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Heroes at Factory Gates
Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes—they just don’t know where to look. You can
see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food
to feed all of us and then the world beyond.
You meet heroes across a counter—and they’re on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with
faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity.
There are individuals and families whose taxes support the Government and whose voluntary gifts support
church, charity, culture, art and education. Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain
our national life.
Now, I have used the words "they" and "their" in speaking of these heroes. I could
say "you" and "your" because I’m addressing the heroes of whom I speak—you, the citizens
of this blessed land.
Your dreams, your hopes, your goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes and the goals of this Administration,
so help me God.
We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup.
Loving Our Countrymen
How can we love our country and not love our countrymen? And loving them reach out a hand when they fall,
heal them when they’re sick and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal
in fact and not just in theory?
Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is a unequivocal and emphatic yes.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I’ve just taken with the intention of presiding
over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.
In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed our economy and reduced productivity.
Steps will be taken aimed at restoring the balance between the various levels of government. Progress
may be slow—measured in inches and feet, not miles—but we will progress.
It is time to reawaken this industrial giant, to get government back within its means and to lighten our
punitive tax burden.
And these will be our first priorities, and on these principles there will be no compromise.
The Fight for Independence
On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might’ve been one of the greatest among the Founding
Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans, "Our
country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide
the important question upon which rest the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy
of yourselves."
Well, I believe we the Americans of today are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must
be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.
And as we renew ourselves here in our own land we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the
world. We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.
To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen our historic ties and assure them
of our support and firm commitment.
We will match loyalty with loyalty. We will strive for mutually beneficial relations. We will not use
our friendship to impose on their sovereignty for our own sovereignty is not for sale.
Peace the Highest Goal
As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is
the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not
surrender for it—now or ever.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as
a failure of will.
When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength
to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength.
Above all we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as
the will and moral courage of free men and women.
It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.
It is a weapon that we as Americans do have.
Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.
Prayer on Inaugural Day
I am told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this day; for that I am deeply grateful.
We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and good,
I think, if on each inaugural day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer.
This is the first time in our history that this ceremony has been held, as you’ve been told, on this West
Front of the Capitol.
Standing here, one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this city’s special beauty and history.
At the end of this open mall are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand.
Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man. George Washington, father of our country. A
man of humility who came to greatness reluctantly. He led America out of revolutionary victory into infant
nationhood.
Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with
his eloquence.
And then beyond the Reflecting Pool, the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand
in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Monuments to Heroes
Beyond those moments, monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills
of Arlington National Cemetery with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars
of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom.
Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier.
Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, the Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around
the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies
and jungles of a place called Vietnam.
Under such a marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barber shop in
1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division.
There, on the Western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery
fire.
We are told that on his body was found a diary.
On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words:
"America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure,
I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so
many thousands of others were called upon to make.
It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe
in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together with God’s help we can and will resolve
the problems which now confront us.
And after all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.
God bless you and thank you. Thank you very much.
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