"Putting American Back to仅供参考.doc

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1、"Putting American Back to仅供参考欢迎阅读ronald reagan: first inaugural addressputting american back to workthank you. thank you. senator hatfield, mr. chief justice, mr. president, vice president bush, vice president mondale, senator baker, speaker oneill, reverend moomaw, and my fellow citizens: to a

2、 few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion. and, yet, in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. the orderly transfer of authority as called for in the constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how uniq

3、ue we really are. in the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle. mr. president, i want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition. by your gracious cooperation in the transition process you have shown a

4、 watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other. and i thank you and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our republic. the business of our nati

5、on goes forward. these united states are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. we suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. it distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-inc

6、ome elderly alike. it threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people. idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery and personal indignity. those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us fro

7、m maintaining full productivity. but great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. for decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our childrens future for the temporary convenience of the present. to continue this long trend is to guarantee tremend

8、ous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals. you and i, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. why then should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation? we must act today in order to preser

9、ve tomorrow. and let there be no misunderstanding - were going to begin to act beginning today. the economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. they will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. they will go away because we as americans have the capacity now,

10、 as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom. in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. from time to time weve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to

11、be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. but if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? all of us together - in and out of government - must bear the burden. th

12、e solutions we seek must be equitable with no one group singled out to pay a higher price. we hear much of special interest groups. well our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. it knows no sectional boundaries, or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses

13、 political party lines. it is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when were sick - professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. they are, in short, we the peop

14、le. this breed called americans. well, this administrations objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all americans with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. putting america back to work means putting all americans back to work. ending inf

15、lation means freeing all americans from the terror of runaway living costs. all must share in the productive work of this new beginning, and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. with the idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and

16、prosperous america at peace with itself and the world. so as we begin, let us take inventory. we are a nation that has a government - not the other way around. and this makes us special among the nations of the earth. our government has no power except that granted it by the people. it is time to ch

17、eck and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. it is my intention to curb the size and influence of the federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the federal government and those re

18、served to the states or to the people. all of us - all of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government. now, so there will be no misunderstanding, its not my intention to do away with government. it is rather to make it work

19、- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. if we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because he

20、re in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. the price for this freedom at times has been high, but we hav

21、e never been unwilling to pay that price. it is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. it is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit

22、 ourselves to small dreams. were not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. i do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. i do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. so with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an er

23、a of national renewal. let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. and let us renew our faith and our hope. we have every right to dream heroic dreams. those who say that were in a time when there are no heroes - they just dont know where to look. you can see heroes every day goin

24、g 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 theyre on both sides of that counter. there are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wea

25、lth 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

26、of these heroes. i could say you and your because im 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 i

27、s so much a part of your make-up. how can we love our country and not love our countrymen - and loving them reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when theyre 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 problem

28、s confronting us? well the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic yes. to paraphrase winston churchill, i did not take the oath ive just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the worlds strongest economy. in the days ahead, i will propose removing the roadblocks that have slow

29、ed 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

30、means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden. and these will be our first priorities, and on these principles there will be no compromise. on the eve or our struggle for independence a man who mightve been one of the greatest among the founding fathers, dr. joseph warren, president of the massachus

31、etts 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 ame

32、ricans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to insure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children, and our childrens 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

33、 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 benefi

34、cial relations. we will not use our friendship to impose on their sovereignty, for our own sovereignty is not for sale. 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, sac

35、rifice 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

36、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 todays world

37、 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. i am - im told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this day; and for that i am deeply grateful. we are a nation under god, and i be

38、lieve 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 youve been told, on this west front of the capitol. standing here, o

39、ne faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this citys 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

40、 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. who

41、ever would understand in his heart the meaning of america will find it in the life of abraham lincoln. beyond those moments - those 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

42、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 w

43、orld on guadalcanal, tarawa, pork chop hill, the chosin reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called vietnam. under one 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. ther

44、e, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy fire. were 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 sacrific

45、e; 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, o

46、ur best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together with gods help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. and after all, why shouldnt we believe that? we are americans. god bless you and thank you. thank you very much. 感谢阅读第 13 页 共 13 页