I would like to welcome and thank all of you for joining me here today I'm
honored to serve as first lady of the United States and I look forward to
sharing with each of you my sincere hopes for all that we will able to do
together to promote peace human rights and human dignity leaving no one behind
especially not our children the most important and joyous role I ever had is
to be a mother to my young son and what could possibly be more
essential focus in everyone's life then that of loving educating and bringing up
our next generation to be happy productive and morally responsible
adults together we must acknowledge that all too often is the weakest most
innocent and vulnerable among us our children who ultimately suffer the most
from the challenges that plug our societies whether it is drug addiction
bullying poverty disease trafficking illiteracy or hunger it is the children
for hit first and hardest in any country and as we all know the future of every
nation rests with the promise of their young people if we look at the present
state of children in any society we will see the future that our world can expect
tomorrow show me your civic lessons of today and
I will show you your civic leaders of tomorrow
show me your history lessons of today and I will show you your political
leaders of tomorrow show me the loving bonds between your
families today and I will show you the patriotism and moral clarity
of your nation tomorrow our choices on how we raise and educate our children
will in fact provide the blueprint for the next generation if we do not
advocate a love of country to our children and the generations to come
then why would our children grow up to fight for their country's founding
principles and moral truths if we do not teach our children the importance of
helping those less fortunate wherever they may be then why would they become
caring adults who dedicate themselves to charity if we do not ensure that our
youth redefine their nation of community to reach beyond their own backyards
their own schools and their own town halls then not then why would we accept
to see a new generation of leaders with a moral conscience that includes all of
humanity when we join together as parents caring for children whether
whatever they live in our own families across the street across the nation or
across the globe we claim our responsibility to the next generation to
ensure they are prepared to accept the torch of leadership for the world of
tomorrow and make no mistake this will always begin with us coming together to
embrace parents hoods noble calling nothing could be more urgent nor worthy
a cause than preparing future generations for the adulthood with true
moral clarity and responsibility to achieve this we must come together for
the good of our children because through them our future will be defined
therefore we must teach each child the values of empathy and communication
there are other core of the kindness mindfulness
integrity and leadership which can only be thought by example by our own example
we must teach children to be good stewards of the world they will inherit
we must remember that they are watching and listening so we must never miss an
opportunity to teach lives many ethical lessons along the way as adults we are
not merely responsible we are accountable I hope you will join me in
committing ourselves to teaching the next generation to live by and honor the
golden rule to unto others as you would have them until you which is my
paramount in today's society and I'm focused as first lady it remains our
generations moral imperative to take responsibility for what our children
learn we must turn our focus right now to the message and content they exposed
to on a daily basis through social media the bullying the experience online and
in person and the growing global epidemic of drug addiction and drug
overdose no children should ever feel hang hungry stocked frightened
terrorized bullied isolated or afraid with nowhere to turn we need to step up
come together and ensure that our children's future is bright in the
coming months I hope to reach out to each one of you here today to call upon
you for your support and guidance and look forward to joining you in
collaboration to support and educate our next generation I'm asking leaders on
social media whose target market for their products and platforms his
children as well community and educational leaders to join me in this
fight for the hopes and dreams of our children
with all my heart I want to thank you each one of you for being here today
and tell you how much I'm looking forward to working with you on behalf of
our children god bless our children god bless our nation's and god bless the
United States of America thank you