Hope For Tomorrow

Two days ago, I watched the new President of the United States of America take office. He is the first African American President. He is the 44th president of this country. I watched a beautiful ceremony and a man that I respect take a very meaningful oath. And I watched all of this from the National Civil Rights Museum.

I don’t think the date of this inauguration could have been more perfect. The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. And I don’t think I could have watched the inauguration in a more perfect place. I watched Barack Obama take the office of President of the United States, while standing just feet from Dr. King gave his life to make something like that possible. It was haunting in a way. There was a power in that building that was impossible to ignore.

I feel very sorry for anyone who didn’t see the speech Obama gave. But I also feel sorry for all of you who watched by yourselves in your living room. To hear him say that we need to unite as a people and as a nation is one thing, but to hear hundreds of men and women around saying, “Amen!” is something different entirely. I could have heard that speech at home and thought what he said was a good idea, but today I felt like I was already a part of the picture he painted for us. I felt like I was already uniting with the men and women standing next to me to bring America back from the darkness it seems to be approaching. And that, right there, is what is so great about Obama. He can unite and excite people in an age where almost every other politician is disgusting them. He stands for things, and its obvious. Even if you don’t agree with him on everything you can tell that he stands for these things he says, and he truly believes them. And that’s saying something. When I look at Bush I can’t see what he stands for. He’s just there. He tries to avoid the spotlight on certain issues, but I can’t think of anything where he stands proudly in the spotlight and says, “This is what I stand for.”

There are moments in American history that I can look back on and say that I’m proud to be part of the nation that did that. There are also times that embarrass me. That’s the nature of any country. But in my lifetime I can’t think of anything that has happened where I thought, “I am proud to be in the country that this happens in.” There have been a handful of embarrassments in my lifetime, but I can’t think of anything that made me proud. Today, I was proud to be an American. For the first time in my life, I was moved by what my leader said. I stood up and clapped for the President of the United States. That has never happened before.

I also want to say that the two prayers during the ceremony Tuesday were two of the best I have ever heard in my life. Amen to both of them. And amen to John Williams for writing some music specifically for Tuesday. That was awesome.