小布什出任美国总统的就职演说词
Nimitz
Chief Justice Rehnquist, President Carter, President Bush,
President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the
peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our
country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new
beginnings.
As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our
nation.
And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with
spirit and ended with grace.
I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of
America's leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.
We have a place, all of us, in a long story -- a story we
continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world
that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a
slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a
power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend
but not to conquer.
It is the American story -- a story of flawed and fallible
people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.
The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise
that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no
insignificant person was ever born.
Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in
our laws. And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes
delayed, we must follow no other course.
Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and
democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind,
taking root in many nations.
Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is
the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own, a
trust we bear and pass along. And even after nearly 225 years, we have
a long way yet to travel.
While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise,
even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans
are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the
circumstances of their birth. And sometimes our differences run so
deep, it seems we share a continent, but not a country.
We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. Our unity, our
union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation.
And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of
justice and opportunity.
I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power
larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His image.
And we are confident in principles that unite and lead us onwar.