Obama promises better days

2008-12-24 19:21

Washington - President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday urged the American people in a holiday address to put their shoulder to the "wheel of history" to forge brighter days from the misery of economic crisis.

Twenty-seven days before taking office, Obama also spoke poignantly in the radio and online video message of the sacrifice of US servicemen and women deployed abroad while their young children marvel at Christmas gifts back home.

Obama said the "season of giving" should be a time for Americans to unite in a new sense of national common purpose.

"We must all do our part to serve one another, to seek new ideas and new innovation and to start a new chapter for our great country," he said.

"That is the spirit that will guide my administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction.

"That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day."

Obama, who is spending Christmas in Hawaii where he grew up, also paid tribute to US sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines and coast guard forces.

"In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child's face as they open a gift back home."

Turning from foreign wars to another huge early challenge for his administration which takes office on January 20, the president-elect raised the plight of Americans feeling the lash of the economic crisis at home.

"As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don't have a job.

"Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain."

But he ended on a note of hope, remembering General George Washington's surprise crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War on Christmas Day, 1776.

"Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people," Obama said.

"But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season - the same lessons that guide us to this very day - that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible."

- AFP