Speech Transcript:

 Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the 104th Congress,
distinguished guests, my fellow Americans all across our land:

Let me begin tonight by saying to our men and women in uniform around
the world, and especially those helping peace take root in Bosnia and
to their families, I thank you. America is very, very proud of you.

My duty tonight is to report on the state of the Union -- not the
state of our government, but of our American community; and to set
forth our responsibilities, in the words of our Founders, to form a
more perfect union.

The state of the Union is strong. Our economy is the healthiest it
has been in three decades. We have the lowest combined rates of
unemployment and inflation in 27 years. We have created nearly 8
million new jobs, over a million of them in basic industries, like
construction and automobiles. America is selling more cars than Japan
for the first time since the 1970s. And for three years in a row, we
have had a record number of new businesses started in our country.

Our leadership in the world is also strong, bringing hope for new
peace. And perhaps most important, we are gaining ground in restoring
our fundamental values. The crime rate, the welfare and food stamp
rolls, the poverty rate and the teen pregnancy rate are all down. And
as they go down, prospects for America's future go up.

We live in an age of possibility. A hundred years ago we moved from
farm to factory. Now we move to an age of technology, information,
and global competition. These changes have opened vast new
opportunities for our people, but they have also presented them with
stiff challenges. While more Americans are living better, too many of
our fellow citizens are working harder just to keep up, and they are
rightly concerned about the security of their families.

We must answer here three fundamental questions: First, how do we
make the American Dream of opportunity for all a reality for all
Americans who are willing to work for it? Second, how do we preserve
our old and enduring values as we move into the future? And, third,
how do we meet these challenges together, as one America?

We know big government does not have all the answers. We know there's
not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American
people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we
have to give the American people one that lives within its means.

The era of big government is over. But we cannot go back to the time
when our citizens were left to fend for themselves. Instead, we must
go forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the
challenges we face together. Self-reliance and teamwork are not
opposing virtues; we must have both.

I believe our new, smaller government must work in an old-fashioned
American way, together with all of our citizens through state and
local governments, in the workplace, in religious, charitable and
civic associations. Our goal must be to enable all our people to make
the most of their own lives -- with stronger families, more
educational opportunity, economic security, safer streets, a cleaner
environment in a safer world.

To improve the state of our Union, we must ask more of ourselves, we
must expect more of each other, and we must face our challenges
together.

Here, in this place, our responsibility begins with balancing the
budget in a way that is fair to all Americans. There is now broad
bipartisan agreement that permanent deficit spending must come to an
end.

I compliment the Republican leadership and the membership for the
energy and determination you have brought to this task of balancing
the budget. And I thank the Democrats for passing the largest deficit
reduction plan in history in 1993, which has already cut the deficit
nearly in half in three years.

Since 1993, we have all begun to see the benefits of deficit
reduction. Lower interest rates have made it easier for businesses to
borrow and to invest and to create new jobs. Lower interest rates have
brought down the cost of home mortgages, car payments and credit card
rates to ordinary citizens. Now, it is time to finish the job and
balance the budget.

Though differences remain among us which are significant, the
combined total of the proposed savings that are common to both plans
is more than enough, using the numbers from your Congressional Budget
Office to balance the budget in seven years and to provide a modest
tax cut.

These cuts are real. They will require sacrifice from everyone. But
these cuts do not undermine our fundamental obligations to our
parents, our children, and our future, by endangering Medicare, or
Medicaid, or education, or the environment, or by raising taxes on
working families.

I have said before, and let me say again, many good ideas have come
out of our negotiations. I have learned a lot about the way both
Republicans and Democrats view the debate before us. I have learned a
lot about the good ideas that we could all embrace.

We ought to resolve our remaining differences. I am willing to work
to resolve them. I am ready to meet tomorrow. But I ask you to
consider that we should at least enact these savings that both plans
have in common and give the American people their balanced budget, a
tax cut, lower interest rates, and a brighter future. We should do
that now, and make permanent deficits yesterday's legacy.

