A Hopeful Nation.
America is a great force for freedom and prosperity. Yet our greatness is not measured in power or luxuries, but by who we are and how we treat one another. So we strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society.
In recent years, America has become a more hopeful nation. Violent crime rates have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Welfare cases have dropped by more than half over the past decade. Drug use among youth is down 19 percent since 2001.
There are fewer abortions in America than at any point in the last three decades.
And the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.
(APPLAUSE)
These gains are evidence of a quiet transformation, a revolution of conscience in which a rising generation is finding that a life of personal responsibility is a life of fulfillment.
Government has played a role.
Wise policies such as welfare reform, and drug education, and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country.
And everyone here tonight, Democrat and Republican, has a right to be proud of this record.
(APPLAUSE)
BUSH: Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture and the health of our most basic institutions.
They are concerned about unethical conduct by public officials and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage. They worry about children in our society who need direction and love, and about fellow citizens still displaced by natural disaster, and about suffering caused by treatable diseases.
As we look at these challenges, we must never give in to the belief that America is in decline or that our culture is doomed to unravel.
The American people know better than that. We have proven the pessimists wrong before, and we will do it again.
(APPLAUSE)
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