Words of Inspiration

We are on the eve of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45^th President of the United States of America. For many Americans, this past year has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, and I say this as someone who does not especially enjoy being terrified - we had to insist on agreements from our grandchildren that they would forego roller coasters before taking each of them to Disney World! At the same time, I have to believe that throughout the 228 years since the election of George Washington in February 1789 there have been many times when sizeable numbers of Americans were not especially pleased with the outcome of presidential elections. But we are all still here, so I hold out hope that we will all still be here in the days, weeks, months, and years that lie ahead.

I thought it might be helpful to look for inspiration in the words of some of those forty-four men (hopefully I will live to say “men and women”) who have delivered inaugural addresses over these past two centuries. Thanks to the internet, I was easily able to pull together some particularly memorable quotations from notable inaugural addresses, as well as a video of President Kennedy’s 1961 speech.

Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.

Thomas Jefferson, March 4, 1801

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither.

Theodore Roosevelt, March 4, 1905

This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, March 4, 1933

So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. So let us begin anew, remembering on both sides, that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always–and I repeat always– a subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, January 20, 1961

Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.

William Jefferson Clinton, January 21, 1993  

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

Barack Hussein Obama, January 20, 2009

I offer one final tidbit of interest. Apparently, US presidents have not always ended their speeches with “God bless America.”

“God bless America” has become the expected way for U.S. presidents to end official speeches. But that wasn’t always the case, explain David Domke and Kevin Coe, authors of the book The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America.

The first president to say it was Richard Nixon, who dropped the phrase during an attempt at damage control for the burgeoning Watergate scandal on April 30, 1973. “Tonight, I ask for your prayers to help me in everything I do throughout the days of my presidency,” he said. “God bless America and God bless each and every one of you.”

The phrase didn’t catch on during the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter years, but Ronald Reagan’s presidency definitively ushered in the era of “God bless America.” Reagan used the line when accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 1980, and made it his standard sign-off once in the White House. Since then, it’s become a standard part of the language of the American presidency.

May God bless America. It is fair to say that we could use all the help we can get!

Love,

Rebecca