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Mr. President, Give This SpeechWhat Slate readers think Obama should say in his inaugural address.

Posted Monday, Jan. 19, 2009, at 1:27 PM ET

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Because, my fellow Americans, yes, we will. We embrace these challenges, all of them. Because that is where we find meaning in our lives.

Being American means we have the privilege, the right and the duty to strive for a more perfect society, not tomorrow, not next year not under the next leadership, but in our time.

In our time we can fix the bridges and rebuild the roads that the American economy might thrive far into the future.

In our time we can stop the oceans from rising, curb pollution, and protect our planet and the planet of our children.

In our time we can build new schools, hire new teachers, and stop just giving great teachers our praises and start giving them raises.

In our time we can make health care available to all Americans.

In our time we can end our addiction to oil.

In our time we can rebuild and restore the promise America holds to the world. The last best chance can once again be the best. We cannot just promote ideals without also living them. We can look leaders in the eye when we tell them not to torture because they know we do not. And when our nation or our values should be threatened, we will never back down, because our men and women in uniform will know that ours is not a nation that strives for domination or individual gain but for what is just, and so long as we hew to the side of justice, so long as we buttress the force of arms with the force of ideas, there is no enemy we cannot best and no challenge we cannot overcome.

Americans are not of one mind. We have spirited differences on every topic conceivable, and that makes us stronger. Our differences allow us to change and adapt our covenants and customs. But we must resist the partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that have gridlocked us in the past. We have our differences, but we also have our similarities. There are deep differences and good people on both sides of the abortion debate, but we can all agree we should try to prevent unintended pregnancies. We can all agree we should provide single mothers with help if they want to keep the baby. We all share one country, one promise. We are all Americans, and when that promise is not a promise to us, but also a promise by us, we make our own destiny.

So let us renew this promise. This is not an oath I can fulfill by myself. In this country we elect leaders not to rule, but to serve. But we must all serve. Let us move forward together. Let us become a better nation.

Let today be not a triumph, but a dedication. A dedication that we will work harder, go further, and persist longer so that we should make this great country even greater and leave our children a finer world than the one we entered. A dedication to join the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.

May God bless America, and may America always prove worthy of the blessings we have received.