Quoted By:
With all of the difficulties and challenges our country has confronted, we always fall back on a sense of hopefulness. And that is what I hope will happen again in this coming year. Because we do, as we look back on the last six years of progress, have a lot to celebrate. We have a lot of work ahead of us to continue building on safer cities and reformed schools and welfare workers working and all that we can see at the ground level that is occurring. So let's not just celebrate with parties and champagne -- as much fun as that will be -- let's add to the celebration some contemplation, some commemoration and really look for ways that we can bring our communities and our country together.
If we imagine the kind of cities we want for the 21st century, we know we're on the right track to achieving them, and we know that the road is a very challenging one. But we have hope, because we have seen what hope and hard work can produce. When every citizen has the opportunity to live a productive, fulfilling life, and when our communities can live together in peace, without the sound of gunfire, with people feeling free to walk through a park on a beautiful summer evening; when children are learning the skills they will need to compete in the global economy, and when there is public space that invites us in and a feeling that we are contributing to the common good of our future together, then we will know we have given gifts to the future that will stand the test of time.
So let me invite each of you to use this opportunity to become a Millennium Community, to work with us in creating this moment in time that we hope will stand for the symbol of what we as a nation want to create for our future. I thank you for what you have already done and I look forward to working with you for what we can do together. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
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REMARKS BY PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY RODHAM TO U.S. EMBASSY STAFF AFTER MEETING WITH JORDAN'S NEW KING ABD d. Thank you.
