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January 19, 2009 , Washington D.C.,(Cable
Muse Network) On Martin Luther King Jr Day, less than 24 hours before his presidential inauguration, Barrack Obama
gives the American people a call to action. Joining his wife, Joe Biden and a throng of volunteers at the public, magnet Calvin
Coolidge High School in Washington D.C., Obama gave an apparently impromptu speech regarding individual responsibility
to act.
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Obama:
I will save all my best lines for tomorrow. The main reason Michelle and I wanted to come here today is just to say thank
you. Both of us contributed today in service this morning. And on a day where we remember not just a dreamer, but a doer,
an actor; somebody who dedicated his life to working, at the grass roots level, on behalf of change, on behalf of making communities
better, on behalf of bringing about justice and equality. It is fitting that all of you and hundreds of thousands, maybe more
than millions of people through 11 thousand service projects all across the country; today commemorated Dr. King and got involved
in this process of remaking America.
If we are waiting for someone else to
do something it never gets done. We’re going to have to take responsibility, all of us.
Now, I
am making a commitment to you as your next president, that we are going to make government work and we are going to make sure
that government is listening to you and focused on you and making sure that people have healthcare and that kids can go to
college and that people can pay their bills and folks are able to stay in their homes and get good jobs that pay a living
wage; that’s my job. But, I can’t do it by myself; Michelle cannot do it by herself. Government
can only do such much and if we are just waiting around for somebody else to do it for us, if we are just waiting around for
someone else to clean up the vacant lot or waiting for someone else get involved in tutoring a child. If we are waiting for
someone else to do something it never gets done. We’re going to have to take responsibility, all of us. So, this is
not just a one day affair.
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