Well, my fellow Americans, that’s my agenda for America’s future:  expanding opportunity not bureaucracy, enhancing security at home and abroad, empowering our people to make the most of their own lives.

It’s ambitious and achievable.  But it’s not enough.

We even need more than new ideas for changing the world or equipping Americans to compete in the new economy, more than a Government that’s smaller, smarter and wiser, more than all the changes we can make in Government and in the private sector from the outside in.

Values And Voices

Our fortunes and our prosperity also depend upon our ability to answer some questions from within—­from the values and voices that speak to our hearts as well as our heads, voices that tell us we have to do more to accept responsibility for ourselves and our families, for our communities, and yes, for our fellow citizens.

We see our families and our communities all over this country coming apart.  And we feel the common ground shifting from under us.  The PTA, the town hall meeting, the ball park—­it’s hard for a lot of overworked parents to find the time and space for those things that strengthen the bonds of trust and cooperation.

Too many of our children don’t even have parents and grandparents who can give them those experiences that they need to build their own character and their sense of identity.  We all know that while we here in this chamber can make a difference on those things, that the real differences will be made by our fellow citizens where they work and where they live.

And it’ll be made almost without regard to party.  When I used to go to the softball park in Little Rock to watch my daughter’s league and people would come up to me—­fathers and mothers—­and talk to me, I can honestly say I had no idea whether 90 percent of them were Republicans or Democrats.

When I visited the relief centers after the floods in California, Northern California, last week, a woman came up to me and did something that very few of you would do.  She hugged me and said, “Mr. President, I’m a Republican, but I’m glad you’re here.”

Now, why?  We can’t wait for disasters to act the way we used to act every day.  Because as we move into this next century, everybody matters.  We don’t have a person to waste.  And a lot of people are losing a lot of chances to do better.

That means that we need a New Covenant for everybody—­for our corporate and business leaders, we’re going to work here to keep bringing the deficit down, to expand markets, to support their success in every possible way.  But they have an obligation:  when they’re doing well, to keep jobs in our communities and give their workers a fair share of the prosperity they generate.

For people in the entertainment industry in this country, we applaud your creativity and your worldwide success and we support your freedom of expression but you do have a responsibility to assess the impact of your work and to understand the damage that comes from the incessant, repetitive, mindless violence and irresponsible conduct that permeates our media all the time.