Obama calls for 'new era of responsibility'

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Obama calls for 'new era of responsibility'
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called for “a new era of responsibility” in his inaugural address Tuesday, warning of continued turmoil ahead but vowing that America would rise to the challenge.

“Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less,” he told a crowd on the National Mall, estimated at more than 1 million. “It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

“Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”

Obama, the first black president in U.S. history, laid out an ambitious agenda of issues to tackle in his first term, citing health care reform, renewable energy research, education improvements and national security the most pressing items for the entire country to address.

“There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans,” he said. “Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=...