I Have a Dream...

On August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed his infamous speech I Have a Dream. Today January 4th, 2008 a part of that dream was fulfilled in Senator Barack Obama's election as the 44th President of the United States of America. President Obama was 2 years old when that I Have a Dream speech rocked our nation and the world. He could have never imagined that he would be the first African American President in the history of the United States of America or that he would be the dream others had hoped for.

Know I am not writing this blog because I supported or even opposed Obama (or McCain), if you must know I actually voted for an independent candidate. And respectfully I do not need to know who you voted for and perhaps you did not vote for Obama either. But, no matter what you think of his polices, voting records, values, whatever; you cannot deny the history that was made today. 54 years ago racial segregation was ruled unconstitutional in public schools by the US Supreme Court and 53 years ago, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama - and today a Black man won as president with a White man as vice president (I use those terms to make illustrate point, not to be racially offensive). This could not have been imagined 50+ years ago. People who could imagine it never thought that they would see it in their lifetime. As Martin Luther King, Jr. opens his speech "I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history..." I too am happy to see this day come.

And the day is not over. Those who voted for President Obama now must hold him to his promises that aid the flourishing of humanity and challenge him on the ones that do not. Those who voted otherwise must give the President the respect that is due to him and to be the hope President Obama strives to bring to us individually, as a nation, and as a world. This is not the end, but only the beginning...