WASHINGTON: Barack Obama rolled up his sleeves on Monday and helped out at a homeless center, devoting much of his last full day as president-elect to paying tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and to the spirit of volunteerism and public service he said King represented.
Obama began the day visiting wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, his second homage to the military in two days, after a somber visit Sunday to Arlington National Cemetery. Obama was accompanied at Walter Reed by Martin Luther King III.
Monday is the federal holiday commemorating the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights icon, who for some people foreshadowed the ascendance of someone like Obama with his "I Have a Dream" speech delivered in 1963 from the Lincoln Memorial.
"Today, we celebrate the life of a preacher who, more than forty-five years ago, stood on our national mall in the shadow of Lincoln and shared his dream for our nation," Obama said in a statement. "His was a vision that all Americans might share the freedom to make of our lives what we will; that our children might climb higher than we would.
"Dr. Martin Luther King's was a life lived in loving service to others. As we honor that legacy, it's not a day just to pause and reflect — it's a day to act." He called on ordinary Americans to take part Monday in public service projects across the country and then to make "an ongoing commitment to enriching the lives of others in their communities, their cities and their country."
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