A meta phor all seasons

We have a place, all of us, in a long story--a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom....

It is the American story--a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.

...

Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.

Our democratic faith is an ideal we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along.

Inaugural Address