Memento - A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

Let Us Mark This Day

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Go Obama

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. "

Short but sweet. That was how Obama who was sworn in at 4 minutes past 12 made his memorable inauguration speech.

What a memorable day today is - January 20, 2009. The 44th President has now taken office and starts the work to restore hope and dignity to the Americans. The 20-minute address was so well-written. I can foresee children of tomorrow memorizing it just like Abe Lincoln's. Just a wonderful day.

With or without the fumble in the Oath of Speech, the Inauguration speech should make the Top 10 speeches of all time:

10. "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows." - Socrates

9. "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! — I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" - Patrick Henry

8. "Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future."- Frederick Douglass

7. "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." - Abe Lincoln

6. "It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people — women as well as men." - Susan B. Anthony

5. "You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." - Winston Churchill

4. "My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy

3. "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy." - Martin Luther King

2. "There is no moral issue. It is wrong — deadly wrong — to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights. I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer." - Lyndon B. Johnson

1. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan

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When President Obama said this - "Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy." - I think he made a short glance to Dubya.

George, as I write this, is now being carried to Andrews Air Base to fly them to Texas. What if he wanted to stay for the parties tonight?" :)

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The whole text of the Inaugural speech of President Obama is here.

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