But
have we changed as a nation even in our time? Are we enthralled
with material things, less appreciative of the nobility of work
and sacrifice?
My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not
the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what matters. We
cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank
account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be
a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home,
his neighborhood and town better than he found it. What do we want
the men and women who work with us to say when we are no longer
there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us?
Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better, and
stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?
No President, no government, can teach us to remember what is best
in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this
government can help make a difference; if he can celebrate the
quieter, deeper successes that are made not of gold and silk, but
of better hearts and finer souls; if he can do these things, then
he must.
America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high
moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is
to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the face of the
world.
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