The challenge of our past remains the challenge of our future—­will we be one nation, one people, with one common destiny, or not?  Will we all come together, or come apart?

The divide of race has been America’s constant curse.  And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices.  Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different.  These forces have nearly destroyed our nation in the past.  They plague us still.  They fuel the fanaticism of terror.  And they torment the lives of millions in fractured nations all around the world.

These obsessions cripple both those who hate and, of course, those who are hated, robbing both of what they might become.  We cannot, we will not, succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions of the soul everywhere.  We shall overcome them.  And we shall replace them with the generous spirit of a people who feel at home with one another.

Our rich texture of racial, religious and political diversity will be a Godsend in the 21st century.  Great rewards will come to those who can live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that bind together.

As this new era approaches we can already see its broad outlines.  Ten years ago, the Internet was the mystical province of physicists; today, it is a commonplace encyclopedia for millions of schoolchildren.  Scientists now are decoding the blueprint of human life.  Cures for our most feared illnesses seem close at hand.

The world is no longer divided into two hostile camps.  Instead, now we are building bonds with nations that once were our adversaries.  Growing connections of commerce and culture give us a chance to lift the fortunes and spirits of people the world over.  And for the very first time in all of history, more people on this planet live under democracy than dictatorship.

My fellow Americans, as we look back at this remarkable century, we may ask, can we hope not just to follow, but even to surpass the achievements of the 20th century in America and to avoid the awful bloodshed that stained its legacy?  To that question, every American here and every American in our land today must answer a resounding “Yes.”

This is the heart of our task.  With a new vision of government, a new sense of responsibility, a new spirit of community, we will sustain America’s journey.  The promise we sought in a new land we will find again in a land of new promise.

In this new land, education will be every citizen’s most prized possession.  Our schools will have the highest standards in the world, igniting the spark of possibility in the eyes of every girl and every boy.  And the doors of higher education will be open to all.  The knowledge and power of the Information Age will be within reach not just of the few, but of every classroom, every library, every child.  Parents and children will have time not only to work, but to read and play together.  And the plans they make at their kitchen table will be those of a better home, a better job, the certain chance to go to college.