Lucius Wright and Jennifer Rodgers are special Americans.  And I have the honor to announce tonight that they are the very first of several thousand Americans who will be chosen to carry the Olympic torch on its long journey from Los Angeles to the centennial of the modern Olympics in Atlanta this summer—­not because they are star athletes, but because they are star citizens, community heroes meeting America’s challenges.  They are our real champions.

Now, each of us must hold high the torch of citizenship in our own lives.  None of us can finish the race alone.  We can only achieve our destiny together—­one hand, one generation, one American connecting to another.

There have always been things we could do together—­dreams we could make real—­which we could never have done on our own.  We Americans have forged our identity, our very union, from every point of view and every point on the planet, every different opinion.  But we must be bound together by a faith more powerful than any doctrine that divides us—­by our belief in progress, our love of liberty, and our relentless search for common ground.

America has always sought and always risen to every challenge.  Who would say that, having come so far together, we will not go forward from here?  Who would say that this age of possibility is not for all Americans?

Our country is and always has been a great and good nation.  But the best is yet to come, if we all do our part.

Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.

***

State of the Union Address
William J. Clinton
February 4, 1997

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the 105th Congress, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: 

I think I should start by saying thanks for inviting me back.

I come before you tonight with a challenge as great as any in our peacetime history—­and a plan of action to meet that challenge, to prepare our people for the bold new world of the 21st century.

We have much to be thankful for.  With four years of growth, we have won back the basic strength of our economy.  With crime and welfare rolls declining, we are winning back our optimism, the enduring faith that we can master any difficulty.  With the Cold War receding and global commerce at record levels, we are helping to win an unrivaled peace and prosperity all across the world.

My fellow Americans, the state of our union is strong, but now we must rise to the decisive moment, to make a nation and a world better than any we have ever known.

The new promise of the global economy, the Information Age, unimagined new work, life-enhancing technology—­all these are ours to seize.  That is our honor and our challenge.  We must be shapers of events, not observers, for if we do not act, the moment will pass and we will lose the best possibilities of our future.