"While democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated."
Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, stirred the nation with her poem "The Hill We Climb."
Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, stirred the nation with her poem "The Hill We Climb."
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00:00When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
00:07The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We've braved the belly of the beast. We've learned
00:14that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is isn't always just-is.
00:26And yet, the dawn is hours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we've weathered
00:33and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country
00:43and a time where a skinny black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother,
00:50can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one. And yes, we are far
01:00from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is
01:06perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose, to compose a country committed
01:15to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not
01:23to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put
01:31our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out
01:38our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else,
01:46say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even
01:55as we tired, we tried. That we'll forever be tied together, victorious, not because we will never
02:01again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division. Scripture tells us to envision that
02:12everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.
02:19If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but in all the bridges
02:25we've made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it, because being
02:33American is more than a pride we inherit. It's the past we step into and how we repair it.
02:42We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if
02:48it meant delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be
02:57periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith, we trust
03:06for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just
03:13redemption. We feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a
03:19terrifying hour, but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter
03:27to ourselves. So while once we asked how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert
03:39how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us. We will not march back to what was, but move to
03:47what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not
03:54be turned around or interrupted by intimidation, because we know our inaction and inertia will be
04:02the inheritance of the next generation. Our blenders become their burdens, but one thing is
04:09certain. If we merge mercy with might into might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change
04:21our children's birthright. So let us leave behind a country better than one. We were left with every
04:28breath from my bronze-pounded chest. We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will
04:35rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west. We will rise from the wind-swept northeast where our
04:40forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern
04:46states. We will rise from the sun-baked south. We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known
04:53nook of our nation, in every corner called our country. Our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge
05:00battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn
05:07blooms as we free it, for there was always light, if only we're brave enough to see it, if only
05:16we're brave enough to be it.
05:23you