On each national day of inauguration since 1789, the people have renewed their sense of dedication to the United States.

In Washington's day the task of the people was to create and weld together a nation.

In Lincoln's day the task of the people was to preserve that Nation from disruption within.

In the 20th century it became the task of the people to preserve the Nation throughout economic depressions and global wars. To reunite our Nation in the face of Korea and Vietnam. To expand our definition of Nation to include equality for all.

In the 220 years since that first inauguration, much has been asked of the people of this Nation. Today I ask for more.

I see our sons and daughters fighting in two wars overseas, and I ask that we support them. I ask that we remember that whatever our reasons for being there, we are there now and we are needed, by our own troops and by the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

I see jobs disappearing and I ask that we make sure every American has a place in the global economy we live in now, and I ask that we do this not through protectionism but by proving, once more, that we are the best workers and the best innovators in the world. We will not compete in a race to the bottom but instead turn our focus to education, to insuring that every American can go to college and to training employees in new technologies.

I see faith in our financial institutions wavering, and I ask for corporations, regulators, and investors all to shoulder responsibility in restoring our industries.

I see 45 million Americans without health care, and I ask that we treat health as the inalienable right that it is and no longer allow our children to live without it.

I see genocide in Darfur, slavery in Myanmar, unjust executions in Saudi Arabia and Iran and I ask that we remember that the worth of a person is judged by how he helps those less fortunate than he, and the worth of a nation is judged by how it helps nations in peril. I ask that we no longer stand idly by but that we fight cruelty where we find it ant that we give help where we see it needed.

I see epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis, and I ask that we remember that we have drugs that can fight these diseases and I ask again that our great nation give help where we see it needed.

I see the injustices we have committed at Guantanamo Bay and I ask that we return to the constitution and the laws that have made our nation great instead of seeking loopholes, that we remember our commitment to the sanctity of life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice.

I see a planet in peril, and I ask that we remember that it is our children and our grandchildren who will suffer for our greed. I ask for corporations to be innovative, for consumers to be diligent and for our government to finally lead the way into the Green Millennium.

When you elected me, you displayed your commitment to change. But change only began on that historical night, and I will ask again, and again, and again, to prove your commitment to change and to your fellow Americans. Today we are the nation that founded democracy, a nation that survived a civil war, a nation that helped rebuild the world in the wake of World War II. So I ask you: Think of what we can be tomorrow.

My fellow Americans, a new day has begun.

To those on the march, to those who follow, to the generations still unborn, and to those who have already begun to tire of the trip, I rekindle the call to begin the journey this day.

This day began with a vision. This day began with a dream for our future. This day began with a desire for change. But this day will stand as testimony to the ability of America to realise that change. This is our time.

We all have the potential; right this moment, to start a change for good. Sometimes the winds of change blow too strongly, or too meekly, but they are the ones we feel. Because they were not made by those who sit still, watching and waiting. No, indeed they were made by those of us who cared to show up.

They may not be the oldest. They may not be the wisest. And most of the time, they may not be the most expected.

But they always show up, and it is they who will stand up and initiate a change.

So to those of you who feel as if you cannot contribute to your country, and to those of you who have other, better, wiser ideas, then I say this: stand up. Stand up and be that voice in the room, so you can speak for those who cannot. Stand up and raise your voice so a better way may be found. Stand up and be there when our generation evolves and grows and soars and stumbles and falls, but please, be there when it does.

Because this generation will either be remembered as the one who stood up and was counted, who was there to make the hard decisions and do what was deemed impossible, who was there on the edge of the cliff and did not shy away. Stand up as we take our place up beside generations who did great things, who explored the world to its farthest domains, who put man on the moon.

Or, we will be the last generation, remembered by nobody, because nobody showed up.

There are many challenges we will have to face. But there are many of us, who have risen to meet the challenges head on and give it the best we can. But the immediate challenge matters not. It is rather that which lies beyond, that which is so much more important, so much bigger and more intangible than we may ever know. America.

