This is not a day to celebrate a political victory or the culmination of a successful campaign.  Instead, it is a day to celebrate the renewed spirit of Memphis and the shared determination of Memphians to reach for the promise of a bright future.

It is with commitment and reverence that I have sworn an oath to God and my fellow citizens to exercise the powers of mayor in the best interest of every citizen and to do it with fidelity and without fear or favor.

There are times in the life of a city when historic opportunities stand alongside historic challenges and when hope and optimism co-exist with concern and apprehension.  This is one of those times, but with new urgency and renewed courage, we can move Memphis not just to a destination as a better city but to its destiny as a great city.

This ceremony is not about swearing in 14 individuals to serve as mayor and City Council, but rather, it is about swearing in a team elected by their fellow citizens to join hands to lead this city in the right direction.

My campaign in every corner of Memphis was a powerful reminder to me that we are not a cluster of divergent special interest groups.  We are Memphians -- proud, caring, scrappy, authentic, inventive – and as Memphians representing Memphians, we are joined by a common purpose and shared commitment.

It is an aspiration for Memphis as a city of choice, a city where government is accountable and efficient, where every child has a fair start in life, where every family has the opportunity to a good job, where every neighborhood is safe and vibrant, where every entrepreneur has the chance to succeed, and where businesses create jobs and invest here because of our talented workers.

The election campaign is over, but the real campaign continues – our campaign to move our city ahead and build on the momentum that we have created in the past two years.

It is said that politicians think about the next election, but statesmen think about the next generation.  It is a time in Memphis for statesmen and women.

It means we may not always agree…but we can do it without being disagreeable.

It means we may have conflicting points of view…but we can resolve them without conflicts that divide our city.

It means we may have different opinions about policy…but we can express them without being indifferent to each other’s points of view.

In the next four years, we can prove to the rest of the country that Memphis is a city that works; however, it all begins by proving to Memphians that they have a government that works.

Those of us sworn in today serve at a time when public confidence in government is historically low.  Voters are not convinced that government is a wise steward of their taxes or that elected officials are truly dedicated to the public good.

For me, this is more than a ceremonial ritual for city government.  It is about taking an oath – a promise, an affirmation, a declaration – to ourselves, to our fellow citizens, and to our God to do our best, to serve with honor, and to lead with dignity.

In that vein, today, I make two pledges.

The first pledge is that I will do all that I can to achieve a new era of communications and collaboration in city government.  It’s been said that no other success can compensate for failure in the home.  It is common to define political success by the ability to attract votes, but the real definition of success is our ability to talk, listen, and work together.

In this way, we can find the principled compromises that allow us to tackle the most difficult challenges facing Memphis: structural problems like multi-generational poverty and low educational attainment.  These are the problems that portray Memphis at its worst.  To solve them, we must be at our best.

There have been lapses in communications between my administration and City Council, and for that, I accept responsibility.  In the next four years, I also accept responsibility for keeping the lines of communications open and strong.

In addition, communications will improve with our employees and our unions.  These are hard financial times for the City of Memphis.  We have made hard decisions.  We face even tougher ones.  However, there is no reason that labor and management, employees and employers cannot together find shared solutions to deal with our fiscal problems.

Finally, communications will extend beyond our own city limits.  As the mother city for our region, Memphis must reach out to amplify our individual and collective strengths and to find ways to join hands to address our weaknesses.

The metaphor of Memphis as the mother of our region has never meant more to me than it does today, because I draw inspiration from my own mother who passed away two weeks ago.

Her life was a testament to a Biblical belief in truth, fairness, and the value of every person.  As a mother, she never compared her children to each other or criticized the choices they made with their lives.  She was supportive, she managed to find the best in each of us, and she encouraged each of us to succeed in our own unique ways.  She was a constant positive force for the family, demonstrating every day of her life how respect, dignity, and honesty are bonds that can hold us together in good times and bad.

Coming together as members of the same family, Memphis and the other cities in our region can end conflict that holds us all back and find the mutuality of purpose that leads us to a shared successful future.

The second pledge I make today is that my administration will work in the new term with a  concentrated focus on priorities that produce the most significant impact.  For two years, city government has been engaged in triage.  We tackled corruption, a school funding crisis and budget crisis, waste and inefficiency, and a lack of fiscal and procedural discipline.

Despite these challenges, we reduced crime, opened a green line and a skate park, developed the first homeless program, filed lawsuits against predatory lending, set out to build a culture of customer service in city government, launched an anti-blight cleanup program, saved the training programs of WIN, and sealed the deals that are bringing thousands of new jobs to the urban core.

We worked to improve our city a neighborhood at a time.  We leveled Marina Cove in Hickory Hill and brought in a new charter school and housing.  In Orange Mound, Barronbrooks Apartment was rebuilt into Melrose Place.  Next to Carver High School, we transformed a deteriorating apartment building into senior housing.  A townhouse complex in Southeast Memphis where three children died in a firebombing is now newly reconstructed Austin Park development.

Gone are the magnets for crime and the eyesores that dragged down these neighborhoods.  In their places are new, mixed-income, mixed-use developments.  And we are not done yet.

To build on our momentum and begin this new term with energy and urgency, my administration is developing a 100 days plan.  In my State of the City presentation later this month, I will lay out the details about the programs and the actions that will jump start our work on my top priorities for the next four years.

As we undertake these new priorities, we have recruited and assembled our own national think tank in city government – Brookings Institution, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Center for Economic Opportunity, and the White House’s Strong City, Strong Communities pilot program.

I acknowledge that our agenda will not be completed in 100 days, perhaps not in 1,000 days or even during the next term.  But we must begin.

Memphis’ needs are too great, the challenges too serious, the opportunities too promising, and the time too short for us to delay the sustained, long-term work that is needed.

Today, as we begin our work for the city that we love, we ask God’s blessings, because God’s work in Memphis must truly be our own.