Now it is time for us to look also to the challenges of today and
tomorrow, beyond the burdens of yesterday. The challenges are
significant. But America was built on challenges, not promises. And
when we work together to meet them, we never fail. That is the key to
a more perfect Union. Our individual dreams must be realized by our
common efforts.

Tonight I want to speak to you about the challenges we all face as a
people.

Our first challenge is to cherish our children and strengthen
America's families. Family is the foundation of American life. If we
have stronger families, we will have a stronger America.

Before I go on, I would like to take just a moment to thank my own
family, and to thank the person who has taught me more than anyone
else over 25 years about the importance of families and children -- a
wonderful wife, a magnificent mother and a great First Lady. Thank
you, Hillary.

All strong families begin with taking more responsibility for our
children. I have heard Mrs. Gore say that it's hard to be a parent
today, but it's even harder to be a child. So all of us, not just as
parents, but all of us in our other roles -- our media, our schools,
our teachers, our communities, our churches and synagogues, our
businesses, our governments -- all of us have a responsibility to
help our children to make it and to make the most of their lives and
their God-given capacities.

To the media, I say you should create movies and CDs and television
shows you'd want your own children and grandchildren to enjoy.

I call on Congress to pass the requirement for a V-chip in TV sets so
that parents can screen out programs they believe are inappropriate
for their children. When parents control what their young children
see, that is not censorship; that is enabling parents to assume more
personal responsibility for their children's upbringing. And I urge
them to do it. The V-chip requirement is part of the important
telecommunications bill now pending in this Congress. It has
bipartisan support, and I urge you to pass it now.

To make the V-chip work, I challenge the broadcast industry to do
what movies have done -- to identify your programming in ways that
help parents to protect their children. And I invite the leaders of
major media corporations in the entertainment industry to come to the
White House next month to work with us in a positive way on concrete
ways to improve what our children see on television. I am ready to
work with you.

I say to those who make and market cigarettes: every year a million
children take up smoking, even though it is against the law. Three
hundred thousand of them will have their lives shortened as a result.
Our administration has taken steps to stop the massive marketing
campaigns that appeal to our children. We are simply saying: Market
your products to adults, if you wish, but draw the line on children.

I say to those who are on welfare, and especially to those who have
been trapped on welfare for a long time: For too long our welfare
system has undermined the values of family and work, instead of
supporting them. The Congress and I are near agreement on sweeping
welfare reform. We agree on time limits, tough work requirements, and
the toughest possible child support enforcement. But I believe we must
also provide child care so that mothers who are required to go to work
can do so without worrying about what is happening to their children.

I challenge this Congress to send me a bipartisan welfare reform bill
that will really move people from welfare to work and do the right
thing by our children. I will sign it immediately.

Let us be candid about this difficult problem. Passing a law, even
the best possible law, is only a first step. The next step is to make
it work. I challenge people on welfare to make the most of this
opportunity for independence. I challenge American businesses to give
people on welfare the chance to move into the work force. I applaud
the work of religious groups and others who care for the poor. More
than anyone else in our society, they know the true difficulty of the
task before us, and they are in a position to help. Every one of us
should join them. That is the only way we can make real welfare
reform a reality in the lives of the American people.

To strengthen the family we must do everything we can to keep the
teen pregnancy rate going down. I am gratified, as I'm sure all
Americans are, that it has dropped for two years in a row. But we all
know it is still far too high.

Tonight I am pleased to announce that a group of prominent Americans
is responding to that challenge by forming an organization that will
support grass-roots community efforts all across our country in a
national campaign against teen pregnancy. And I challenge all of us
and every American to join their efforts.

I call on American men and women in families to give greater respect
to one another. We must end the deadly scourge of domestic violence
in our country. And I challenge America's families to work harder to
stay together. For families who stay together not only do better
economically, their children do better as well.

