20 January 2009

Bless This House



"I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

John Adams quote above the mantle of the fireplace in the White House State Dining Room.



Welcome Home Mr. President




"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. . . . At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the
forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life. That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. ... This is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. ... People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again."

Full Text of Inaugural Address
Inaugural Luncheon Menu & Recipes
White House

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy America! Yesterday was truly a remarkable day. My hope is that we live up to the challenges that Prez Obama gave us during his inauguration speech.

I invite your blog readers to smile at this photo of Barack Obama tearing up some fried fish in much the same way we hope he will tear up our current recession.

peace, Villager

Travis Cody said...

It was such a wonderful experience. We got to watch the swearing in and the speech at work.