Opinion: More Obama speech reviews: The masses loved it

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WASHINGTON — Elder Lee Harris said he was a student in the Washington area and missed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s March on Washington speech because he was partying.

Vowing not to miss the inauguration of Barack Obama, whom he regards as a watershed figure like King, Harris drove up from Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday.

‘I told my congregation, ‘You never get to do over a first,’ ‘ Harris said.

Harris said he liked Obama’s speech for its global perspective.

‘I think he touched on a lot of issues not only for us here in the United States but for people around the world.’

His brother, John Harris, of Patterson, N.J., said the surprise of Obama’s speech was that the strongest reactions to it seemed to come from unticketed throngs on the Mall, not from ticketholders seated on the West Lawn such as himself.

‘The surprise came in the response,’ John Harris said. ‘It always came first from the Mall. It always started with the masses.’

-- Andrew Zajac

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