In particular, I challenge the fathers of this country to love and
care for their children. If your family has separated, you must pay
your child support. We're doing more than ever to make sure you do,
and we're going to do more, but let's all admit something about that,
too: A check will not substitute for a parent's love and guidance. And
only you -- only you can make the decision to help raise your
children. No matter who you are, how low or high your station in
life, it is the most basic human duty of every American to do that
job to the best of his or her ability.

Our second challenge is to provide Americans with the educational
opportunities we will all need for this new century. In our schools,
every classroom in America must be connected to the information
superhighway, with computers and good software, and well-trained
teachers. We are working with the telecommunications industry,
educators and parents to connect 20 percent of California's
classrooms by this spring, and every classroom and every library in
the entire United States by the year 2000. I ask Congress to support
this education technology initiative so that we can make sure this
national partnership succeeds.

Every diploma ought to mean something. I challenge every community,
every school and every state to adopt national standards of
excellence; to measure whether schools are meeting those standards;
to cut bureaucratic red tape so that schools and teachers have more
flexibility for grass-roots reform; and to hold them accountable for
results. That's what our Goals 2000 initiative is all about.

I challenge every state to give all parents the right to choose which
public school their children will attend; and to let teachers form new
schools with a charter they can keep only if they do a good job.

I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach
good values and good citizenship. And if it means that teenagers will
stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools
should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms.

I challenge our parents to become their children's first teachers.
Turn off the TV. See that the homework is done. And visit your
children's classroom. No program, no teacher, no one else can do that
for you.

My fellow Americans, higher education is more important today than
ever before. We've created a new student loan program that's made it
easier to borrow and repay those loans, and we have dramatically cut
the student loan default rate. That's something we should all be
proud of, because it was unconscionably high just a few years ago.
Through AmeriCorps, our national service program, this year 25,000
young people will earn college money by serving their local
communities to improve the lives of their friends and neighbors.
These initiatives are right for America and we should keep them
going.

And we should also work hard to open the doors of college even wider.
I challenge Congress to expand work-study and help one million young
Americans work their way through college by the year 2000; to provide
a $1000 merit scholarship for the top five percent of graduates in
every high school in the United States; to expand Pell Grant
scholarships for deserving and needy students; and to make up to
$10,000 a year of college tuition tax deductible. It's a good idea
for America.

Our third challenge is to help every American who is willing to work
for it, achieve economic security in this new age. People who work
hard still need support to get ahead in the new economy. They need
education and training for a lifetime. They need more support for
families raising children. They need retirement security. They need
access to health care. More and more Americans are finding that the
education of their childhood simply doesn't last a lifetime.

So I challenge Congress to consolidate 70 overlapping, antiquated
job-training programs into a simple voucher worth $2,600 for
unemployed or underemployed workers to use as they please for
community college tuition or other training. This is a G.I. Bill for
America's workers we should all be able to agree on.

More and more Americans are working hard without a raise. Congress
sets the minimum wage. Within a year, the minimum wage will fall to a
40-year low in purchasing power. Four dollars and 25 cents an hour is
no longer a living wage, but millions of Americans and their children
are trying to live on it. I challenge you to raise their minimum
wage.

In 1993, Congress cut the taxes of 15 million hard-pressed working
families to make sure that no parents who work full-time would have
to raise their children in poverty, and to encourage people to move
from welfare to work. This expanded earned income tax credit is now
worth about $1,800 a year to a family of four living on $20,000. The
budget bill I vetoed would have reversed this achievement and raised
taxes on nearly 8 million of these people. We should not do that.

I also agree that the people who are helped under this initiative are
not all those in our country who are working hard to do a good job
raising their children and at work. I agree that we need a tax credit
for working families with children. That's one of the things most of
us in this Chamber, I hope, can agree on. I know it is strongly
supported by the Republican majority. And it should be part of any
final budget agreement.

