The Fierce Urgency of Now
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
Rafu Staff Writer
Saturday, January 24, 2009

Barack Obama becomes the 44th president of the U.S., with a stern assessment of the challenges ahead.

Associated Press
With his wife Michelle holding the President Lincoln Inaugural Bible, and daughters, Malia, center, and Sasha, looking on, Barack Obama takes the oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday. “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met,” Obama said during his inaugural address.

Photos by MIKEY HIRANO CULRO
SS/Rafu Shimpo
Rose Pratt-Nervis of Oakland weeps
during the inauguration.

President Obama and first lady Michelle wave to the crowd during the inauguration procession on Tuesday.

Allison Vasquez traveled from Houston
to Washington for the inauguration ceremony.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki shakes hands with former
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta at the Pearl Presidential
Gala Monday night before the inauguration.

President Obama and first lady Michelle dance at the
Obama Home States Inaugural Ball at the Washington
Convention Center Tuesday evening.

Former president of the Japanese American National
Museum Irene Hirano with husband Hawaii Sen. Daniel
Inouye at the Pearl Presidential Gala.

Alcillena Wilson from New Jersey, an English teacher in Obama city,
Japan, waves the American flag as she watches Obama’s inauguration
ceremony on television at a  hotel lobby in Obama city. 

A crowd at the National Center for the Preservation for
Democracy cheers as Barack Obama is sworn in as
president of the United States on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON.–America’s 44th pres­ident brought a tone of seriousness and a call to action in his first official speech Tuesday, counterbalancing an atmosphere that ranged from over­whelmingly joyous to having an almost Hollywood feel.

Temperatures in the capitol nose-dived into the low 20s, but that did not deter upwards of two million people from packing every square inch of the National Mall to hear–and not really see, except on a few jumbo screens–Barack H. Obama forego any wallow­ing in celebration and take an almost somber stance on what lies ahead for the country.

During the presidential campaign, Obama often referred to what he called, “the fierce urgency of now,” warning that in the current state of the economy and the national psyche, the worst action we can make is no action at all.

In a moving, yet starkly direct speech, Obama wasted no time in ad­dressing the problems–notably the economic woes–that face the U.S. and how he intends to get to work on those issues immediately.

“Today I say to you that the chal­lenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met,” he said firmly.

President Obama touched upon the issues that won him the election and re­minded the huge crowd that extended al­most to the Lincoln Memorial that pain­ful sacrifices lay ahead. He invoked the tone of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy in calling the nation to service, albeit not as loudly.

“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship,” he said.

As a man of African American heritage, the historical value of Obama’s rise to the highest office in the land is inescapably potent. In attendance for Tuesday’s inauguration were several former members of the Tuskegee Air­men, a segregated unit of the Air Force’s first black pilots that trained in Alabama during World War II. Eighty-four-year-old Leslie Edwards from Cincinnati was one of those airmen, and he offered his perspective on Obama’s inauguration, from the viewpoint of a man for whom the opportunity to serve was ultimately denied by racism.

“We’re glad the democratic process has proven to be good and wholesome,” Edwards said as his hands quivered in the frigid air. “We were removed from the system by the corruption of the democratic process. Today, we’re show­ing the whole world that the democratic process can work.”

Donyale Abe traveled from Sacra­mento to bear witness to history. As she stood gazing at the west front of the United States Capitol building on Sunday, she said this is a moment that almost defies description.

“There’s never been an event quite like this, one that unites the entire world,” she said with a few tears welling in her eyes.

Her sentiment has been echoing for days here in the nation’s capital, with visitors coming from around the globe to watch as the United States inaugurates its first president of color. Strangers snapped photos with one another as preparations to the Capitol steps were being finalized. Parents told their chil­dren about the coming moment that was hundreds of years in the making. A dance group from a village in Kenya traveled to Washington to dance on the National Mall to honor their shared heritage with Obama.

The city has been jam-packed with those who want to be part of the historic event, but there have been few problems, as those visitors appear to have packed a great deal of patience. Ridership in the city’s Metro have strained the system’s capacity–ticket lines at one Red Line station Monday kept customers wait­ing for hours to buy passes to get to the Inauguration–but passengers have been predominantly courteous and helpful to one another.

With temperatures well below freez­ing early Tuesday–after a Monday that brought inches of snow — riders on the Maryland end of the Red Line packed into trains as they began running at 4 a.m.

“I can’t believe I’m actually going to see this with my own eyes,” one woman was overheard saying. She had driven 10 hours from Florida to attend an event that she said her late mother never dreamed of. “She would think someone was telling a joke if she ever heard a black man was going to be president.”