第1个回答 2010-07-06
First Inaugural Address of William Jefferson Clinton
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 march 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 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 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 many of our enterprises, great and small; when 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. And Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people. We must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us.
From our revolution, 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 citizens, 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—a new season of American renewal has begun.
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, 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 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. 26
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 us 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 at home. There is no longer 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 old 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 when ever 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. Today, we do more than celebrate America; we rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America.
An idea born in revolution and renewed through 2 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, at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin 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 way, and with God's help, we must answer the call.
Thank you and God bless you all.
威廉·杰弗逊首次就职演说的克林顿
我的同胞们。
今天,我们庆祝这个神秘的美国的更新。
这个仪式是隆冬之际。但是,我们说的话和我们向世界展示我们力量,春天。
在春天的重生,世界上最古老的民主,带来了视觉和勇气重新定义美国。
当我们宣布美国独立的创始人大胆的世界,我们的目的,全能者,他们意识到美国,一直持续下去,就必须改变。
没有变化,但对改变的缘故,保持美国的ideals-life变化、自由、追求幸福的权利。虽然我们行军到音乐,我们的时间,我们的使命是永恒的。
每一代美国人必须确定这是什么意思,是一个美国人。
我们国家的代表,我问候我的前任总统,因为他的服务去美国。只剩
我感谢数以百万计的人们,他们的决心和牺牲战胜忧郁,法西斯主义和共产主义。
今天,一个世代的阴影在冷战中承担的新职责的世界温暖的阳光的自由,但仍以古老的仇恨和威胁的新灾难。
在无与伦比的繁荣,我们承受美国经济仍然是世界上最好的,不过是被削弱的生意失败,工资停滞,增加不公,深刻分歧。
当乔治。华盛顿第一宣誓我刚刚宣誓拥护,慢慢地走在消息通过马背,横渡海洋乘船。现在,这个仪式的景象和声音播放给全世界的数十亿美元。
通讯和商业投资是全球性的,是移动;技术几乎是不可思议的,和对美好生活的野心是现在普遍。我们生活在和平与人竞争过地球。
深刻和强大的势力和改造我们的世界的震动,迫切的问题,我们的时间是我们是否可以改变我们的朋友,而不是我们的敌人。