I want to challenge every business that can possibly afford it to
provide pensions for your employees. And I challenge Congress to pass
a proposal recommended by the White House Conference on Small Business
that would make it easier for small businesses and farmers to
establish their own pension plans. That is something we should all
agree on.

We should also protect existing pension plans. Two years ago, with
bipartisan support that was almost unanimous on both sides of the
aisle, we moved to protect the pensions of 8 million working people
and to stabilize the pensions of 32 million more. Congress should not
now let companies endanger those workers's pension funds. I know the
proposal to liberalize the ability of employers to take money out of
pension funds for other purposes would raise money for the treasury.
But I believe it is false economy. I vetoed that proposal last year,
and I would have to do so again.

Finally, if our working families are going to succeed in the new
economy, they must be able to buy health insurance policies that they
do not lose when they change jobs or when someone in their family gets
sick. Over the past two years, over one million Americans in working
families have lost their health insurance. We have to do more to make
health care available to every American. And Congress should start by
passing the bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Kennedy and Senator
Kassebaum that would require insurance companies to stop dropping
people when they switch jobs, and stop denying coverage for
preexisting conditions. Let's all do that.

And even as we enact savings in these programs, we must have a common
commitment to preserve the basic protections of Medicare and Medicaid
-- not just to the poor, but to people in working families, including
children, people with disabilities, people with AIDS, and senior
citizens in nursing homes.

In the past three years, we've saved $15 billion just by fighting
health care fraud and abuse. We have all agreed to save much more. We
have all agreed to stabilize the Medicare Trust Fund. But we must not
abandon our fundamental obligations to the people who need Medicare
and Medicaid. America cannot become stronger if they become weaker.

The G.I. Bill for workers, tax relief for education and child
rearing, pension availability and protection, access to health care,
preservation of Medicare and Medicaid -- these things, along with the
Family and Medical Leave Act passed in 1993 -- these things will help
responsible, hard-working American families to make the most of their
own lives.

But employers and employees must do their part, as well, as they are
doing in so many of our finest companies -- working together, putting
the long-term prosperity ahead of the short-term gain. As workers
increase their hours and their productivity, employers should make
sure they get the skills they need and share the benefits of the good
years, as well as the burdens of the bad ones. When companies and
workers work as a team they do better, and so does America.

Our fourth great challenge is to take our streets back from crime and
gangs and drugs. At last we have begun to find a way to reduce crime,
forming community partnerships with local police forces to catch
criminals and prevent crime. This strategy, called community
policing, is clearly working. Violent crime is coming down all across
America. In New York City murders are down 25 percent; in St. Louis,
18 percent; in Seattle, 32 percent. But we still have a long way to
go before our streets are safe and our people are free from fear.

The Crime Bill of 1994 is critical to the success of community
policing. It provides funds for 100,000 new police in communities of
all sizes. We're already a third of the way there. And I challenge
the Congress to finish the job. Let us stick with a strategy that's
working and keep the crime rate coming down.

Community policing also requires bonds of trust between citizens and
police. I ask all Americans to respect and support our law
enforcement officers. And to our police, I say, our children need you
as role models and heroes. Don't let them down.

The Brady Bill has already stopped 44,000 people with criminal
records from buying guns. The assault weapons ban is keeping 19 kinds
of assault weapons out of the hands of violent gangs. I challenge the
Congress to keep those laws on the books.

Our next step in the fight against crime is to take on gangs the way
we once took on the mob. I'm directing the FBI and other
investigative agencies to target gangs that involve juveniles in
violent crime, and to seek authority to prosecute as adults teenagers
who maim and kill like adults.

And I challenge local housing authorities and tenant associations:
Criminal gang members and drug dealers are destroying the lives of
decent tenants. From now on, the rule for residents who commit crime
and peddle drugs should be one strike and you're out.

I challenge every state to match federal policy to assure that
serious violent criminals serve at least 85 percent of their
sentence.

