Today was a day to remember. A day I no doubt will remember vividly for the rest of my life. All politics and opinions aside, it was truly a day of real victory for America. As I was watching the inauguration with my wife and our two young boys, I was mesmerized as the cameras spanned the crowd to see the diversity of America relishing and enjoying the arrival of the first black President of the United States.
In the last few months, many of us have been trying to wrap our brains around it, as many never thought, or at least highly doubted, for whatever reason, that this would happen in our lifetime. But today it hit me even more. As President Obama was giving his speech, a brilliant one at that, you could see behind him a handful of elderly black men and women, holding their composure yet no doubt jumping out of their skin on the inside. What caught my attention is that I looked at these folks and thought through the fact that they lived in and through the the most tumultuous times of the Civil Rights movement. And here I am, only 29 years old, thinking that I may never see the day that an African American would be president, and yet here are these men and women, no doubt scarred from the things they witnessed in their own life, and they are sitting here, in 2009, being witness to something they never could have imagined.
President Obama said it well when he mentioned that his own father could scarcely be served at a restaurant as an African immigrant, and yet here, his very own son, would become the 44th President of the United States of America. His mother-in-law wasn't allowed to be in the same house as white people when she grew up in her America, and now here she is, moving into the White House, with her own daugter, grand-daughters and President son-in-law, in our America.
Today, we did in fact witness a miracle, a major chapter of Dr. King's "dream" coming true before our eyes. But the dream has not been fully realized yet. Yes, today was one of those days that makes you proud to be an American, and proud of the progress that we are making as more and more understand and live out the fact that God shows no favoritism, but it is also a sad reminder that the reality is that it is us as people who show favoritism and choose ignorance over acceptance. We still have work to do.
Today I had my boys stand in front of the TV to take a picture with President Obama. Of course they won't remember this day, and obviously not the significance of it. But I was sitting there, watching the inauguration, and thought, "I would love to be able to show my kids a picture of themselves witnessing, in their own way, a historic moment in our country." And in all reality, this is a historic moment in the world as we know it.
So here's to America, here's to 2009, and here's to President Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriett Tubman, Jackie Robinson, Abraham Lincoln, and all Americans that stand for what God stands for: equality and freedom.
In the last few months, many of us have been trying to wrap our brains around it, as many never thought, or at least highly doubted, for whatever reason, that this would happen in our lifetime. But today it hit me even more. As President Obama was giving his speech, a brilliant one at that, you could see behind him a handful of elderly black men and women, holding their composure yet no doubt jumping out of their skin on the inside. What caught my attention is that I looked at these folks and thought through the fact that they lived in and through the the most tumultuous times of the Civil Rights movement. And here I am, only 29 years old, thinking that I may never see the day that an African American would be president, and yet here are these men and women, no doubt scarred from the things they witnessed in their own life, and they are sitting here, in 2009, being witness to something they never could have imagined.
President Obama said it well when he mentioned that his own father could scarcely be served at a restaurant as an African immigrant, and yet here, his very own son, would become the 44th President of the United States of America. His mother-in-law wasn't allowed to be in the same house as white people when she grew up in her America, and now here she is, moving into the White House, with her own daugter, grand-daughters and President son-in-law, in our America.
Today, we did in fact witness a miracle, a major chapter of Dr. King's "dream" coming true before our eyes. But the dream has not been fully realized yet. Yes, today was one of those days that makes you proud to be an American, and proud of the progress that we are making as more and more understand and live out the fact that God shows no favoritism, but it is also a sad reminder that the reality is that it is us as people who show favoritism and choose ignorance over acceptance. We still have work to do.
Today I had my boys stand in front of the TV to take a picture with President Obama. Of course they won't remember this day, and obviously not the significance of it. But I was sitting there, watching the inauguration, and thought, "I would love to be able to show my kids a picture of themselves witnessing, in their own way, a historic moment in our country." And in all reality, this is a historic moment in the world as we know it.So here's to America, here's to 2009, and here's to President Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriett Tubman, Jackie Robinson, Abraham Lincoln, and all Americans that stand for what God stands for: equality and freedom.
