As we begin this new millennium, we will face many new questions. But the most important is as old as America itself. It's the one we faced at Concord and Lexington. The question at the heart of the miracle at Philadelphia in 1776 and at every critical juncture since from the cliffs at Normandy to the bridge at Selma. That is the question that I will put to you, the American people, in this campaign.
History makes no promises to keep the good times going in the absence of our own wise choices.
It is all too easy to slide backward if we are not vigilant or if we allow ourselves to be seduced with eloquent words advancing harmful realities. If you believe America must move forward, if you are ready for America to choose the good once more, then let us lead this nation together. Come with me toward America's new horizons. Across that horizon stands the values and the promise and prosperity of strengthening every family, lifting every child, leveling every barrier, leaving no one behind. Here, at the center of my hometown, in the heart of America, in the midst of the people I love, that is the new horizon I see.