And I will be there, because it will be hard, and so the rewards ever greater. I will be there because this nation has been bound together since day one of our independence, because men stood up.

This innauguration does not end with me. It is a new beginning for this nation. Each day we leave ourselves behind, and each day we recreate ourselves, just that little bit differently. This day will not be the last time we will reshape ourselves as a nation, to meet new challenges. Tomorrow won't be the first either. We will look back upon this day and wonder about how much it meant to us in the end.

Innauguration does not mean the first time. It does not mean an end to the past either. To change is to adapt to something new, even if it is hard.

So my fellow Americans as we approach tomorrow head on, with determination and excitement, and as we run past it to inherit the unfulfilled dreams of our fathers:

Let us do what is hard. Let us achieve what is great.

Thank you, and God bless America.

Future generations of Americans will look back at this moment of crisis and opportunity and they will judge us -- but not by our words. They will measure us -- but not by the promises we make. For language has the power to move us to action, but it is never a substitute for it.

Our children's children will ask only this: What did they DO, back then? Did they rise to the challenges providence had set before them? Did they unite as one people, with a single common destiny? Did they set aside the old partisan rancor in order to protect our great nation, to strengthen democracy and human rights at home and abroad and to safeguard the blessings of the natural world for all time? Did they, in other words, live up to the great promise cradled in that name: America? What will these future generations say?

They will say, "Yes, they did."

Because, my fellow Americans, yes, we will. We embrace these challenges, all of them. For that is where we find meaning.

Today we stand together on the brink of a new era. Our nation is at a turning point, and the decisions we make from this day forth will profoundly resonate for generations to come. We can seize this opportunity for peace, for renewal, for a chance to redeem the principles and values our forefathers laid down so many years ago when they wrote our Constitution. But we must stand together if we want to achieve this dream for ourselves, for our children and for our grandchildren. We must live together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, each of us willing to sacrifice all that we hold dear in order to make the kind of difference we want to see in our nation and in our world. We can no longer afford to stand silent and watch as our fellow countrymen suffer, enslaved in the chains of discrimination and poverty, fear and regret. For in this land of great opportunity and greater reward, we can open our hearts and our minds to each other and find solace and comfort there. When we live as one people, with one voice that includes all, we can acheive greatness, no matter the seriousness of our situation.

We have seen dispair run rampant in many homes and businesses in America, but we cannot afford to cower in fear. We can harness the spirit of goodness we as a nation inherently posess and use it as a mighty sword of light in a time of spreading darkness. We can stand up proudly, as a handful of lowly colonists did more than 200 years ago, to declare that we will never be defeated, that we will never back down, that we will conquor that which stands in our path with an open heart and a clear conscience.

As we soldier forward from this day let us remember not only those who came before us, but those whose time has yet to come. Our children are the backbone of our nation, and they will need the same blessings of open spaces, clean air and water, and free education that we have all enjoyed in this great land. We must remember the future in all that we do here in the present, in order to return that which we have borrowed untouched and unsullied for those of us yet to come.

Today in this timultuous time, we, citizens of the United States, band together to resurrect our economy using the hope and promise that we have always been proud to say is the American dream, we will harness new technology, creating jobs in medicine and industry, creating jobs, prosperity and hope for our future. We will seek to leave our children a cleaner, healthier globe and we will reach out to other nations to join us in our quest for peace on earth. We will accomplish this with one strong hand workking together, as one people living in one world. And tomorrow we will look back to this moment and repeat proudly "Yes we did"

n our lives. In perfecting America and passing a stronger, more compassionate nation to the next generation.

My fellow Americans,

Two hundred and twenty years ago a general took an oath to uphold, protect and defend our constitution.[1] Upon this book, he made a solemn vow to ever strive for a more perfect union. A lawyer from Illinois then fought to extend that union to all our nation's inhabitants. A governor from New York called for confidence in that union against the perils of fear. An ensign from Massachusetts called for each of us to ask what we might do for that union. A preacher to the opposite side of this very mall to implore that we might drop our bigotry and prejudices and finally realize that each one of us is equal before the eyes of God not just in the next world but also in ours. In each successive generation, leaders have stepped forth and Americans have stepped up to make our union ever more perfect. Men and women have fought and worked and died to narrow the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of our times.

