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We were so impressed by the entirety of President Obama’s Inaugural Address. His words were thought-provoking; filled with
caring and determination to address the rights, needs, hopes and dreams of all Americans,
and in light of the anti-rhetoric of some political factions, his message was extremely brave. The
links below will provide you with the complete transcript along with other Inauguration highlights, but here
are our favorite parts of President Obama's address…
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.”
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.
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.
Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the
vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.
…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 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 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 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.
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.
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 no citizen is forced to
wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.
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.
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 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.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and
lasting peace do not require perpetual war.
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 the
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.
America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every
corner of the globe…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.
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.
SOURCES
The 57th Presidential Inauguration | The White House
VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT: President
Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Address
SIGN CARD: Congratulations Mr. President!
A VARIETY OF LINKS: Inauguration Speech 2013
President Obama’s Inauguration Speech Encourages Equality Fairness,
Acceptance as the Means to Peace & Prosperity!
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