We then provide the process whereby Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now. We are not, as I said in the inauguration, going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals.

We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.

This legacy is not simply a birthright—it is a glorious burden.

Let us remember that: 'The mystic chords of memory... will yet swell the chorus of the Union.'

We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.

We don't ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.

I do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation.

Few of us can imagine what John endured during the days he spent in that lonely prison cell.

It is what he has strived for and achieved throughout his life.

We will not always agree on everything in the months to come, and we will have our share of arguments and debates.