这个新的世界已经丰富了数以万计的美国人,他们能够在竞争中获胜。但当大多数人更努力地工作,更少;当别人不能奏效;当保健费用中将家庭和威胁到我们的许多企业破产时,大、小;对犯罪的恐惧剥夺他们的自由;守法的公民,当数以百万计的穷孩子甚至无法想象我们是打电话给他们的生活lead-we没有变化,我们的朋友。
我们知道我们必须面对艰苦真理和采取有力措施。但我们还没有这么做。相反,我们已经漂泊,漂流降低了我们的资源,我们的经济,并动摇我们的信心。
虽然我们的挑战是可怕的,所以是我们的优势。和美国人曾经是一个不安于现状,充满希望的人,。我们必须使我们的愿景,将今天的任务摆在我们面前的人来。
从我们的革命,内战,大萧条时期民权运动,我们的人总是鼓起决心从这些危机构建的柱子,我们的历史。
托马斯·杰弗逊认为,保护我们的国家基础,我们将需要戏剧性的变化。哦,我的同胞们,这是我们的时间。让我们拥抱它。
我们的民主,不仅要羡慕的世界,但是发动机自己的更新。有什么毛病,不能治愈的美国和美国是正确的事。
所以今天,我们承诺结束僵局,drift-a时代的新赛季已经开始对美国更新。
重温美,我们必须勇敢。
我们必须做任何一代已做过。我们必须进行更多的投资在我们自己的人,在他们的工作,他们的未来,同时削减我们的巨大的债务。我们必须这样做的这个世界,我们必须争取每一个机会。
这可不是件容易的事,它需要牺牲。但它可以做,做公平、不选择牺牲自己,乃是为自己的缘故。我们必须为我们的国家的家庭提供其子女。
我们的先辈们看到自己的后代。我们所能做的也不少。谁曾经看孩子的眼睛闯入睡眠知道女儿。come-the是世界上我们所持有的理想,我们已经借了我们的星球,就是我们承担神圣的责任。
我们必须做什么美国最好的:提供更多的机会和需求从所有的一切责任。
现在是时候把这坏习惯等东西,从我们的政府或从对方。让我们所有人承担更多的责任,而不是仅为我们自己和我们的家庭,但对于我们的社区和我们的国家
更新的美国,我们必须修复我们的民主。
这美丽的首都,像每个资本从文明的起源,通常是一处的阴谋和计算方法。强大的位置和担心人们演习中关于是谁和谁出去,谁是谁,忘记那些辛劳和汗水送给我们。我们在这里和支付。
美国人应该得到更好的,在这个城市的今天,有些人想要做得更好。于是我说,我们所有的人都在这里,让我们下定决心改革我们的政治权力与特权,以致不再呼喊的声音的人。让我们放下个人利益,以便我们能感到痛苦和看到美国的承诺。
让我们把我们的政府为什麽叫做“大胆富兰克林•罗斯福的、持续的实验,政府是为我们的明天,我们昨天。
让我们把这资本回到了人们的归属。
更新,我们必须接受挑战美国国外在家。不再有什么是区分什么是domestic-the外国与世界经济、环境、艾滋病危机,世界军备race-they影响到我们所有的人。
今天,当旧秩序,新的世界更加自由,但不稳定。共产主义的崩溃已经招致老animosities和新的危险。很明显,美国将继续领导我们为之付出很多的世界。
虽然美国重建在家,我们不会缩水的挑战,也未能抓住这个机会,这个崭新的世界。与我们的朋友和盟友,我们将努力形状变化,以免它吞噬我们。
当我们的切身利益都是一种挑战,或将与国际社会的良心是违抗,我们将act-with和平的外交手段,以武力的时候曾经在必要的时候。我们国家的勇敢的美国士兵在波斯湾的今天,在索马里,还有其它地方,他们都见证了我们的决心。
但是我们最大的力量的权力,我们的想法,这在许多国家还不。在全世界范围内,我们看到他们为人接受,而且我们喜乐。我们希望,我们的心,我们的手,和那些在每个洲都是建筑的民主和自由。其原因是美国的原因。
美国人民已经改变,我们庆祝今天传唤。你的声音,你已经引起了一个明确的合唱。你已经投票吧在历史性的编号。你已经改变了脸,总统和国会的政治过程本身。是的,你,我的美国同胞们不得不春天。现在,我们必须做的工作要求本赛季。
我现在的工作,我的办公室的一切权力。我请求国会,跟我一起学习。但不管你是总统,不大会,没有一个政府,能承担这一任务。我的美国同胞们,你们也一定要打你参加我们的更新。我挑战新一代的年轻的美国人一个赛季你理想的商家,以帮助管教的孩子与那些需要的人,另我们社区。破有这么多的是done-enough的确为数百万人仍然是年轻的灵魂给自己的服务。
在服务,我们认识一个简单而有力的truth-we相辅相成。我们要互相照顾。今天,我们庆祝美国比我们;我们主持的美国。
一个想法出生在革命和更新通过2世纪的挑战。一个想法获得知识,但对命运的安排,we-the幸运和unfortunate-might被对方。一个想法肃然起敬的信心,我们的国家可以召唤从无数的多样性最深的统一。一个想法融入坚信美国的漫长旅程必须永远英勇向上。
所以,我的美国同胞们,在21世纪,让我们从现在开始,能源和希望,以信心和纪律,并让我们工作到我们的工作完成。经上说:“让我们不疲倦的良善、收获的季节,我们,如果我们不灰心。”
从这欢乐的山顶,我们听到一个值得庆祝的电话服务在利乏音谷。我们已经听到小号。我们已经改变了。现在,每一个在我们的方式,与神的帮助下,我们必须接听电话。
谢谢你,上帝保佑你。本回答被提问者采纳