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| Inauguration Address/Mark Wilson/Getty Images |
January 21, 2013
Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Inaugural Address
Monday, January 21, 2013
Washington, DC
As Prepared for Delivery –
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.
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