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.
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State of the Union Address
William J. Clinton
February 4, 1997
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the 105th Congress, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans:
I think I should start by saying thanks for inviting me back.
I come before you tonight with a challenge as great as any in our peacetime history--and a plan of action to meet that challenge, to prepare our people for the bold new world of the 21st century.