The future is up to us. There is work to do, work that government alone cannot do. Teach children to read. Hire people off welfare rolls. Coming out from behind locked doors and shuttered windows to help reclaim our streets from drugs, and gangs and crime. Take time out from our own lives to serve others.

Great rewards will come to those who can live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that bind together. In the end, all the world's wealth

and a thousand armies are no match for the strength and decency of the human spirit.

The demands of our time are great, and they are different. Let us meet them with faith and courage, with patience and a grateful happy heart. Let us shape the hope of this day into the noblest chapter in our history. Yes, let us build our bridge, a bridge wide enough and strong enough for every American to cross over to a blessed land of new promise.

May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead, and always, always bless our America.