For years, black Americans saw Thomas Jefferson's pledge in the Declaration of Independence mocked by legal impediment and lingering prejudice. As the new president has often pointed out, his election does not build the colour-blind society dreamed of by Martin Luther King; still less does it perfect the union that the founders of the United States envisaged. Nonetheless it is a huge and historic advance. It stands as a challenge to other nations to live by the principles they espouse. The world, as much as the US, is not just impressed by this inauguration, it is moved – and it is right to be
巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)——一位非裔黑人父親和一位美國白人母親的兒子，成爲美國第44任總統。對美國和全世界而言，他的就職是一個振奮人心的時刻。其中部分原因在於，他是一位非常出色的人，具備一名偉大總統所需要的素質。更重要的是，因爲這個地球上最強大國家的新任領導人證明了一條美國特有的重要準則：人人生而平等。