Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210455
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
PRESIDENT CLINTON PROMISES CHANGE
THE ORDERLY transition of power in democracy is a majestic and uplifting spectacle, and President William J. Clinton's inauguration was no exception. His inaugural speech, resonant with the theme of renewal, mirrored a nation's yearning for change.Not simply change for change's sake, though.
Like Franklin Roosevelt in his 1933 address ("the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"), Clinton said of change, rightly, that it demands optimism and determination which endure in Americans' character. "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America," said Clinton.
As the new president pointed out, Thomas Jefferson's wisdom holds true today: Our nation by its nature needs a shaking up from time to time.
Like John Kennedy ("the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans"), Clinton said of change that it poses new challenges for each generation. Rightly saluting George Bush and his generation's triumph over depression, fascism and communism, Clinton also observed that "today, a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues."
This is a world in which, for instance, the United Nations, global environmental and health policies, conflict-resolution, and efforts to resist arms-proliferation must assume a greater role than in the past.
Clinton said of change, rightly, that it must be met by overcoming obstacles. As he noted, for instance, "We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs and in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt."
That's a hard challenge. The combined requirements of increased public investment and deficit reduction argue not just for a reorganization of fiscal policies and spending priorities, but also for shared sacrifice. Drift won't do.
Clinton said of change, rightly, that it requires an openness to the new global economy. "Communications and commerce are global; investment is mobile; technology is almost magical; and ambition for a better life is now universal. We earn our livelihood in America today in peaceful competition with people all across the earth."
This is a world in which, clearly, protectionism is an illusion, a path toward economic defeat and national decline. It is also a world that threatens to open a chasm between haves and have-nots, a distinctly un-American prospect; a world in which the education of workers likely will determine which nations thrive and which fail.
Clinton said of change, rightly, that it requires renewal of government. "Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way. Americans deserve better."
Ours is a world in which, as Clinton pointed out, America's "greatest strength" is not military force but "the power of our ideas." We can do much to spread the greatest of our ideas, democracy, but we'd better attend to repairing democracy at home - by reducing the stranglehold of moneyed, special interests over the public instruments of government.
But Clinton also said of change, rightly, that it requires collective, individual effort. We can't expect government to do it for us. "It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing. . . . Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country."
Responsibility is a value suggesting changes not just in welfare or community service or public attitudes toward taxation, but in our perceived bonds and duties to the civic body. Government is a contract: We get by giving.
Clinton said of change, rightly, that we have within our power to make it progress - if we will but muster our energies in favor of, and focus our attention on, the future. "Posterity is the world to come - the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility."
With these words, Clinton recognized that posterity is a human entity, and progress lies at the heart of the democratic experiment.
Clinton, like all presidents, will be judged by posterity. Because this is the way history works, hope can be found in all inaugural addresses, but also irony and tragedy.
When Ronald Reagan in 1981 criticized predecessors who had "piled deficit upon deficit," it seemed a breath of sanity. Some $3 trillion of debt later, it rings farcical. When John Kennedy said, in 1961, "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival of liberty," it sounded brave. After Vietnam, it sounds tragic.
Posterity one day may find irony or tragedy in Clinton's inaugural address. We cannot know that now. In any event, the advent of a new administration in Washington won't radically change our world, or our lives. President Clinton cannot possibly fulfill all the hopes he has raised, not in 100 days, not in a thousand days. That is not the way change works.
A new president can, however, make a difference, as all of us can.