More police and punishment are important, but they're not enough. We
have got to keep more of our young people out of trouble, with
prevention strategies not dictated by Washington, but developed in
communities. I challenge all of our communities, all of our adults,
to give our children futures to say yes to. And I challenge Congress
not to abandon the Crime Bill's support of these grass-roots
prevention efforts.

Finally, to reduce crime and violence we have to reduce the drug
problem. The challenge begins in our homes, with parents talking to
their children openly and firmly. It embraces our churches and
synagogues, our youth groups and our schools.

I challenge Congress not to cut our support for drug-free schools.
People like the D.A.R.E. officers are making a real impression on
grade schoolchildren that will give them the strength to say no when
the time comes.

Meanwhile, we continue our efforts to cut the flow of drugs into
America. For the last two years, one man in particular has been on
the front lines of that effort. Tonight I am nominating him -- a hero
of the Persian Gulf War and the Commander in Chief of the United
States Military Southern Command -- General Barry McCaffrey, as
America's new Drug Czar.

General McCaffrey has earned three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars
fighting for this country. Tonight I ask that he lead our nation's
battle against drugs at home and abroad. To succeed, he needs a force
far larger than he has ever commanded before. He needs all of us.
Every one of us has a role to play on this team.

Thank you, General McCaffrey, for agreeing to serve your country one
more time.

Our fifth challenge: to leave our environment safe and clean for the
next generation. Because of a generation of bipartisan effort we do
have cleaner water and air, lead levels in children's blood has been
cut by 70 percent, toxic emissions from factories cut in half. Lake
Erie was dead, and now it's a thriving resource. But 10 million
children under 12 still live within four miles of a toxic waste dump.
A third of us breathe air that endangers our health. And in too many
communities, the water is not safe to drink. We still have much to
do.

Yet Congress has voted to cut environmental enforcement by 25
percent. That means more toxic chemicals in our water, more smog in
our air, more pesticides in our food. Lobbyists for polluters have
been allowed to write their own loopholes into bills to weaken laws
that protect the health and safety of our children. Some say that the
taxpayer should pick up the tab for toxic waste and let polluters who
can afford to fix it off the hook. I challenge Congress to reexamine
those policies and to reverse them.

This issue has not been a partisan issue. The most significant
environmental gains in the last 30 years were made under a Democratic
Congress and President Richard Nixon. We can work together. We have to
believe some basic things. Do you believe we can expand the economy
without hurting the environment? I do. Do you believe we can create
more jobs over the long run by cleaning the environment up? I know we
can. That should be our commitment.

We must challenge businesses and communities to take more initiative
in protecting the environment, and we have to make it easier for them
to do it. To businesses this administration is saying: If you can find
a cheaper, more efficient way than government regulations require to
meet tough pollution standards, do it -- as long as you do it right.
To communities we say: We must strengthen community right-to-know
laws requiring polluters to disclose their emissions, but you have to
use the information to work with business to cut pollution. People do
have a right to know that their air and their water are safe.

Our sixth challenge is to maintain America's leadership in the fight
for freedom and peace throughout the world. Because of American
leadership, more people than ever before live free and at peace. And
Americans have known 50 years of prosperity and security.

We owe thanks especially to our veterans of World War II. I would
like to say to Senator Bob Dole and to all others in this Chamber who
fought in World War II, and to all others on both sides of the aisle
who have fought bravely in all our conflicts since: I salute your
service, and so do the American people.

All over the world, even after the Cold War, people still look to us
and trust us to help them seek the blessings of peace and freedom.
But as the Cold War fades into memory, voices of isolation say
America should retreat from its responsibilities. I say they are
wrong.

The threats we face today as Americans respect no nation's borders.
Think of them: terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction,
organized crime, drug trafficking, ethnic and religious hatred,
aggression by rogue states, environmental degradation. If we fail to
address these threats today, we will suffer the consequences in all
our tomorrows.