The realities of today are hard ones. Plunging financial markets and home prices endanger the nest eggs of millions of Americans. Middle class Americans are out of work and working harder for less. Young Americans are still not receiving the world's best education not because we cannot provide it but because they cannot afford it. Old Americans are afraid to go to the hospital because of rising premiums and shrinking incomes.

But we have prevailed over much worst. We have prevailed over depression and fascism, communism and bigotry, and if we step up today we will prevail again.

Some hold, in our ever flattening world, that because all men are created equal, so too are all ideas, and if all ideas are exist equally, than ideas may as well not exist at all. Some hold that they may as well play with the hopes of homeowners for financial gain. Some insist that they may as well pollute tomorrow's world so they can profit today. That they may as well terrorize the innocent that they might frighten us into submission. That satisfaction of the unbridled greed of the individual can be the only reliable measure of success.

Dictatorships were and still are premised on that greed. Premised on the theory that a free citizen will not serve society. Premised on the lie that only coercion stands between society and anarchy. Two hundred and twenty years ago a Virginia farmer and his nation insisted that was not the case. A citizen can only thrive in a free society. And only a free citizen can maintain a free society.

That nation began a project.

A project to build a society in which every newborn child might realize the same opportunities, the same rights and the same hope. This project goes beyond any individual aspiration.

It is greater than any bureaucrat, politician or leader. It is a task undertaken by free people everywhere on behalf of all mankind. So let us all make a vow today, for if we are to strive for a more perfect union, we must strive together.[2]

If we are to pursue happiness, we must also strive to protect the happiness of others. If we are to pursue learning, we must also strive to educate. If we are to love others, we must also have the courage to protect those who love us. Let us be better teachers, better doctors, better students and better husbands and wives.

Being American means we have the privilege, the right and the duty to strive for a more perfect society, not tomorrow, not next year not under the next leadership, but in our time.

In our time we can fix the bridges and rebuild the roads that the American economy might thrive far into the future.

In our time we can stop the ocean's from rising, curb pollution, and protect our planet and protect our children's planet.

In our time we can build new schools, hire new teachers and stop just giving great teachers our praises and start giving them raises.

In our time we can make healthcare universal.

In our time we can stop our addiction on oil and stop funding both sides in the war on terror.

In our time we can rebuild and restore the promise America holds to the world. The last best chance can once again be the best. We cannot just promote ideals without also living them. We can look leaders in the eye when we tell them not to torture because they know we do not. And when our nation or are values should be threatened, we will never back down, because our men and women in uniform will know that ours is not a nation that strives for domination or individual gain but for what is just, and so long as we keep justice on our side, so long as we buttress the force of arms with the force of ideas, there is no enemy we cannot destroy and no challenge we cannot overcome.

Americans are not of one mind. We have spirited differences on every topic conceivable, and that makes us stronger. Our differences allow us to change and adapt our covenants and customs. But we must resist the partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has gridlocked us in the past. We have our differences, but we also have our similarities. There are deep differences and good people on both sides of the abortion debate, but we can all agree we should try to prevent unintended pregnancies. We can all agree we should provide single mothers with help if they want to keep the baby. We all share one country, one promise. We are all Americans, and when that promise is not a promise to us, but also a promise by us, we make our own destiny.

So let us renew this promise. This is not an oath I cannot fulfill by myself. In this country we elect leaders not to rule, but to serve. But we must all serve. Let us move forward together. Let us become a better nation.

Let today is not a triumph,[3] but a dedication. A dedication that we will work harder, go further and persist longer so that we should make this great country even greater and leave our children a finer world than that which we entered. A dedication to join the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.