 The U.S. Capitol inaugural stage where Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, at 9 a.m. Pacific time, Tuesday, January 20 2009, an historic day |
On the threshold of change, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 history will be made on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, as President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office as America’s 44th President. Placing his left hand on the Bible that Abraham Lincoln used when he took the same oath in 1861, Obama will usher in an era of change.
The special significance of Barack Obama’s inauguration, as America’s first black president, will also be a moment for reflection and celebration. On a long weekend in the U.S. already commemorating the 80th birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Americans of all colours will converge on their nation’s capital in unprecedented numbers to bear witness to this latest step in the struggle toward racial equality, as we here in Canada will witness from afar this most historic political event.
In his remarks at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, Mr. Obama himself sought to place this moment in the sweep of history …
“In the course of our history, only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now,” he said. “Our nation is at war. Our economy is in crisis. Millions of Americans are losing their jobs and their homes. But despite all of this — despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead — I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.”
For one day at least, and however irrationally, relief will replace fear, and gloom will be swept aside by a vast tide of hope. The dream set out 45 years ago by Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — at the opposite end of the Washington Mall from where Mr. Obama will speak, may not have been entirely realized — the colour of a person’s skin still does matter in America — but how far America seems to have come.