Of course, we can't be everywhere. Of course, we can't do everything.
But where our interests and our values are at stake, and where we can
make a difference, America must lead. We must not be isolationist.

We must not be the world's policeman. But we can and should be the
world's very best peacemaker. By keeping our military strong, by
using diplomacy where we can and force where we must, by working with
others to share the risk and the cost of our efforts, America is
making a difference for people here and around the world. For the
first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, there is not a single
Russian missile pointed at America's children.

North Korea has now frozen its dangerous nuclear weapons program. In
Haiti, the dictators are gone, democracy has a new day, the flow of
desperate refugees to our shores has subsided. Through tougher trade
deals for America -- over 80 of them -- we have opened markets
abroad, and now exports are at an all-time high, growing faster than
imports and creating good American jobs.

We stood with those taking risks for peace: In Northern Ireland,
where Catholic and Protestant children now tell their parents,
violence must never return. In the Middle East, where Arabs and Jews
who once seemed destined to fight forever now share knowledge and
resources, and even dreams.

And we stood up for peace in Bosnia. Remember the skeletal prisoners,
the mass graves, the campaign to rape and torture, the endless lines
of refugees, the threat of a spreading war. All these threats, all
these horrors have now begun to give way to the promise of peace.
Now, our troops and a strong NATO, together with our new partners
from Central Europe and elsewhere, are helping that peace to take
hold.

As all of you know, I was just there with a bipartisan congressional
group, and I was so proud not only of what our troops were doing, but
of the pride they evidenced in what they were doing. They knew what
America's mission in this world is, and they were proud to be
carrying it out.

Through these efforts, we have enhanced the security of the American
people. But make no mistake about it:important challenges remain.

The START II Treaty with Russia will cut our nuclear stockpiles by
another 25 percent. I urge the Senate to ratify it -- now. We must
end the race to create new nuclear weapons by signing a truly
comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty -- this year.

As we remember what happened in the Japanese subway, we can outlaw
poison gas forever if the Senate ratifies the Chemical Weapons
Convention -- this year. We can intensify the fight against
terrorists and organized criminals at home and abroad if Congress
passes the anti-terrorism legislation I proposed after the Oklahoma
City bombing -- now. We can help more people move from hatred to hope
all across the world in our own interest if Congress gives us the
means to remain the world's leader for peace.

My fellow Americans, the six challenges I have just discussed are for
all of us. Our seventh challenge is really America's challenge to
those of us in this hallowed hall tonight: to reinvent our government
and make our democracy work for them.

Last year this Congress applied to itself the laws it applies to
everyone else. This Congress banned gifts and meals from lobbyists.
This Congress forced lobbyists to disclose who pays them and what
legislation they are trying to pass or kill. This Congress did that,
and I applaud you for it.

Now I challenge Congress to go further -- to curb special interest
influence in politics by passing the first truly bipartisan campaign
reform bill in a generation. You, Republicans and Democrats alike,
can show the American people that we can limit spending and open the
airwaves to all candidates.

I also appeal to Congress to pass the line-item veto you promised the
American people.

Our administration is working hard to give the American people a
government that works better and costs less. Thanks to the work of
Vice President Gore, we are eliminating 16,000 pages of unnecessary
rules and regulations, shifting more decision-making out of
Washington, back to states and local communities.

As we move into the era of balanced budgets and smaller government,
we must work in new ways to enable people to make the most of their
own lives. We are helping America's communities, not with more
bureaucracy, but with more opportunities. Through our successful
Empowerment Zones and Community Development Banks, we are helping
people to find jobs, to start businesses. And with tax incentives for
companies that clean up abandoned industrial property, we can bring
jobs back to places that desperately, desperately need them.

