibility as
parents ~ where the problems of the underclass have become a thing of the past.
An America where familiar faces patrol our streets, criminals cannot buy guns, people
walk safely around the block at night, and send their children safely off to school each moming.
An America where parents have the chance to succeed at home and work, children can be
protected from dangerous influences like tobacco ads and television violence, and no child's
health is ever put at risk because a parent is changing jobs.
�An America where the miracle of science ~ with a cure for cancer, a vaccine for AIDS —
extends our lives, and the wonder of technology fills it with knowledge.
An America where the loudest voice in politics is the quiet voice of the voter, where a
smaller government does a better job.
An America where we have kept our obligations to provide health care to our parents and
a secure retirement for all generations to come.
An America where we set our course and achieve our purpose and balance our budget.
Just as important as what we do is how we do it. We never got anywhere except in the
right spirit.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to bind us together as one nation and to prepare our people for the century
ahead. I ask the Members of Congress, on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. TheAmerican people, with eyes open, returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of
another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. We will have our differences ~
Democrats and Republicans, the President and the Congress. But let us reach out across the
lines of party and philosophy, let us work to balance our budget and balance our values, and let
us make this a time when we work together for the American people.
�For we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony
and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this time.
My fellow Americans, the education of our children; the strength of our families; the
safety of our streets; the sanctity of our environment; the power of our science and technology;
the force of our freedom: These are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one
community, one city — these are the challenges of one nation ~ and we must meet them as one
America. For in America, the challenges of one are the challenges of all.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, and then make real.
For we are not just dreamers — we are the builders of bridges. It falls to us to finish the
job of building our bridge to the 21st Century - a bridge built on our sturdiest ideals, a bridge
wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge that connects our oldest
values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
�themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
journey continues. It is our time to build.
10
�#3
January 14, 1997 11:15pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
We gather at the last American inauguration of the 20th Century, exactly 200 years after
George Washington said farewell to his office and his fellow citizens, having launched his new
country on the Great Experiment that has brought us to this time and place.
At this moment of consecration and dedication, we come together to recall the greatness
of our past, understand the progress of our present, chart the potential of our future.
By the grace of God and the labor of our people, we enjoy the blessings of peace and
prosperity. Yet though we are free of war and depression and social unrest, this, too, is no
ordinary time. For we stand on the threshold not only of a new century, a new millennium, but of
an Age of Possibility ~ a time when more people at home and throughout the world will have the
chance to live their dream than ever before.
But first, we must do our duty. The demands of our time are great, are different. Of us -each one of us - they ask much. But they cannot ask too much, for we are Americans. We must
be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. In our hands,
together, rests the promise of America.
�America was founded on the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the 18th
Century. Our nation spread across the continent, preserved our union and abolished the awful
scourge of slavery in the 19th century. And we exploded onto the world stage, in turmoil and
triumph, to make this the American century.
In this century, America built the world's greatest industrial power, won two world wars
for freedom and peace, waged a long cold war to defeat communism, built institutions to advance
peace and prosperity for the world, and time and again, reached out a helping hand to the many
countries who longed for the blessings of liberty that we have come to take for granted.
In this century, our people built the great American middle class; lifted the elderly out of
poverty; provided health care and nutrition to poor children; worked to restore and preserve our
environment and public lands; provided for public education to all our children and built the
world's greatest system of universities, brought breathtaking advances in science, technology and
the arts, advanced equality for African-Americans and other minorities, and extended the circle
of citizenship, opportunity and dignity to women.
Thirty-four years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today spoke to us in
words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis dream - deeply
rooted in the American dream - "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal.'"
�Dr. King gave his life for that dream so that others might live it. America is the constant
movement toward living out our true creed. The future is built on our dreams and our labors. It
is our ideals and the striving to make them real that made this hundred years the American
century. And it is out of our dreams and our labors that we will build our bridge to the 21 st
century.
Already, everywhere we look, we can see the fine lines of that new century — dramatic
change in the way we work, the way we live, the way we relate to one another. Four years ago,
only a handful of physicists had heard of the World Wide Web. Today, millions of
schoolchildren use it to explore the vast world of knowledge. Scientists are decoding the
blueprint of human life. 100 years ago, our forbears worked on farms; 50 years ago in factories.
