President Barack Obama launched his second term last Monday, speaking directly and unapologetically about his agenda for the next four years.
Events kicked off Monday morning with an invocation delivered by Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil-rights leader Medgar Evers, and a performance by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir before Vice President Joe Biden’s public swearing-in ceremony. Both Biden and Obama were sworn in during small ceremonies on Sunday, Jan. 20, on actual inauguration day.
Shortly after taking his public presidential oath of office on the Bibles once belonging to Martin Luther King Jr. and president Abraham Lincoln, Obama gave his inaugural address, emphasizing his policy’s alignment with the founding fathers’ goal of equal freedom for all people. “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still …”
During his address, the 44th president made history as the first president to use the word “gay” in reference to gay men and women in an inaugural address, as he declared his mission to provide equality for homosexual couples under the law.
Following Obama’s speech, singer Kelly Clarkson performed “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” then poet Richard Blanco read his poem “One Day.” The Reverend Luis Leon closed with a prayer before Beyonce Knowles took stage to perform the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Nine Harding students were among the more than 800,000 people who attended the inauguration in Washington D.C.
Junior Tiffany Perez was one of the students who watched the inauguration from the ticketed standing area. Perez said while the crowd was overwhelming at times, she will not forget how she stood among thousands of Americans in front of the Capitol building as the president was reaffirmed.
Perez said what she liked about the president’s inaugural speech was his forward-looking but history-referencing message.
“The part of Obama’s speech I liked most of all was when he made the point that we need to embrace new things to change our country for the better, but (we) should not forget the lessons of the past,” Perez said. “I think that is important.”
Dr. Linda Thompson, director of Harding’s McNair Scholars program, accompanied the students to Washington, D.C. Thompson had the opportunity to take students to the 2009 inauguration and decided to make the trip once again.
Thompson said this year’s crowd was slightly different than that of Obama’s first inauguration.
“The atmosphere, though overall jubilant, did not seem as pervasively warm and positive as it was four years ago,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she decided to attend the 2009 inauguration because it was a great cultural experience for her McNair Scholars and likely a once in a lifetime opportunity for them, and her reasoning was the same for going again this year.
“The second term of our first African-American president is still historically significant,” Thompson said. “It will be a lasting memory and an opportunity for them to someday tell their children and grandchildren, ‘I was there.'”
