Change Has Come

I'm afraid that by talking about politics on my blog I might be alienating some of my friends and family members, but I just can't let this historic day go by without mentioning how excited I am about the change that has come to America. Although I was at work today, I listened to the live CNN feed leading up to the inauguration until about the time President Obama was introduced to the millions of people on the Mall, at which time I rushed into our break room to watch the actual swearing in of our new Vice President and President. I thought the ceremony, at least the part that I watched, was beautiful. I thought the President's speech was amazing. I thought the crowd was absolutely astounding. I thought the excitement and hope for the future was palpable, even just among the 30 or so people from my office who watched with me. When Barack Obama officially became president, everyone in the room broke into applause!

I realize there was a lot of hype and fanfare that went along with today's events, but if you stop and think about it, it is such a huge deal! It's so hard to imagine that less than 60 years ago, when my mother--not my grandmother or great-grandmother--when my mother was 8 years old, Rosa Parks was only allowed to sit at the back of the bus. African-Americans weren't allowed in certain restaurants and weren't allowed to drink from certain water fountains. African-Americans were discriminated against on a daily basis and it was somehow okay! For those of us who didn't live through the civil rights movement, it's hard to believe that those kinds of things even happened, but they actually happened very recently in our history! When you think about it that way, you can see why it was such a big deal that President Obama was inaugurated today! Whether you're excited about him as president or not, you have to be excited that our country has finally taken this HUGE step towards racial equality! I'm just so happy for America!

With that said, I'm personally very excited about Obama as our new President too! I'm excited to have an intellectual, humble, intelligent, hopeful, articulate person in the White House. I'm excited that we finally have a president that is respected by more than 22% of our nation and a majority of other people in the world! Hooray for our new President!