Washington: Four years after making history as America's first African-American president with a promise of "hope and change", Barack Obama today renewed his oath to take the nation "forward" in his second term. Watch: Decade of war ending, says Obama. The 51-year-old renewed his oath of office for the second day in a row at the 57th inauguration ceremony of an American president. Just before noon, Obama took the oath on the steps of US Capitol's West Front decorated in red, white and blue in a spectacular inaugural ceremony watched by an estimated 700,000 people crowding the national mall cheering the nation's 44th president. Raising his right hand, Obama placed his left hand on two bibles, one which his idol Abraham Lincoln used for his first inauguration in 1861 and the other, a "travelling Bible" of legendary American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, to take the oath a second time in two days from Chief Justice John Roberts.Asserting "America's possibilities are limitless," Obama declared that a decade of war is ending and the country's economy is recovering. Obama suggested he would dwell on the "common good" and the "goodness, the resilience, neighbourliness, the patriotism" of Americans. "America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation," the 51-year-old president said. "What we are celebrating is not the election or the swearing-in of the president," Obama said. "What we are doing is celebrating each other and celebrating this incredible nation
that we call home." Here are the highlights of his speech: • Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America. • Let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. • You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time.• You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. • We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. • We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. • Decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. • Our journey is not complete until all our children know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. • Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity. • Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. • Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. • Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. • We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still. • We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully. • We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. • We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. • We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. • We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. • We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. • We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. • We, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. • We are made for this moment, and we will seize it—so long as we seize it together. • America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands • A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. • This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience.• Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people. • We have always understood that when times change, so must we. • Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune. • We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together • Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution: Obama, Source: Newsbullet
