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 together 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 whenever 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, 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 two centuries of challenge, an idea
tempered by the knowledge that but for fate, we, the fortunate and the
unfortunate, might have been each other