for the values that gave our nation birth.

America, at its best, is compassionate. In the quiet of American
conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our
nation's promise.

And whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk
are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God, they are
failures of love.

And the proliferation of prisons, however necessary, is no substitute
for hope and order in our souls.

Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not
strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of
us are diminished when any are hopeless.

Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public
health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work
of a nation, not just a government.

And some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a
mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and
mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an
honored place in our plans and in our laws.

Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen
to those who do.

And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded
traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.

America, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility is valued
and expected.

Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call
to conscience. And though it requires sacrifice, it brings a deeper
fulfillment. We find the fullness of life not only in options, but in
commitments. And we find that children and community are the
commitments that set us free.

Our public interest depends on private character, on civic duty and
family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted, unhonored acts of decency
which give direction to our freedom.

Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of
our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with
great love. The most important tasks of a democracy are done by
everyone.

I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions with
civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for
greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to
live it as well.

In all these ways, I will bring the values of our history to the care of
our times.

What you do is as important as anything governm