Building a Nation of Character
Excerpts from President George W. Bush's inaugural address

In the 2000 presidential campaign, candidates Gore and Bush both strongly endorsed character education. In his inaugural address on January 20, 2001, President Bush issued a call to character to all schools and citizens. An abridged version follows.

We have a place, all of us, in a long story, a story we continue but whose end we will not see. It is the American story, a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise: that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born. Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws.

Even after nearly 225 years, we have a long way yet to travel. While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise--even the justice--of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their birth. We do not accept this.

A Nation of Justice and Opportunity
Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation. This is my solemn pledge: to work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity. I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves, who creates us equal in his image.

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. If we do not turn the hearts of children toward knowledge and character, we will lose their gifts and undermine their idealism.

Civility Is a Choice
Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.

America at its best is compassionate. In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation's promise. All of us are diminished when any are hopeless. Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty. But we can listen to those who do. And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.

Compassion: The Work of a Nation
Government has great responsibilities, for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government.

America at its best is a place where personal responsibility is valued and expected. Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats; it is a call to conscience. Our public interest depends on private character, on civic duty and family bonds and basic fairness.

Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with great love. The most important tasks of a democracy are done by everyone.

What you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort, to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens. Citizens, not spectators. Citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.