Over the years—­I won’t count if you don’t—­nothing has been so heartwarming to me as speaking to America’s young, and the little ones especially, so fresh-faced and so eager to know.  Well, from time to time I’ve been with them—­they will ask about our Constitution.  And I hope you Members of Congress will not deem this a breach of protocol if you’ll permit me to share these thoughts again with the young people who might be listening or watching this evening.  I’ve read the constitutions of a number of countries, including the Soviet Union’s.  Now, some people are surprised to hear that they have a constitution, and it even supposedly grants a number of freedoms to its people.  Many countries have written into their constitution provisions for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.  Well, if this is true, why is the Constitution of the United States so exceptional?

Well, the difference is so small that it almost escapes you, but it’s so great it tells you the whole story in just three words:  We the people.  In those other constitutions, the Government tells the people of those countries what they’re allowed to do.  In our Constitution, we the people tell the Government what it can do, and it can do only those things listed in that document and no others.  Virtually every other revolution in history has just exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers.  Our revolution is the first to say the people are the masters and government is their servant.  And you young people out there, don’t ever forget that.  Someday you could be in this room, but wherever you are, America is depending on you to reach your highest and be your best—­because here in America, we the people are in charge.

Just three words:  We the people—­those are the kids on Christmas Day looking out from a frozen sentry post on the 38th parallel in Korea or aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.  A million miles from home, but doing their duty.

We the people—­those are the warmhearted whose numbers we can’t begin to count, who’ll begin the day with a little prayer for hostages they will never know and Mia families they will never meet.  Why?  Because that’s the way we are, this unique breed we call Americans.

We the people—­they’re farmers on tough times, but who never stop feeding a hungry world.  They’re the volunteers at the hospital choking back their tears for the hundredth time, caring for a baby struggling for life because of a mother who used drugs.  And you’ll forgive me a special memory—­it’s a million mothers like Nelle Reagan who never knew a stranger or turned a hungry person away from her kitchen door.

We the people—­they refute last week’s television commentary downgrading our optimism and our idealism.  They are the entrepreneurs, the builders, the pioneers, and a lot of regular folks—­the true heroes of our land who make up the most uncommon nation of doers in history.  You know they’re Americans because their spirit is as big as the universe and their hearts are bigger than their spirits.