America Places Hope in New President

A street vendor sells framed photographs of President-elect Barack Obama on January 19, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

People across the nation are celebrating the coming of the new president and the hope for “change,” in America. That hope is crystallized with the President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration later today.

And on the eve of the inauguration, and serendipitously on Martin Luther King Day, the president-elect spoke to the power of hope through the vision of the late Dr. King.

“His was a vision that all Americans might share the freedom to make of our lives what we will; that our children might climb higher than we would,” said Obama.

“Tomorrow, we will come together as one people on the same mall where Dr. King’s dream echoes still. As we do, we recognize that here in America, our destinies are inextricably linked. We resolve that as we walk, we must walk together. And as we go forward in the work of renewing the promise of this nation, let’s remember King’s lesson - that our separate dreams are really one,” he added.

An estimated two million people are expected to attend the inaugural parade and another 13,000 are estimated to participate in the parade itself. At the end of the parade, when Mr. Obama takes his oath of office, he will be sworn in using the same bible used when Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office. He will be the first president to take the Presidential oath with the bible since 1861.
Amid a global financial crisis, war in the Middle-east, and facing various environmental threats and human rights abuses throughout the world, Mr. Obama said in his speech in Baltimore, Saturday, that facing these challenges is the reason why he chose to run for president.

“What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that those first patriots displayed. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives - from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry - an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels,” Mr. Obama said.

“That is the reason I launched my campaign for the presidency nearly two years ago. I did so in the belief that the most fundamental American ideal, that a better life is in store for all those willing to work for it, was slipping out of reach. That Washington was serving the interests of the few, not the many. And that our politics had grown too small for the scale of the challenges we faced,” he said.

He stated his belief, “that our future is our choice,” and that if Americans can set aside their differences and come together, they can pull through the current crisis.

Monday, Americans did just that when Mr. Obama called for a national day of service, requesting that all Americans spend the day on volunteer service in their neighborhoods and cities, and make an ongoing commitment to continue to help their communities.

According to the national day of service website, USAservice.org, there were at least 11 thousand service projects across the nation. Mr. Obama, Vice President-elect Biden, and their families, also took part in the activities.

During a bipartisan dinner Monday night, Mr. Obama gave a few words of respect to his former rival for the Presidency, Senator John McCain, who also attended the dinner.

“There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain. It is what he has strived for and achieved throughout his life,” said Mr. Obama.

“We can imagine that the pettiness and bitterness and immaturity that often pervades our politics seems even more unworthy of our country from this perspective; that the incessant bickering and partisanship for the sake of scoring a few political points seems even smaller. And what seems bigger and more worthy of defending are those ideals we hold in common as Americans: liberty, equality, and opportunity.”

Calling Mr. McCain to join him on the stage, Mr. Obama thanked him for his service to America and expressed his hope that in the coming years Republicans and Democrats will be able to work better together.

“But let us strive always to find that common ground, and to defend together those common ideals, for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now,” said Mr. Obama. “Thank you, God Bless You, and may God Bless America.”