Reconciliation of private needs and interests into a higher purpose.

Rebuilding the old dreams of justice and liberty, and country and community.

Rebirth of our faith in the common good.

Each of us here tonight, and all who are listening in your homes, must rededicate ourselves to serving the common good.  We are a community, a beloved community, all of us.  Our individual fates are linked, our futures intertwined.  And if we act in that knowledge and in that spirit, together, as the Bible says, we can move mountains.

Thank you very much.

***

State of the Union Address
Jimmy Carter
January 25, 1979

Tonight I want to examine in a broad sense the state of our American Union—­how we are building a new foundation for a peaceful and a prosperous world.

Our children who will be born this year will come of age in the 21st century.  What kind of society, what kind of world are we building for them?  Will we ourselves be at peace?  Will our children enjoy a better quality of life?  Will a strong and united America still be a force for freedom and prosperity around the world?

Tonight, there is every sign that the state of our Union is sound.

Our economy offers greater prosperity for more of our people than ever before.  Real per capita income and real business profits have risen substantially in the last 2 years.  Farm exports are setting an all-time record each year, and farm income last year, net farm income, was up more than 25 percent.

Our liberties are secure.  Our military defenses are strong and growing stronger.  And more importantly, tonight, America—­our beloved country—­is at peace.

Our earliest national commitments, modified and reshaped by succeeding generations, have served us well.  But the problems that we face today are different from those that confronted earlier generations of Americans.  They are more subtle, more complex, and more interrelated.  At home, we are recognizing ever more clearly that government alone cannot solve these problems.  And abroad, few of them can be solved by the United States alone.  But Americans as a united people, working with our allies and friends, have never been afraid to face problems and to solve problems, either here or abroad.

The challenge to us is to build a new and firmer foundation for the future—­for a sound economy, for a more effective government, for more political trust, and for a stable peace—­so that the America our children inherit will be even stronger and even better than it is today.

We cannot resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense.

In our economy, it is a myth that we must choose endlessly between inflation and recession.  Together, we build the foundation for a strong economy, with lower inflation, without contriving either a recession with its high unemployment or unworkable, mandatory government controls.