Tomorrow, our children will work in jobs that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot
even imagine.
Our progress gives us great opportunities, but we also see its darker side. Ancient threats
like ethnic and religious hatreds take on new and dangerous dimensions. Science and technology
can be used for evil as well as good ~ brandished by rogue states, terrorists, drug traffickers, and
organized criminals who exploit the very openness we cherish.
Our very steps seem to quicken as we approach the new century. But four years ago, our
triumphant march had seemed to falter.
�On another short day of winter, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift and
division. Together, we vowed to change our course, to force the spring, to renew our nation secure in the knowledge that what was wrong with America could be cured by what is right with
America.
Since that day, with the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, and the
progress we have built, we have begun together to renew America. Where once the ground
seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and that center can hold.
Once again, America stands strong as the world's indispensable nation. For the first time
in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. From the
snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast, those who
love peace look to America for inspiration and for hope.
Once again, America's economy is an unrivaled engine of opportunity for our people.
We have brought down our deficit, even as we have increased investment and promoted
prosperity - and made our economy the strongest on earth.
Once again, we have put family and faith and community at the center of our concerns.
Our most urgent social problems, which seemed destined to deepen ~ crime, welfare, poverty,
inequality among working people - all are bending to our efforts. Once, we doubted ourselves
and our ability to master these times; today, with every step we take, every challenge we meet,
�our confidence is restored.
Lincoln said, as our case is new, we must think anew, and act anew. As we turn to face
this new century, let us think anew and act anew for our new times. Let us build a new
government... let us summon a new sense of responsibility . . . let us establish a new spirit of
understanding.
We need a new government for a new century.
We have proved, in these last four years, that we can move beyond the competing
philosophies that threatened our progress. Today we can declare: Government is not the
problem; government is not the solution. We, the American people, are the solution.
Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only give us the tools to solve our problems
for ourselves.
Where it can stand up for the values and interests of ordinary Americans and give them
the power to make a real difference in their everyday lives, then our government should do more,
not less. Helping citizens to keep their streets safe from gangs and drugs. Helping communities
protect the environment God gave us. Helping parents to protect their children from harmful
outside influences. Challenging every student with higher standards and expectations. It must
offer the opportunity that the Bill of Rights guarantees to us all; it must bring out the best in us,
not the worst in us.
�We need a new sense of responsibility for a new century.
Our government will shrink - but you must not shrink from our great national challenges.
Today more than ever, we must ask more of ourselves and expect more from one another.
It is not in the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in
the towns and neighborhoods and homes, that we will forge our destiny.
Business and community leaders have a responsibility to provide jobs for welfare
recipients. Parents and teachers have a responsibility to demand the toughest standards for our
schools. Young people have a responsibility to stay off drugs, stay in school, leam right from
wrong. Families, neighbors, communities, must band together to bring values, discipline and
hope to our children. And each and every one of us must recognize our responsibility ~ not just
for ourselves, but for all those around us.
These are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city these are the challenges of one nation - and we must meet them as one America. For in
America, the challenges of one are the challenges of all.
Above all, we need a new spirit of understanding for a new century.
[This needs to be rewritten. Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E
�Pluribus Unum, out of many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not
separate camps, but family, white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share
basic American values and are willing to live by them. This must be the America that we
imagine, and then make real.]
[This section is unchanged from the last draft; we were not able to revise it in time to
include (he balanced couplets that you wanted.] It falls to us to make the most of this age of
possibility, to push back the forces of peril, to connect our oldest values to our newest challenges.
It falls to us to choose the future we believe in, and step by step, to build our bridge to the 21st
Century.
An America that leads the world in the next century as it has in this one ~ promoting
peace, opening trade, and fighting the forces of destruction. If we want the benefits of
leadership, we must shoulder the burdens.
We must build an America where we have connected all our schools to the Information
Superhighway, established the highest standards for learning in the world, and opened the doors
of college to all our people.
