Excerpts from President Barack Obama's 2nd Inaugural Address

I handed out a transcript of President Obama's Second Inaugural address to my high school geography students last week, and this week we are going to work through the elements of American identity within the document. To that end, I have prepared a handout with the lines I am most interested in placed together. The quotations are arranged sequentially, and each address some aspect of how President Obama see America and its role in the world. The only bit of commentary I will add is that he refers early on to a creed which we all share. It seems valid, and helpful, to read through this handout looking for the tenets of the President's creed, and what those who share it should do in response. Please share your thoughts! I would love to get a conversation about American identity branching from this speech.

All quotations taken from President Barack Obama’s 2^nd Inaugural Address, in sequential order

Josh Herring, compiler, 1/29/13

“…what binds this country together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago…”

“…we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.”

…”we have never relinquished out skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character.”

“…when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”

…”we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment and we will seize it…”

“For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.

We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.

We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

“…our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single America…That is what will give real meaning to our creed.”

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity…But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future…We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few…The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.”

“America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe…for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our conscience compel[s] us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.”

…”we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.”

“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth.”

“It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.

Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”

“That is our generation’s task – to make these words, these rights, these values – of Life, and Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness – real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we all define liberty in the exact same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness.”

“Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.”