The president-elect and vice president-elect and their families watched the concert from a special box.Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times
"As I prepare to assume the presidency, yours are the voices I will take with me every day I walk into that Oval Office," Mr. Obama said, as people in the crowd climbed trees to try to catch a glimpse of him.Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times
A sea of people poured onto the National Mall on Sunday afternoon to kick off three days of festivities celebrating the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
At Lincoln Memorial, Uplifting Music and a Talk of Challenges
By Neil A. Lewis
WASHINGTON — Framed by the Lincoln Memorial’s austere marble and facing a crowd of hundreds of thousands, President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday offered words of high inspiration about his forthcoming presidency that were interlaced with cautions about unrealistic expectations for quick remedies.
Two days before he is to take the oath of office at the Capitol, Mr. Obama addressed a crowd that began at his feet below Mr. Lincoln’s statue and stretched far down the Mall to the World War II memorial.
“Only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now,” he said to the crowd which had assembled not only to hear him but a concert with Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Garth Brooks, U2 and other top musical stars. The speakers included Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., Tom Hanks and Tiger Woods.
“Our nation is at war, our economy is in crisis,” Mr. Obama said near the conclusion of the “We Are One” concert. “Millions of Americans are losing their jobs and their homes. They’re worried about how they’ll afford college for their kids or pay the stack of bills on their kitchen tables. And most of all, they are anxious and uncertain about the future, about whether this generation of Americans will be able to pass on what’s best about this country to our children and their children.
“I won’t pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. Along the way there will be setbacks and false starts and days that test our resolve as a nation.”
Despite the size of those challenges, he declared himself “as hopeful as ever” that the nation will thrive.
The capital’s downtown was congested but enveloped in a festive air. Mr. Obama’s three-day inaugural celebration in the capital began on a somber note Sunday morning at Arlington National Cemetery before the afternoon’s uplifting crescendo of his appearance and the musical extravaganza at the Lincoln Memorial.
The Biden and Obama families then went their separate ways for Sunday morning church services.
At the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, the congregation erupted in applause when Mr. And Mrs. Obama, accompanied by their daughters, Sasha and Malia, walked in and took seats set aside in the second row, the Association Press reported.
“Understand that God has prepared you and God has placed you,” the pastor, Derrick Harkins, said in his sermon. “And God will not forsake you.”
On the day before the nation commemorates Martin Luther King Jr., children at the service delivered lines recalling the slain civil rights leader. “Martin Luther King walked so that Barrack Obama could run,” said one boy, who was followed by another proclaiming: “Barack Obama ran so that all children could fly.”
Mr. Biden and his family worshipped and received communion at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, the same church President Kennedy attended the morning of Jan. 20, 1961, hours before his inauguration.
The congregants on Sunday included Senator Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is both a longtime parishioner and Senate colleague of Mr. Biden.
The priest, the Rev. Larry Madden S.J. did not take explicit note of Mr. Biden’s presence but when the congregation was asked to welcome visitors, the audience applauded Mr. Biden, who stood in acknowledgement, the Associated Press reported.
Leia mais clicando no link:
Transição nos EUA: Presidente diz que vencer desafios pode levar anos e pede integração
