A New Greatest Generation

Guest: Michael Weiksner, Chairman, e-thepeople A version of the "call to service" section of the President's inaugural speech:

"We live in an era of unprecedented change. We face great challenges. After September 11, we all awakened to the new threats to our very security here at home. Yet, we have awesome opportunities too. In our lifetime, we have the potential to end global poverty and cure AIDS.

How can we rise up to these great challenges and realize the awesome opportunities before us?

We need a new greatest generation. Like the great generations before it, we must draw on the courage and leadership that has characterized the American people since the Revolution. We must continue to be the most innovative nation in history, to create the new technologies required to meet the needs of our complex world. And like the great World War II generation, we may be called to defend freedom against tyranny on the battlefield.

But courage, leadership, innovation and even victory on the battlefield is not enough: this new greatest generation must redefine Americans as the new global citizen. The inevitable changes we face are hard to accept here at home and around the globe. I call on all Americans--politicians, CEOs, professors, yes, but also farmers, mechanics, single mothers--to listen and to lead. If we truly engage with each other and the world, then all may participate in the advance of freedom and democracy and we can rightfully earn our place in history as the greatest generation."