how courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead
of passing them on to future generations.

Together, we will reclaim America's schools, before ignorance and apathy
claim more young lives.

We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our children from
struggles we have the power to prevent. And we will reduce taxes, to
recover the momentum of our economy and reward the effort and enterprise
of working Americans.

We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite
challenge.

We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is
spared new horrors.

The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake: America
remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a
balance of power that favors freedom. We will defend our allies and
our interests. We will show purpose without arrogance. We will meet
aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength. And to all nations,
we will speak 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 thou