優(yōu)秀大學(xué)生英語演講稿

　　in each of these vital areas that i have mentioned, we can clearly accomplish so much more by walking together rather than standing apart. that is why we should work to see that the productive relationship we now enjoy blossoms into a fuller partnership in the new century.

　　if that is to happen, it is very important that we understand each other better, that we understand both our common interest and our shared aspirations and our honest differences. i believe the kind of open, direct exchange that president jiang and i had on saturday at our press conference -- which i know many of you watched on television -- can both clarify and narrow our differences, and, more important, by allowing people to understand and debate and discuss these things can give a greater sense of confidence to our people that we can make a better future.

　　from the windows of the white house, where i live in washington, d.c., the monument to our first president, george washington, dominates the skyline. it is a very tall obelisk. but very near this large monument there is a small stone which contains these words: the united states neither established titles of nobility and royalty, nor created a hereditary system. state affairs are put to the vote of public opinion.

　　this created a new political situation, unprecedented from ancient times to the present. how wonderful it is. those words were not written by an american. they were written by xu jiyu, governor of fujian province, inscribed as a gift from the government of china to our nation in 1853.

　　i am very grateful for that gift from china. it goes to the heart of who we are as a people -- the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the freedom to debate, to dissent, to associate, to worship without interference from the state. these are the ideals that were at the core of our founding over 220 years ago. these are the ideas that led us across our continent and onto the world stage. these are the ideals that americans cherish today.

　　as i said in my press conference with president jiang, we have an ongoing quest ourselves to live up to those ideals. the people who framed our constitution understood that we would never achieve perfection. they said that the mission of america would always be "to form a more perfect union" -- in other words, that we would never be perfect, but we had to keep trying to do better.

　　the darkest moments in our history have come when we abandoned the effort to do better, when we denied freedom to our people because of their race or their religion, because there were new immigrants or because they held unpopular opinions. the best moments in our history have come when we protected the freedom of people who held unpopular opinion, or extended rights enjoyed by the many to the few who had previously been denied them, making, therefore, the promises of our declaration of independence and constitution more than faded words on old parchment.

　　today we do not seek to impose our vision on others, but we are convinced that certain rights are universal -- not american rights or european rights or rights for developed nations, but the birthrights of people everywhere, now enshrined in the united nations declaration on human rights -- the right to be treated with dignity; the right to express one's opinions, to choose one's own leaders, to associate freely with others, and to worship, or not, freely, however one chooses.

　　in the last letter of his life, the author of our declaration of independence and our third president, thomas jefferson, said then that "all eyes are opening to the rights of man." i believe that in this time, at long last, 172 years after jefferson wrote those words, all eyes are opening to the rights of men and women everywhere.

　　over the past two decades, a rising tide of freedom has lifted the lives of millions around the world, sweeping away failed dictatorial systems in the former soviet union, throughout central europe; ending a vicious cycle of military coups and civil wars in latin america; giving more people in africa the chance to make the most of their hard-won independence. and from the philippines to south korea, from thailand to mongolia, freedom has reached asia's shores, powering a surge of growth and productivity.