An America where anyone struggling to move from welfare to work can find a job, where
children aren't bom to children, and where all parents live up to their sacred responsibility as
parents ~ where the problems of the underclass have become a thing of the past.
�An America where familiar faces patrol our streets, criminals cannot buy guns, people
walk safely around the block at night, and send their children safely off to school each moming.
An America where parents have the chance to succeed at home and work, children can be
protected from dangerous influences like tobacco ads and television violence, and no child's
health is ever put at risk because a parent is changing jobs.
An America where the miracle of science - with a cure for cancer, a vaccine for AIDS ~
extends our lives, and the wonder of technology fdls it with knowledge.
An America where the loudest voice in politics is the quiet voice of the voter, where a
smaller government does a better job.
An America where we have kept our obligations to provide health care to our parents and
a secure retirement for all generations to come.
An America where we set our course and achieve our purpose and balance our budget *
while we balance our values. ]
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to bind us together as one nation and to prepare our people for the century
ahead. I ask the Members of Congress, on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The
�American people, with eyes open, returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of
another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. Nothing big ever came from being
small. For we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony
and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this time.
All of us here today are on a journey of life, which must some day come to an end. But
the journey of America must go on. And it will -- if we do our duty.
My fellow Americans, the future is not a gift — it is an achievement.
We, we Americans, are not just dreamers ~ we are the builders of bridges. It falls to us to
finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century - a bridge built on our sturdiest ideals, a
bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge built not so much
for ourselves as for those who will follow.
If we do our duty; if we build straight and true, then our joumey will go on, forward, into
the 21st Century. Then our people will cross that bridge with the American Dream alive for all
of our children. With the American promise of citizenship a reality for all of our people. With
America's dream of freedom spreading throughout the world.
And so, as we close the work of one century, and begin the work of a new one, let us
heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our hands for the good work" ahead. For us, in this
place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our joumey continues. It is our time to build.
�January 14, 1997 11:15pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
We gather at the last American inauguration of the 20th Century, exactly 200 years after
George Washington said farewell to his office and his fellow citizens, having launched his new
country on the Great Experiment that has brought us to this time and place.
At this moment of consecration and dedication, we come together to recall the greatness
of our past, understand the progress of our present, chart the potential of our future.
By the grace of God and the labor of our people, we enjoy the blessings of peace and
prosperity. Yet though we are free of war and depression and social unrest, this, too, is no
ordinary time. For we stand on the threshold not only of a new century, a new millennium, but of
an Age of Possibility - a time when more people at home and throughout the world will have the
chance to live their dream than ever before.
But first, we must do our duty. The demands of our time are great, are different. Of us —
each one of us - they ask much. But they cannot ask too much, for we are Americans. We must
be strong, for there is much to dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. In our hands,
together, rests the promise of America.
America was founded on the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the 18th
Century. Our nation spread across the continent, preserved our union and abolished the awful
scourge of slavery in the 19th century. And we exploded onto the world stage, in turmoil and
triumph, to make this the American century.
In this century, America built the world's greatest industrial power, won two world wars
for freedom and peace, waged a long cold war to defeat communism, built institutions to advance
peace and prosperity for the world, and time and again, reached out a helping hand to the many
countries who longed for the blessings of liberty that we have come to take for granted.
In this century, our people built the great American middle class; lifted the elderly out of
poverty; provided health care and nutrition to poor children; worked to restore and preserve our
environment and public lands; provided for public education to all our children and built the
world's greatest system of universities, brought breathtaking advances in science, technology and
the arts, advanced equality for African-Americans and other minorities, and extended the circle
of citizenship, opportunity and dignity to women.
�Thirty-four years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today spoke to us in
words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis dream - deeply
rooted in the American dream ~ "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal."'
Dr. King gave his life for that dream so that others might live it. America is the constant
movement toward living out our true creed. The future is built on our dreams and our labors. It
is our ideals and the striving to make them real that made this hundred years the American
century. And it is out of our dreams and our labors that we will build our bridge to the 21st
century.
