政治家

It’s up to all of us, as citizens, to stand up for the values that we profess. If we want a country that believes in free speech and fair elections and rule of law, then we can’t just leave it to somebody else. We have to fight for those things, even when it’s hard.

As much as any policy or program, I believe that’s what we yearn for — a return to an America where we work together and look out for each other. A restoration of what Lincoln called, on the eve of civil war, “our bonds of affection.” An America that taps what he called “the better angels of our nature.”

In 77 days, we have the power to turn our country away from the fear, division and smallness of the past. We have the power to marry our hope with our action. We have the power to pay forward the love, sweat and sacrifice of our mothers and fathers and all those who came before us.

We have to remember that the choices of individual human beings led to repeated world war. But we also have to remember that the choices of individual human beings created a United Nations, so that a war like that would never happen again.

The one last piece of advice, though, that I would have that has been useful for me is the people who I admire the most and are most successful, they’re not just thinking only about themselves but they’re also thinking about something larger than themselves. So they want to make a contribution to society. They want to make a contribution to their country, their nation, their city. They are interested in having an impact beyond their own immediate lives.

Young people, they’re asking, well, why do I have to do it that way? Let’s try it this way. And that kind of willingness to accept challenges and try things in a new way, to not be stuck in the past, or to look towards the future, that’s what all of you represent.