second day

Obama presidential as inauguration festivities begin | theage.com.au

you might not understand, but I do

AS BRUCE Springsteen struck the first chords of his September 11 song The Rising, a huge cheer rose from the 500,000-strong crowd in Washington's National Mall.

They had come to celebrate the start of Barack Obama's inauguration festivities.

The setting before the Lincoln Memorial, the stage for the concert, is always spectacular. But on this day it was filled with greater meaning.

The huge, illuminated statue of Abraham Lincoln, the president who abolished slavery, looked down as the first African-American President-elect welcomed the throng to Washington. He stood at the same place where civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech in 1963.

"Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character's content," Mr Obama said.

"And behind me, watching over the union he saved, sits the man who in so many ways made this day possible."

Although his message was again a sober reminder of the difficulties facing America, Mr Obama was also optimistic, urging people to work together to tackle their latest challenges.

The theme will be repeated tomorrow Melbourne time in his inauguration speech.

"I won't pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy," he said. "It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. And yet, as I stand here tonight, what gives me the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the spaces in between.

"It is you — Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there."