Finally, community means living by the defining American value, the ideal heard ’round the world:  that we’re all created equal.  Throughout our history, we haven’t always honored that ideal, and we’ve never fully lived up to it.  Often it’s easier to believe that our differences matter more than what we have in common.  It may be easier, but it’s wrong.

What we have to do in our day and generation to make sure that America truly becomes one nation, what do we have to do?  We’re becoming more and more and more diverse.  Do you believe we can become one nation?  The answer cannot be to dwell on our differences, but to build on our shared values.

And we all cherish family and faith, freedom and responsibility.  We all want our children to grow up in the world where their talents are matched by their opportunities.

I’ve launched this national initiative on race to help us recognize our common interests and to bridge the opportunity gaps that are keeping us from becoming one America.  Let us begin by recognizing what we still must overcome.

Discrimination against any American is un-American.  We must vigorously enforce the laws that make it illegal.  I ask your help to end the backlog at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  Sixty thousand of our fellow citizens are waiting in line for justice, and we should act now to end their wait.

We should also recognize that the greatest progress we can make toward building one America lies in the progress we make for all Americans, without regard to race.  When we open the doors of college to all Americans, when we rid all our streets of crime, when there are jobs available to people from all our neighborhoods, when we make sure all parents have the child care they need, we’re helping to build one nation.

We in this chamber and in this government must do all we can to address the continuing American challenge to build one America.  But we’ll only move forward if all our fellow citizens, including every one of you at home watching tonight, is also committed to this cause.

We must work together, learn together, live together, serve together.  On the forge of common enterprise, Americans of all backgrounds can hammer out a common identity.

We see it today in the United States military, in the Peace Corps, in AmeriCorps.  Wherever people of all races and backgrounds come together in a shared endeavor and get a fair chance, we do just fine.  With shared values and meaningful opportunities and honest communications and citizen service, we can unite a diverse people in freedom and mutual respect.  We are many.  We must be one.

In that spirit, let us lift our eyes to the new millennium.  How will we mark that passage?  It just happens once every thousand years.  This year, Hillary and I launched the White House Millennium Program to promote America’s creativity and innovation and to preserve our heritage and culture into the 21st century.  Our culture lives in every community, and every community has places of historic value that tell our stories as Americans.  We should protect them.