[url] telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9816372/Barack-Obama-Inaugural-Address-2013-full-text.html [/url]

Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the
United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow
citizens:
Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear
witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We
affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what
binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the
tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes
us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance
to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two
centuries ago:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the
meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For
history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident,
they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is
a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on
Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the
tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of
a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by,
and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe
our founding creed.
For more than two hundred years, we have.
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we
learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and
equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made
ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
Together, we determined that a modern economy requires
railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce;
schools and colleges to train our workers.
Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives
when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.
Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the
vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards
and misfortune.
Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of
central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that
all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our
celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on
hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our
character.
But we have always understood that when times change, so
must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new
responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual
freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the
American people can no more meet the demands of today’s
world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met
the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and
militias. No single person can train all the math and science
teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or
build the roads and networks and research labs that will
bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than
ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and
one people.
This generation of Americans has been tested by crises
that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade
of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun.
America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the
qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth
and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for
risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are
made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we
seize it together.
For we, the people, understand that our country cannot
succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing
many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity
must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.
We know that America thrives when every person can find
independence and pride in their work; when the wages of
honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We
are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest
poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as
anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and
she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the
needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and
technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code,
reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills
they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But
while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation
that rewards the effort and determination of every single
American. That is what this moment requires. That is what
will give real meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a
basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the
hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size
of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must
choose between caring for the generation that built this
country and investing in the generation that will build its
future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when
twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child
with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that
in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or
happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how
responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may
face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in
a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other –
through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these
things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do
not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the
risks that make this country great.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans
are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will
respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the
failure to do so would betray our children and future
generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment
of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of
raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.
The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long
and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this
transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations
the technology that will power new jobs and new industries
– we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain
our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests
and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks.
That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our
care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our
fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting
peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and
women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are
unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the
memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that
is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep
us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But
we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just
the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of
friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as
well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values through
strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage
to try and resolve our differences with other nations
peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers
we face, but because engagement can more durably lift
suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong
alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew
those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis
abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world
than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy
from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East,
because our interests and our conscience compel us to act
on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a
source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the
victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because
peace in our time requires the constant advance of those
principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and
opportunity; human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of
truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that
guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca
Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those
men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along
this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk
alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is
inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those
pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our
wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to
their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay
brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the
law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love
we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey
is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to
exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until
we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful
immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity;
until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our
workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey
is not complete until all our children, from the streets of
Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of
Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and
always safe from harm.
That is our generation’s task – to make these words, these
rights, these values – of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness – real for every American. Being true to our
founding documents does not require us to agree on every
contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in
exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to
happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-
long debates about the role of government for all time – but
it does require us to act in our time.
For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay.
We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute
spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned
debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be
imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will
be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand
here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years
hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in
a spare Philadelphia hall.
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you
today, like the one recited by others who serve in this
Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or
faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during
the duration of our service. But the words I spoke today are
not so different from the oath that is taken each time a
soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream.
My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to
the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with
pride.
They are the words of citizens, and they represent our
greatest hope.
You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s
course.
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the
debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but
with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient
values and enduring ideals.
Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and
awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common
effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication,
let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain
future that precious light of freedom.
Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these
United States of America.