PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama has urged Americans to honour the memory of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King by serving their communities.
On the day before his inauguration as the first African-American president, Mr Obama visited the Sasha Bruce House, an emergency shelter for homeless teenagers in Washington.
“One of the goals of my administration will be to make sure that we have a government that’s more responsive and more effective and more efficient at helping families. But don’t underestimate the power for people to pull together and to accomplish amazing things,” Mr Obama said.
“These young people have huge potential that right now is not being tapped, and given the crisis that we’re in and the hardships that so many people are going through, we can’t allow any idle hands.
“Everybody’s got to be involved. Everybody’s going to have to pitch in, and I think the American people are ready for that.” Mr Obama joined volunteers painting the walls of the shelter, joking that it was good practice as he prepared to move into a new house.
Earlier, the President-elect visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, which was at the centre of a scandal two year ago when it emerged that Iraq veterans were being housed in substandard conditions.
At lunchtime yesterday, Mr Obama and his wife Michelle visited Calvin Coolidge High School, where they met 300 people who were writing letters to US troops and doing other volunteer activities. “If we’re waiting for somebody else to do something, it never gets done. We’re going to have to take responsibility, all of us. This is not just a one-day affair,” Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama was due last night to host dinners honouring former secretary of state Colin Powell, vice-president-elect Joe Biden and the defeated Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Mrs Obama and Jill Biden were hosting a special inauguration party for the children of military families, featuring appearances by Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Bow Wow.
On his last full day in office, President George Bush commuted the prison sentences of two former border patrol agents who shot dead a Mexican drug dealer.
Campaigners against illegal immigration had long argued that Ignacio Ramos and José Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, had been doing their jobs and that their more than 10-year prison sentences were too harsh.
Mr Bush commuted the two men’s sentences on the grounds that they had already paid a harsh enough penalty but he did not pardon them and officials indicated the outgoing president would issue no further pardons.
Some conservatives had urged the president to pardon Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice in the case of the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. Mr Bush had already commuted Mr Libby’s prison sentence but stopped short of issuing a full pardon.