There's a much more official-looking portrait at the White House site, but this is how I like to think of our new president: sleeves rolled up, ready to go to work.
It's been a long, long journey to today--and I'm not just talking about the length of the campaign. How fitting that the first president of African descent has been sworn in the day after we celebrate the life of a man who embodied the struggle for equality among the races in this country. Today, we can claim, rightly, that Dr. Martin Luther King's dream has been fulfilled--partially.
But as President Obama (how fun to get used to saying that!) reminded us during his Inaugural Address, one man at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can't do all the work. All Americans now bear some responsibility for getting our country on track. For shouldering our mutual burden. For offering a helping hand up and a push from behind for those who are timid. For complaining less and working more, for shouting less and listening more, for doubting less and hoping more.
The thing that strikes me during a Presidential inauguration is the renewal of the promise of this country. It is a great country, stitched together with laughter and tears, blood and sorrow, joy and promise. We have fought common enemies and fought ourselves. For more than two hundred years, we have celebrated our triumphs and suffered our losses and kept striving toward the goal of freedom for all citizens.
How fitting, then, that our new president echoed the words of my favorite president, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence:
The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
Amen. God bless you, Mr. President. And God bless America.
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