Read more: Local, Jv, Martin, Obama, Dillon, Ty'sheoma Bethea
President Barack Obama says he will lead the country from a "day of reckoning" to a brighter future.
Addressing a joint session of Congress, he asked lawmakers to join him in doing whatever is necessary to restore financial stability and urged them to reform the outdated financial regulatory system.
In just the first few minutes, the President's optimism was clear, although he wasted no time getting to the heart of the country's economic crisis and addressing its impact on Americans.
"If you haven't been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day," the President said Tuesday night.
Also in the spotlight, a middle school girl from Dillon who sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama during the speech.
"I think about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina - a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, 'We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters."