Already, everywhere we look, we can see the fine lines of that new century ~ dramatic
change in the way we work, the way we live, the way we relate to one another. Four years ago,
only a handful of physicists had heard of the World Wide Web. Today, millions of
schoolchildren use it to explore the vast world of knowledge. Scientists are decoding the
blueprint of human life. 100 years ago, our forbears worked on farms; 50 years ago in factories.
Tomorrow, our children will work in jobs that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot
even imagine.
Our progress gives us great opportunities, but we also see its darker side. Ancient threats
like ethnic and religious hatreds take on new and dangerous dimensions. Science and technology
can be used for evil as well as good ~ brandished by rogue states, terrorists, drug traffickers, and
organized criminals who exploit the very openness we cherish.
Our very steps seem to quicken as we approach the new century. But four years ago, our
triumphant march had seemed to falter.
On another short day of winter, we gathered in hope, but stood in the shadow of drift and
division. Together, we vowed to change our course, to force the spring, to renew our nation ~
secure in the knowledge that what was wrong with America could be cured by what is right with
America.
Since that day, with the stands we have taken, the battles we have waged, and the
progress we have built, we have begun together to renew America. Where once the ground
seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have found a new center, and that center can hold.
Once again, America stands strong as the world's indispensable nation. For the first time
in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. From the
snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast, those who
love peace look to America for inspiration and for hope.
Once again, America's economy is an unrivaled engine of opportunity for our people.
We have brought down our deficit, even as we have increased investment and promoted
prosperity — and made our economy the strongest on earth.
�Once again, we have put family and faith and community at the center of our concerns.
Our most urgent social problems, which seemed destined to deepen ~ crime, welfare, poverty,
inequality among working people ~ all are bending to our efforts. Once, we doubted ourselves
and our ability to master these times; today, with every step we take, every challenge we meet,
our confidence is restored.
Lincoln said, as our case is new, we must think anew, and act anew. As we turn to face
this new century, let us think anew and act anew for our new times. Let us build a new
government... let us summon a new sense of responsibility . . . let us establish a new spirit of
understanding.
We need a new government for a new century.
We have proved, in these last four years, that we can move beyond the competing
philosophies that threatened our progress. Today we can declare: Government is not the
problem; government is not the solution. We, the American people, are the solution.
Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only give us the tools to solve our problems
for ourselves.
Where it can stand up for the values and interests of ordinary Americans and give them
the power to make a real difference in their everyday lives, then our government should do more,
not less. Helping citizens to keep their streets safe from gangs and drugs. Helping communities
protect the environment God gave us. Helping parents to protect their children from harmful
outside influences. Challenging every student with higher standards and expectations. It must
offer the opportunity that the Bill of Rights guarantees to us all; it must bring out the best in us,
not the worst in us.
We need a new sense of responsibility for a new century.
Our government will shrink ~ but you must not shrink from our great national challenges.
Today more than ever, we must ask more of ourselves and expect more from one another.
It is not in the narrow halls of government, but out across the great sweep of America, in
the towns and neighborhoods and homes, that we will forge our destiny.
Business and community leaders have a responsibility to provide jobs for welfare
recipients. Parents and teachers have a responsibility to demand the toughest standards for our
schools. Young people have a responsibility to stay off drugs, stay in school, leam right from
wrong. Families, neighbors, communities, must band together to bring values, discipline and
hope to our children. And each and every one of us must recognize our responsibility — not just
for ourselves, but for all those around us.
These are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one community, one city ~
these are the challenges of one nation — and we must meet them as one America. For in
�America, the challenges of one are the challenges of all.
Above all, we need a new spirit of understanding for a new century.
[This needs to be rewritten. Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E
Pluribus Unum, out of many, we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not
separate camps, but family, white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share
basic American values and are willing to live by them. This must be the America that we
imagine, and then make real.]
[This section is unchangedfrom the last draft; we were not able to revise it in time to
include the balanced couplets that you wanted.] It falls to us to make the most of this age of
possibility, to push back the forces of peril, to connect our oldest values to our newest challenges.
It falls to us to choose the future we believe in, and step by step, to build our bridge to the 21st
Century.
