    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 3 (Monday, January 25, 1993)]
    [Pages 75-77]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Inaugural Address

     January 20, 1993

        My fellow citizens, today we celebrate the mystery of American
    renewal. This ceremony is held in the depth of winter, but by the words
    we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the spring, a spring
    reborn in the world's oldest democracy that brings forth the vision and
    courage to reinvent America. When our Founders boldly declared America's
    independence to the world and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew
    that America, to endure, would have to change; not change for change's
    sake but change to preserve America's ideals: life, liberty, the pursuit
    of happiness. Though we marched to the music of our time, our mission is
    timeless. Each generation of Americans must define what it means to be
    an American.
        On behalf of our Nation, I salute my predecessor, President Bush,
    for his half-century of service to America. And I thank the millions of
    men and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over
    depression, fascism, and communism.
        Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the cold war assumes
    new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but
    threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues. Raised in unrivaled
    prosperity, we inherit an economy that is still the world's strongest
    but is weakened by business failures, stagnant wages, increasing
    inequality, and deep divisions among our own people.
        When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to
    uphold, news traveled slowly across the land by horseback and across the
    ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast
    instantaneously to billions around the world. Communications and
    commerce are global. Investment is mobile. Technology is almost magical.
    And ambition for a better life is now universal.
        We earn our livelihood in America today in peaceful competition with
    people all across the Earth. Profound and powerful forces are shaking
    and remaking our world. And the urgent question of our time is whether
    we can make change our friend and not our enemy. This new world has
    already enriched the lives of millions of Americans who are able to
    compete and win in it. But when most people are working harder for less;
    when others cannot work at all; when the cost of health care devastates
    families and threatens to bankrupt our enterprises, great and small;
    when the fear of crime robs law-abiding citizens of their freedom; and
    when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are
    calling them to lead, we have not made change our friend.
        We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we
    have not done so; instead, we have drifted. And that drifting has eroded
    our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence. Though
    our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Americans have ever
    been a restless, questing, hopeful people. And we must bring to our task
    today the vision and will of those who came before us. From our
    Revolution to the Civil War, to the Great Depression, to the civil
    rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to
    construct from these crises the pillars of our history. Thomas Jefferson
    believed that to preserve the very foundations of our Nation, we would
    need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow Americans, this
    is our time. Let us embrace it.
        Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine
    of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be
    cured by what is right with America. And so today we pledge an end to
    the era of deadlock and drift, and a new season of American renewal has
    begun.

    [[Page 76]]

        To renew America, we must be bold. We must do what no generation has
    had to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs,
    and in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt. And we
    must do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity. It
    will not be easy. It will require sacrifice, but it can be done and done
    fairly, not choosing sacrifice for its own sake but for our own sake. We
    must provide for our Nation the way a family provides for its children.
        Our Founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can do no
    less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep knows
    what posterity is. Posterity is the world to come: the world for whom we
    hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we
    bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer
    more opportunity to all and demand more responsibility from all. It is
    time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing from our
    Government or from each other. Let us all take more responsibility not
    only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our
    country.
        To renew America, we must revitalize our democracy. This beautiful
    Capital, like every capital since the dawn of civilization, is often a
    place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position
    and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is
    down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and
    pays our way. Americans deserve better. And in this city today there are
    people who want to do better. And so I say to all of you here: Let us
    resolve to reform our politics so that power and privilege no longer
    shout down the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage
    so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America. Let us
    resolve to make our Government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt
    called bold, persistent experimentation, a Government for our tomorrows,
    not our yesterdays. Let us give this Capital back to the people to whom
    it belongs.
        To renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well as at home.
    There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and what is
    domestic. The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS
    crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all. Today, as an older
    order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism's
    collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly,
    America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.
        While America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the
    challenges nor fail to seize the opportunities of this new world.
    Together with our friends and allies, we will work to shape change, lest
    it engulf us. When our vital interests are challenged or the will and
    conscience of the international community is defied, we will act, with
    peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary. The
    brave Americans serving our Nation today in the Persian Gulf, in
    Somalia, and wherever else they stand are testament to our resolve. But
    our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in
    many lands. Across the world we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our
    hopes, our hearts, our hands are with those on every continent who are
    building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause.
        The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. You
    have raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus. You have cast your
    votes in historic numbers. And you have changed the face of Congress,
    the Presidency, and the political process itself. Yes, you, my fellow
    Americans, have forced the spring. Now we must do the work the season
    demands. To that work I now turn with all the authority of my office. I
    ask the Congress to join with me. But no President, no Congress, no
    Government can undertake this mission alone.
        My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our renewal. I
    challenge a new generation of young Americans to a season of service: to
    act on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping company with
    those in need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much to be
    done; enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still young in
    spirit to give of themselves in service, too. In serving, we recognize a
    simple but powerful truth: We need each other, and we must care for one
    another.

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        Today we do more than celebrate America. We rededicate ourselves to
    the very idea of America, an idea born in revolution and renewed through
    two centuries of challenge; an idea tempered by the knowledge that, but
    for fate, we, the fortunate, and the unfortunate might have been each
    other; an idea ennobled by the faith that our Nation can summon from its
    myriad diversity the deepest measure of unity; an idea infused with the
    conviction that America's long, heroic journey must go forever upward.
        And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand at the edge of the 21st
    century, let us begin anew with energy and hope, with faith and
    discipline. And let us work until our work is done. The Scripture says,
    ``And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall
    reap, if we faint not.'' From this joyful mountaintop of celebration we
    hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets. We
    have changed the guard. And now, each in our own way and with God's
    help, we must answer the call.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:01 p.m. at the West Front of the
    Capitol. Prior to the address, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
    administered the oath of office.