The 44th President of the United States of America was sworn in today in a what could be considered one of the most historic moments in the life of our country. In my lifetime, I can remember a colored section on the city buses, where some of our own citizens were relegated to a back seat in our society. Today, for the first time, we have a black man at the head of our country. This day was a fulfilment of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of a country where people are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the quality of their character. In 1968, I never thought I would see this day. People claimed then that they would vote for a qualified black man, but the reality was that race discrimination was deeply embedded in our nation's psyche. When Dr. King spoke, the climate in the Capitol was tense and filled with fear that the thousands gathered on the mall might turn on the authorities. Here, a short 40 years after that speech on the national mall, Barack Hussein Obama took the Oath of Office in the same place again with a large police presence, but this time, the police were there to protect those assembled from outside threats instead. In 1968, relations between the races came close to destroying our country and the fabric of our nation, today our differences unite us. Whether you supported President Obama in the election process or not, you have to admit that this is a historic day.
3 comments:
Thank you for your comments. I feel the same...wondered if I'd ever see this day. I'm really happy I did. I hope Obama can just do half the good things he wants to. Now, wonder if we'll ever see a woman president??
I watched the whole thing today, and it was very cool! I'm glad to live in this day and age.
My husband and I were talking about how to us it just doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But then we realized that the way we feel is why it's such a big deal. It doesn't matter that he's black. (But it does, does that make sense?) Discrimination will always exist on some level, but in my lifetime I never saw what you did. I don't personally realize how far things have come, but I'm glad that I live in a time where we've realized that all men are created equal.
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