great natural bounty of our water, air, and majestic land.

And in this land of new promise, we will have reformed our politics so
that the voice of the people will always speak louder than the din of
narrow interests--regaining the participation and deserving the trust of
all Americans.

Fellow citizens, let us build that America, a nation ever moving forward
toward realizing the full potential of all its citizens. Prosperity and
power--yes, they are important, and we must maintain them. But let
us never forget: The greatest progress we have made, and the greatest
progress we have yet to make, is in the human heart. In the end, all the
world's wealth and a thousand armies are no match for the strength and
decency of the human spirit.

Thirty-four years ago, the man whose life we celebrate today spoke to
us down there, at the other end of this Mall, in words that moved the
conscience of a nation. Like a prophet of old, he told of his dream
that one day America would rise up and treat all its citizens as equals
before the law and in the heart. Martin Luther King's dream was the
American Dream. His quest is our quest: the ceaseless striving to
live out our true creed. Our history has been built on such dreams
and labors. And by our dreams and labors we will redeem the promise of
America in the 21st century.

To that effort I pledge all my strength and every power of my office.
I ask the members of Congress here to join in that pledge. The American
people returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of
another. Surely, they did not do this to advance the politics of petty
bickering and extreme partisanship they plainly deplore. No, they
call on us instead to be repairers of the breach, and to move on with
America's mission.

America demands and deserves big things from us--and nothing big ever
came from being small. Let us remember the timeless wisdom of Cardinal
Bernardin, when facing the end of his own life. He said:

"It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time, on acrimony and
division."

Fellow citizens, we must not waste the precious gift of this time. For
all of us are on that same journey of our lives, and our journey, too,
will come to an end. But the journey of our America must go on.

And so, my fellow Americans, we must be strong, for there is much to
dare. The demands of our time are great and they are different. Let us
meet them with faith and courage, with patience and a grateful a