衡阳泰豪科技有限公司:跟奥巴马学英语 - 就职演说

INAUGURAL ADDRESS
January 20, 2009 | Washington, D.C.

My fellow citizens:
Istand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trustyou have bestowed , mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors . Ithank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as thegenerosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath . The wordshave been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still watersof peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering cloudsand raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simplybecause of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because Wethe People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears , andtrue to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
Thatwe are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is atwar against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economyis badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on thepart of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices andprepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost, jobs shed,businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools failtoo many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we useenergy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These arethe indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Lessmeasurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across ourland; a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, that the nextgeneration must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that thechallenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. Theywill not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know thisAmerica: They will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
Onthis day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and falsepromises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too longhave strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in thewords of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. Thetime has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our betterhistory; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed onfrom generation to generation: the God-given promise that all areequal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their fullmeasure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, weunderstand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Ourjourney has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has notbeen the path for the faint-hearted , for those who prefer leisure overwork, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it hasbeen the risk-takers, the doers , the makers of things—some celebrated ,but more often men and women obscure in their labor—who have carried usup the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died in places like Concord and Gettysburg ; Normandy and Khe Sanh .
Timeand again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked tilltheir hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They sawAmerica as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater thanall the differences of birth or wealth or faction .
This is thejourney we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerfulnation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when thiscrisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services noless needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Ourcapacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat , ofprotecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions—thattime has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dustourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
Foreverywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of our economycalls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create newjobs but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roadsand bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerceand bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place andwield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower itscosts. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel ourcars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools andcolleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this wecan do. All this we will do.
Now, there are some who question thescale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate toomany big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten whatthis country has already done, what free men and women can achieve whenimagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.
Whatthe cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneaththem, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for solong, no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether ourgovernment is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether ithelps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, aretirement that is dignified . Where the answer is yes, we intend tomove forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of uswho manage the public’s dollars will be held to account , to spendwisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day,because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people andtheir government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market isa force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expandfreedom is unmatched. But this crisis has reminded us that without awatchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannotprosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of oureconomy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domesticproduct , but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extendopportunity to every willing heart—not out of charity , but because itis the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, wereject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Ourfounding fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine,drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, acharter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still lightthe world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so,to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from thegrandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: knowthat America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and childwho seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead oncemore.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism andcommunism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdyalliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alonecannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead,they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our securityemanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; thetempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers ofthis legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those newthreats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation andunderstanding between nations. We’ll begin to responsibly leave Iraq toits people and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With oldfriends and former foes, we’ll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclearthreat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will notapologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense. And forthose who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughteringinnocents, we say to you now that, “Our spirit is stronger and cannotbe broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”
For weknow that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are anation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus , and nonbelievers .We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end ofthis Earth. And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war andsegregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and moreunited, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall somedaypass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the worldgrows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that Americamust play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslimworld, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutualrespect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict orblame their society’s ills on the West, know that your people will judgeyou on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling topower through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, knowthat you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend ahand if you are willing to unclench your fist .
To the people of poornations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourishand let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungryminds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we saywe can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside ourborders, nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard toeffect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As weconsider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humblegratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-offdeserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just asthe fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. Wehonor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, butbecause they embody the spirit of service: a willingness to find meaningin something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment, a momentthat will define a generation, it is precisely this spirit that mustinhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it isultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon whichthis nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when thelevees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut theirhours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkesthours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled withsmoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finallydecides our fate.
Our challenges may be new, the instruments withwhich we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our successdepends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance andcuriosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things aretrue. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout ourhistory. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What isrequired of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on thepart of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation andthe world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seizegladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to thespirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficulttask.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
Thisis the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women andchildren of every race and every faith can join in celebration acrossthis magnificent mall. And why a man whose father less than 60 years agomight not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand beforeyou to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day inremembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year ofAmerica’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriotshuddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capitalwas abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood.At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, thefather of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
“Letit be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothingbut hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country,alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.”
America, in theface of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let usremember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave oncemore the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be saidby our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to letthis journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and witheyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth thatgreat gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you. God bless you.
And God bless the United States of America.