An America that leads the world in the next century as it has in this one -- promoting
peace, opening trade, and fighting the forces of destruction. If we want the benefits of
leadership, we must shoulder the burdens.
We must build an America where we have connected all our schools to the Information
Superhighway, established the highest standards for learning in the world, and opened the doors
of college to all our people.
An America where anyone struggling to move from welfare to work can find a job, where
children aren't bom to children, and where all parents live up to their sacred responsibility as
parents — where the problems of the underclass have become a thing of the past.
An America where familiar faces patrol our streets, criminals cannot buy guns, people
walk safely around the block at night, and send their children safely off to school each moming.
An America where parents have the chance to succeed at home and work, children can be
protected from dangerous influences like tobacco ads and television violence, and no child's .
health is ever put at risk because a parent is changing jobs.
An America where the miracle of science ~ with a cure for cancer, a vaccine for AIDS ~
extends our lives, and the wonder of technology fills it with knowledge.
An America where the loudest voice in politics is the quiet voice of the voter, where a
smaller government does a better job.
An America where we have kept our obligations to provide health care to our parents and
a secure retirement for all generations to come.
�An America where we set our course and achieve our purpose and balance our budget
while we balance our values. ]
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to bind us together as one nation and to prepare our people for the century
ahead. I ask the Members of Congress, on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The
American people, with eyes open, returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of
another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. Nothing big ever came from being
small. For we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony
and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this time.
All of us here today are on a joumey of life, which must some day come to an end. But
the joumey of America must go on. And it will - if we do our duty.
My fellow Americans, the future is not a gift — it is an achievement.
We, we Americans, are not just dreamers - we are the builders of bridges. It falls to us to
finish the job of building our bridge to the 21st Century — a bridge built on our sturdiest ideals, a
bridge wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge built not so much
for ourselves as for those who will follow.
If we do our duty; if we build straight and true, then our joumey will go on, forward, into
the 21st Century. Then our people will cross that bridge with the American Dream alive for all
of our children. With the American promise of citizenship a reality for all of our people. With
America's dream offreedomspreading throughout the world.
And so, as we close the work of one century, and begin the work of a new one, let us
heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our hands for the good work" ahead. For us, in this
place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our joumey continues. It is our time to build.
�January 14, 1997 10pm???
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U.S. CAPITOL
January 20,1997
Fellow citizens:
We gather at the last American inauguration of the 20th Century, exactly 200 years after
George Washington said farewell to his office and his fellow citizens, having launched his new
country with its then unique constitutional democracy, on the great adventure which has brought
us to this time and place.
At this moment of consecration and dedication, we come together to recall the greatness
of our past, understand the progress of our present, chart the potential of our future.
By the grace of God and the labor of our people, we enjoy the blessings of peace and
prosperity. Yet though we are free of war and depression and social unrest, this, too, is no
ordinary time for we stand on the threshold not only of a new century, a new millenium, but of an
Age of Possibility, in which, if we do our duty, more people here at home and throughout the
world will have the chance to live their dream than ever before in recorded history. But first, we
must do our duty.
America was founded on the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the 18th
Century. Our nation spread across the continent, preserved our union and abolished the awful
scourge of slavery in the 19th century. And we exploded onto the world stage, in turmoil and
triumph, to make this the American century.
In this century, America built the world's greatest industrial power, won two world wars
for freedom and peace, waged a long cold war to defeat communism, built institutions to advance
peace and prosperity for the world, and time and again, reached out a helping hand to the many
countries who longed for the blessings of liberty that we have come to take for granted.
Here at home, our people built the great American middle class, we lifted the elderly out
of poverty; provided health care and nutrition to poor children; worked to restore and preserve
our environment and public lands; provided for public education to all our children and built the
world's greatest system of universities, brought breathtaking advances in science, technology and
the arts, advanced equality for African-Americans and other minorities, and extended the circle
of citizenship, opportunity and dignity to women.
Thirty-four years ago, the man whose birth and life we celebrate today spoke to us in
words that rang out across this very mall. Martin Luther King, Jr. told ofhis dream - deeply
�rooted in the American dream — "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal."'
