Bush inauguration speech

Mill Street Press ^ | 07/27/04 | J-Deal

[jmtasu]

Along with Kennedy’s 1961 speech, Bush’s often overlooked speech was considered one of the two greatest inauguration speeches of the past 60 years...

I wonder how few knew how strong the words would seem three years later.

We have a place, all of us, in a long story--a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer. It is the American story--a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.

I have always stated America has made more mistakes then any other country and has also had more accomplishment. We seem to be the only country in the world that considers failure a good thing, failure as a stepping stone to success. I talk to friends over the internet who only know of European mentality and this is so foreign to them while being so normal to me. I can’t imagine being alive believing anything else.

Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small.

But the stakes for America are never small. If our country does not lead the cause of freedom, it will not be led. If we do not turn the hearts of children toward knowledge and character, we will lose their gifts and undermine their idealism. If we permit our economy to drift and decline, the vulnerable will suffer most. We must live up to the calling we share. Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment, if we keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment.

America is only small when we choose to be, yet we have both forced ourselves into greatness and been forced into greatness. We must never forget that our country chooses our destiny, not those who live outside of our borders.

America, at its best, is also courageous. Our national courage has been clear in times of depression and war, when defending common dangers defined our common good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.

To think only 8 months later....

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.

Amazing I never heard the press bring up this snippet once during the war on terror.

What you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character.

I hope the president states something similar again during the convention, this is so inline with my political philosophy and I wish the president would stay in touch with it. I can think of nothing more courageus for a politican then to state personal responcibility.

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.

How this speech is not brought up more is a mystery to me. It’s often cited by the political geeks and pundits, but I never see it rehashed. It’s almost prophetic in what was to come over the next 2 years.

Mill Street Press

[jmtasu]

Rereading Bush's speech, I hope we see more of this in times to come. He seems to have triangulated so much, that he isn't the man we elected when it comes to domestic policy and small government.