If we do that, I guarantee you, we will not fail. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.Īnd, we must meet this moment as the United States of America. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature.įor without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity. In each of these moments, enough of us came together to carry all of us forward. Through the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifice, and setbacks, our “better angels” have always prevailed.
Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart. I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy. We can make America, once again, the leading force for good in the world. We can reward work, rebuild the middle class, and make health care We can teach our children in safe schools. Uniting to fight the common foes we face: I ask every American to join me in this cause. Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: When he put pen to paper, the President said, “If my name ever goes down into history it will be for this act and my whole soul is in it.” In another January in Washington, on New Year’s Day 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear.Īnd now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.Ī cry for survival comes from the planet itself. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed.Ī cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II. We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility.įew periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now.Ī once-in-a-century virus silently stalks the country. Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. This is a great nation and we are a good people. On “We the People” who seek a more perfect Union. I have just taken the sacred oath each of these patriots took - an oath first sworn by George Washington.īut the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.
You know the resilience of our Constitution and the strength of our nation.Īs does President Carter, who I spoke to last night but who cannot be with us today, but whom we salute for his lifetime of service. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here.
We look ahead in our uniquely American way - restless, bold, optimistic - and set our sights on the nation we know we can be and we must be. So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries. We have learned again that democracy is precious.Īnd at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed. The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded. Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy. Through a crucible for the ages America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge.
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