Yes We Can... Now, Time to Prove It

Let us celebrate Inauguration Day and this peaceful transition of power by recalling the greatest patriotic speech of 2008, a speech delivered in defeat but dedicated to undying hope: Barack Hussein Obama's New Hampshire primary concession speech.

...We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land: Yes, we can, to justice and equality.

Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.

Together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can.

—Barack Hussein Obama, New Hampshire primary concession speech, January 8, 2008

And for you multimedia kids, the video version, as crafted by will.i.am and several fellow Americans who helped spread that message of hope:



This Inauguration Day is a historic and hopeful moment. Enjoy it... and then let's get to work.