Evocó a Abraham Lincoln y Martin Luther King en su toma de posesión.
De hecho pronunció su juramento con la mano sobre las Biblias de Abraham Lincoln y Martin Luther King. Un texto más preciso y desafiante que el de hace cuatro años y construido en torno a las primeras palabras de la Constitución; Obama no evocó las palabras de los padres constituyentes como una atadura sino como una inspiración y llamó a demócratas y republicanos a observar su "fidelidad a los principios constitucionales" sin temor a "encontrar nuevas respuestas a los nuevos desafíos".
Este segundo mandato estará marcado por la influencia de los republicanos, que conservan el control de la Cámara de Representantes y amenazan con bloquear sus propuestas para reducir el déficit, aprobar la reforma migratoria o reforzar el control de armas para evitar otra masacre como la de Newtown. Quizá por eso el discurso de Obama incluyó muchas referencias al bloqueo legislativo que el país sufre desde hace varios años y a la necesidad de alcanzar un consenso nacional para resolver los grandes problemas del país. "Ahora nos toca tomar decisiones y no podemos permitirnos cualquier demora", proclamó "No podemos confundir los principios con el maximalismo, sustituir la política por el espectáculo o tratar los insultos como un debate razonado. Debemos actuar y hacerlo ahora sabiendo que nuestra obra será imperfecta".
El presidente recordó las
palabras del reverendo Martin Luther King. líder de los derechos civiles y se proclamó
heredero de los mismos principios que guiaron a "quienes dejaron sus
huellas en este parque para escuchar a un pastor decir que no podemos caminar
solos y para a oír a aquel King proclamar que nuestra libertad individual está
unida a la libertad de cada alma sobre la tierra".
Recordó que la Constitución
consagra que todos los hombres fueron creados iguales. Pero subrayó que cada
generación tiene la obligación de interpretar esas palabras y aplicarlas a los
problemas de su tiempo. "La libertad
no se crea a sí misma. Es un derecho que viene de Dios pero que tenemos que
asegurar nosotros aquí en la tierra", proclamó Obama en un llamamiento a
vencer las diferencias que separan a demócratas y republicanos en los grandes
desafíos que le toca afrontar ahora al país.
Obama
proclamó el fin de una década de guerras y afirmó que tomará decisiones contra
el cambio climático y que su viaje no habría terminado hasta
extender la lucha por los derechos civiles a los homosexuales y a los hispanos que luchan por aprobar una
reforma migratoria.
En su discurso solo asomó una
lágrima de emoción al referirse al deber de los políticos de mantener a salvo a
los niños de la violencia en las escuelas y evitar que se repita la masacre de
Newton. Un suceso que según confesó hace unos días el presidente fue el peor
día desde su llegada a la Casa Blanca.
Ninguno de los dos ex
presidentes de la familia Bush asistieron al acto. Sí lo hicieron Bill Clinton
y Jimmy Carter y todos los miembros del Gobierno de Obama menos uno que
permaneció en un lugar indeterminado para garantizar que cualquier ataque sobre
Washington no creaba un vacío de poder: Biden.
Dice el periódico El Mundo-
nota de Eduardo Suarez-, que se podría decir que fue la toma de posesión más
hispana hasta la fecha. El poeta de origen cubano Richard Blanco recitó sus
versos unos minutos después del discurso de Obama y el pastor Luis León
pronunció la oración antes del himno nacional. Los mariachis de La Joya y el
ballet folklórico de Colorado desfilaron junto al presidente y en la víspera
cientos de famosos hispanos celebraron con una gala su toma de posesión.
El discurso en inglés.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Washington, DC
Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of
the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear
witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of
our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation 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 hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge
the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us
that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing;
that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on
Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with
the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a
government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep
safe our founding creed.
For more than two hundred years, we have. Through
blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded
on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free.
We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
Together, we determined that a modern economy requires
railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to
train our workers.
Together, we discovered that a free market only
thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play. Together, we
resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people
from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.
Through it all, we have never relinquished our
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, are constants in our character.
But we have always understood that 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. For the American people can no more meet the demands of
today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces
of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train
all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the
future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new
jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things
together, as one nation, and one people.
This generation of Americans has been tested by crises
that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now
ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless,
for 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 – so long as we seize it together.
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.
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to
the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our
government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens
with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But
while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the
effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment
requires. 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. We must make the hard choices
to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. 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.
For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty,
and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe
that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.
We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us,
at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in
a terrible storm. 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.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as
Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to
the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray
our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming
judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires,
and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable
energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist
this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the
technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its
promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national
treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That
is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what
will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security
and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in
uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage.
Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the
price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us
forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to
those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the
surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values
through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and
resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are
naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift
suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every
corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our
capacity to manage crisis abroad, 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 interests and our conscience
compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And 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 that 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 the 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 will all
define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to
happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about
the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time.
For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford
delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for
politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that
our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be
only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and
forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once
conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you
today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to
God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that
pledge during the duration of our service. But the words I spoke today are not
so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty,
or an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge
we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.
They are the words of citizens, and they represent our
greatest hope.
You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this
country’s course.
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape
the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices
we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
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.
Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless
these United States of America.
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