American presidential inaugurations, with all their pomp and splendour, are a rite of passage but not necessarily memorable. A handful stick out for the first words of the new national chief executive — Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, in 1933 in the depths of the great recession, for “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” and John F. Kennedy’s, in1961, for “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. Some have grace notes that remain in the mind — as when, in 1977, Jimmy Carter thanked Gerald Ford for all he had done “to heal our country” in the wake of Watergate.
盛大而隆重的美國總統就職典禮是一項權力交接儀式，但不一定令人難忘。少數就職典禮之所以令人印象深刻，是因爲新國家元首的首次講話——1933年美國深陷經濟大蕭條時富蘭克林•D•羅斯福(Franklin D. Roosevelt)在就職典禮上所說的「我們唯一要恐懼的，就是恐懼本身」，以及1961年約翰•F•甘迺迪(John F Kennedy)所說的「不要問你的國家能爲你做什麼，而要問你能爲你的國家做什麼」。一些人的優雅言辭仍然留在人們的腦海裏——比如1977年吉米•卡特(Jimmy Carter)感謝傑拉德•福特(Gerald Ford)在「水門案」(Watergate)後為「治癒我們的國家」所做的一切。