Dr. King gave his life for that dream so that others might live it. His words are as real to
us today as they were 34 years ago. For we know, America is about dreams, labors and
sacrifices, the constant movement toward living out our true creed. It is our ideals and the
striving to make them real that made this hundred years the American century. And it is out of
our dreams, labors and sacrifices that we will build our bridge to the 21st century.
Already, everywhere we look, we can already see portents of the new era ahead dramatic change in the way we work, the way we live, the way we relate to one another. Four
years ago, only a handful of physicists had heard of the World Wide Web. Today, millions of
schoolchildren use it to explore the vast world of knowledge. Scientists are decoding the
blueprint of human life. 100 years ago, our forbears worked on farms; 50 years ago in factories.
Tomorrow, our children will work in jobs that have not been invented, in enterprises we cannot
even imagine.
Our progress gives us great opportunities, but we also see its darker side. Ancient threats
like ethnic and religious hatreds take on new and dangerous dimensions. Modem technolog y
makes old demons even fiercer — rogue states, terrorists, drug traffickers, and organized
criminals who exploit the very openness we cherish.
Four years ago, our triumphant march seemed to falter as we approached century's end.
On that short day of winter, we gathered in hope, but still in the shadow of drift and
division. We changed our course as required by our challenges and demanded by our proud
heritage. Together, we vowed to force the spring, to renew our nation, secure in the knowledge
that whatever was wrong in our nation can be corrected by what is right with America.
Since that day, with stands taken, battles waged, and progress built, we have begun
together to renew America. Where once the ground seemed to shift beneath our feet, we have
found a new center, and that center can hold.
Once again, America stands strong as the world's indispensable nation. For the first time
in history, more citizens of the earth are living under democracy than dictatorship. From the
snows of Bosnia, to the sands of the Middle East, to the cobblestone streets of Belfast, those who
love peace look to America for inspiration and for hope.
Once again, America's economy is an unrivaled engine of opportunity for our people.
We have brought down our deficit, we have increased prosperity, we have made our economy the
strongest on earth.
Once again, we have put family and faith and community at the center of our concerns.
Our most urgent social problems, which seemed destined to deepen -- crime, welfare, poverty,
�inequality among working people — all are bending to our efforts.
My fellow Americans, for four years, we have worked to finish the unfinished business of
this century, and to prepare our people for the demands of the next. We stand together, in the
closing years of the first American century, and on the leading edge of a limitless second.
Lincoln said, as our case is new, we must think anew, and act anew. In the years to come
before the new century dawns, let us join together to build a new government... to summon a
new responsibility from our poeple ... and establish a new spirit of understanding.
We must begin by putting more opportunity in the hands of individuals, and demanding
more responsibility in return, changing the relationship between the people and their government.
Four years ago, we doubted that we could cut our deficit even as we increase investment;
we doubted that we could prevent pollution even as we promote industry; we doubted that we
could ever tame the social cancers of crime and violence and dependency and decay, which grew
and compounded for so long. Now we know that nothing is impossible when we work together
for our future.
For we have proved, in these last four years, that we can move beyond the competing
philosophies that threatened our progress. Today we declare: Government is not the problem;
government is not the solution. We, the American people, are the solution. But we must go
forward together, with government's responsibility to give us the tools to build successful lives,
strong families, and thriving communities.
[Government cannot solve our problems for us; it can only give us the tools to solve our
problems for ourselves.] [you cut this out, but we think it is a pithy summation of this point]
We must build a new kind of government for a new century. Where it can stand up for
the values and interests of ordinary Americans and give them the power to make a real
difference in their everyday lives, then our government should do more, not less. Helping
citizens to keep their streets safe from gangs and drugs. Helping communities protect the
environment God gave us. Helping parents to protect their children from harmful outside
influences. Challenging every student with higher standards and expectations. Protecting the
food we eat and the water we drink. It must offer the opportunity that the Bill of Rights
guarantees to us all; it must bring out the best in us, not the worst in us.
Just as our new government will be smaller, the new responsibility of our citizens must
grow larger. Our government will shrink - but we together must never shrink from our great
national challenges. And you must not shrink from yours.