But there are some areas that the federal government should not leave
and should address and address strongly. One of these areas is the
problem of illegal immigration. After years of neglect, this
administration has taken a strong stand to stiffen the protection of
our borders. We are increasing border controls by 50 percent. We are
increasing inspections to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants.
And tonight, I announce I will sign an executive order to deny
federal contracts to businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Let me be very clear about this: We are still a nation of immigrants;
we should be proud of it. We should honor every legal immigrant here,
working hard to become a new citizen. But we are also a nation of
laws.

I want to say a special word now to those who work for our federal
government. Today our federal government is 200,000 employees smaller
than it was the day I took office as President.

Our federal government today is the smallest it has been in 30 years,
and it's getting smaller every day. Most of our fellow Americans
probably don't know that. And there is a good reason: The remaining
federal work force is composed of Americans who are now working
harder and working smarter than ever before, to make sure the quality
of our services does not decline.

I'd like to give you one example. His name is Richard Dean. He is a
49 year-old Vietnam veteran who's worked for the Social Security
Administration for 22 years now. Last year he was hard at work in the
Federal Building in Oklahoma City when the blast killed 169 people and
brought the rubble down all around him. He reentered that building
four times. He saved the lives of three women. He's here with us this
evening, and I want to recognize Richard and applaud both his public
service and his extraordinary personal heroism.

But Richard Dean's story doesn't end there. This last November, he
was forced out of his office when the government shut down. And the
second time the government shut down he continued helping Social
Security recipients, but he was working without pay.

On behalf of Richard Dean and his family, and all the other people
who are out there working every day doing a good job for the American
people, I challenge all of you in this Chamber: Never, ever shut the
federal government down again.

On behalf of all Americans, especially those who need their Social
Security payments at the beginning of March, I also challenge the
Congress to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States
-- to honor the obligations of this great nation as we have for 220
years; to rise above partisanship and pass a straightforward
extension of the debt limit and show people America keeps its word.

I know that this evening I have asked a lot of Congress, and even
more from America. But I am confident: When Americans work together
in their homes, their schools, their churches, their synagogues,
their civic groups, their workplace, they can meet any challenge.

I say again, the era of big government is over. But we can't go back
to the era of fending for yourself. We have to go forward to the era
of working together as a community, as a team, as one America, with
all of us reaching across these lines that divide us -- the division,
the discrimination, the rancor -- we have to reach across it to find
common ground. We have got to work together if we want America to
work.

I want you to meet two more people tonight who do just that. Lucius
Wright is a teacher in the Jackson, Mississippi, public school
system. A Vietnam veteran, he has created groups to help inner-city
children turn away from gangs and build futures they can believe in.
Sergeant Jennifer Rodgers is a police officer in Oklahoma City. Like
Richard Dean, she helped to pull her fellow citizens out of the
rubble and deal with that awful tragedy. She reminds us that in their
response to that atrocity the people of Oklahoma City lifted all of us
with their basic sense of decency and community.

Lucius Wright and Jennifer Rodgers are special Americans. And I have
the honor to announce tonight that they are the very first of several
thousand Americans who will be chosen to carry the Olympic torch on
its long journey from Los Angeles to the centennial of the modern
Olympics in Atlanta this summer -- not because they are star
athletes, but because they are star citizens, community heroes
meeting America's challenges. They are our real champions.

Now, each of us must hold high the torch of citizenship in our own
lives. None of us can finish the race alone. We can only achieve our
destiny together -- one hand, one generation, one American connecting
to another.

There have always been things we could do together -- dreams we could
make real -- which we could never have done on our own. We Americans
have forged our identity, our very union, from every point of view
and every point on the planet, every different opinion. But we must
be bound together by a faith more powerful than any doctrine that
divides us -- by our belief in progress, our love of liberty, and our
relentless search for common ground.

America has always sought and always risen to every challenge. Who
would say that, having come so far together, we will not go forward
from here? Who would say that this age of possibility is not for all
Americans?

Our country is and always has been a great and good nation. But the
best is yet to come, if we all do our part.

Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
Thank you.