Obama kicks off U.S. presidency

AMERICAS

WASHINGTON – Barack Hussein Obama stepped into history Tuesday as the first black president of the United States, delivering an impassioned call for a new “era of responsibility” founded on the age-old American principles of honesty, courage, loyalty and old-fashioned hard work.

Obama, a quirk of the Constitution having moments earlier bestowed upon him the title of 44th U.S. president , lifted the weight of a troubled world onto his shoulders as he placed his hand on the gilt-edged Bible of Abraham Lincoln and took the oath of office.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” Obama said in his inauguration speech.

“They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.”

More than a million people were jammed onto the National Mall to watch the historic moment, which in fact passed at noon without fanfare, thanks to a U.S. Constitution that says the president-elect gets the job at the top of the hour, oath or no oath.

Clad in a red tie and white shirt under dark overcoat adorned with an American flag pin, Obama thanked predecessor U.S. President George W. Bush as he began the difficult task of inspiring a deflated nation burdened with the cost of protracted wars and a deepening economic crisis.

“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old,” he said.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility, a recognition – on the part of every American – that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”

One of those challenges, the ongoing security of the United States in the midst of an international conflict that has not gone away, won’t result in the sacrifice of American ideals, the new president added.

“Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake,” Obama said.

“And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.”

Along with the dignitaries, a distant sea of people clogged Washington to be a part of history.

Joy Diaz, 47, travelled from Burlington, Ont., to stand along the route Obama would pass during the afternoon’s inaugural parade. She came because she was fascinated by the 2008 campaign.

“It was riveting in Canada. We were addicted,” Diaz said. “When it was over, we were going through withdrawal.”

Diaz said her parents, who are natives of Trinidad, wanted to attend the 1963 march on Washington but could not because they had young children.

“They couldn’t be part of history,” she said. “I said I have to represent them at this historical event.”

Diaz was part of a crowd that was on hand to witness a watershed moment in a country with a shameful history of slavery and segregation – a moment that Obama himself made sure to temper with a pointed reminder that difficult days are ahead.

“Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed,” Obama said.

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

On hand for the ceremony were Obama’s living predecessors Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as his Obama’s wife Michelle, first lady Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Prior to the ceremony, Cheney – sitting in a wheelchair with a wooden cane across his lap after straining his back last week – emerged onto the inauguration platform with U.S. President George W. Bush, who was afterward spirited away to retirement at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.

Already a glorious structure, the Capitol was dressed to the nines for the historic event, elegantly draped with starry indigo bunting, flowing columns of red and white fabric and banks of snow-white bleachers for thousands of spectators.

Before the sun had even risen Tuesday, those determined to be on hand for the ceremony had started working their way into the National Mall to take in the spectacle.More than a million of them – all different colours, ages and nationalities – packed the Mall and along the inaugural parade route down Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House.

Obama mentioned Iraq and Afghanistan by name as he pledged to peacefully end America’s two unpopular wars, to mitigate the threat of nuclear war and tackle global warming.

But he also had a pointed message for America’s enemies.

“For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

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Just beyond the White House fence, huge crowds braved freezing temperatures and jostled for positions to see the ceremony, either with the naked eye or on Jumbotron screens.

They’ve been in D.C. for days, cramming the streets snapping pictures, buying all manner of Obama memorabilia and attending a massive outdoor concert at Lincoln Memorial in honour of their political hero.For many of them, Obama’s successful run for the presidency not only represents a long-overdue shattering of the race barrier, but a return to honour in politics the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the 1960s with iconic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

Americans sobered by enduring conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and an ongoing economic meltdown won’t be alone in counting on the new U.S. president to deliver on the impending era of hope he’s promised since his momentous electoral victory in November.

The rest of the world, weary of war and ravaged by the economic meltdown, is also optimistic.

Source / By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press