From our earliest days, America was built on challenges, not promises. Today more than
ever, we must ask more of ourselves and expect more from one another. Each of us lives in a
new world that is too complex, too diffuse, to expect our problems to be sovled for us by
�somoene else, somewhere else. In our lifetimes, the fronteirs of personal freedom will widen at
an exhilarating pace; but new choices carry with them new responsibilities.
The strength of our country depends on the spirit of our people; and the spirit of our
people depends on the responsibility of each citizen. It is not in the narrow halls of government,
but out across the great sweep of America, in the towns and neighborhoods and homes, that we
will forge our destiny.
This new responsibility must be your responsibility. Business and community leaders
have a responsibility to provide jobs for welfare recipients. Parents and teachers have a
responsibility to demand the toughest standards for our schools. Entire communities must band
together to bring values, discipline and hope to their children.
Above all, we need a new spirit of undersanding for a new century.
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum, out of many,
we are one. We must be one, as neighbors, as fellow citizens, not separate camps, but family,
white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic American values and are
willing to live by them. This must be the America that we imagine, and then make real.
Let us build an America for the 21st century where the American promise is alive for all
our children, where every citizen is a part of our national community, and whose dream of
freedom spreads throughout the world.
We must protect the hard-won gains of income and health security in old age, but wwe
must also reform those systems to make sure they are there for future generations.
We must require people who can work, to go to work; but we must provide incentives to
make certain that jobs are there.
We must punish violent crime — punish it severely; but we msut wiwth equal diligence do
what we can to steer our young people from crime in the first place.
We must balance the budget ~ but we need not walk away from our obligations to our
parents and our children.
We must embrace the new global economy, with all its promise - but we must make sure
that our peopel are the winners of economic change.
[political reform?]
If we do what we must, this new century can be a time when material prosperity is
matched by spritual renewal. It will be a time of greater opportunity for more poeople than at any
time in human history. It will be a time when we assume responsibility, when none of our people
�can casally say, "it's not my problem." It will be a time when parents spend time with their
children because we all respet success at home as well as success at work.
The demands of our time are great, are different. Of us - each one of us - they ask much.
But they cannot ask too much, for we are Americans. We must be strong, for there is much to
dare. We must be bold, for there is much to do. In our hands, together, rests the promise of
America.
Today, I pledge to you, the American people, to use every ounce of my strength and every
power of my office to bind us together as one nation and to prepare our people for the century
ahead. I ask the Members of Congress, on this platform beside me, to join in that pledge. The
American people, with eyes open, returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of
another. They see, as we must, that we must work together. Let us work to balance our budget
and balance our values, and let us make this a time when we work together for the American
people.
For we are taught: "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time given to us on acrimony
and division." We must not waste the precious gift of this time. Nothing big ever came from
being small.
My fellow Americans, the education of our children; the strength of our families; the
safety of our streets; the sanctity of our environment; the power of our science and technology;
the force of our freedom: These are not the challenges of one family, one neighborhood, one
community, one city — these are the challenges of one nation ~ and we must meet them as one
America. For in America, the challenges of one are the challenges of all.
For we are not just dreamers ~ we are the builders of bridges. It falls to us to finish the
job of building our bridge to the 21st Century ~ a bridge built on our sturdiest ideals, a bridge
wide enough and strong enough to carry all Americans across, a bridge that connects our oldest
values to our newest challenges.
As we look out upon the monuments to America's greatness, to Washington, Jefferson,
and Lincoln, to those who have fallen in service to our country, we must remember that they *
bridges to an America not yet within their reach. They built their bridges not so much for
themselves, as for those who followed. Let us, like them, sacrifice and build, so that some day,
in an age we will never live to witness, Americans whose faces we will never see can have
America's ideals made real in their lives.
And so, my fellow Americans, let us heed the words of Scripture, and "strengthen our
hands for the good work"ahead. For us, in this place, in this moment, the dream lives on. Our
joumey continues. It is our time to build.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Inaugural Drafts - '97 [2]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 64
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 2
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
6/3/2015
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-064-008-2015