President Barack Hussein Obama

This is the final post of a five-part series leading up to the inauguration.


I have found myself practically speechless. I've had a real hard time putting anything into this post today. I didn't want to simply focus on the joy of this day of celebration. I planned to discuss substance, either an analysis of President Obama's inauguration speech or a look into the challenges that confront us and will be waiting for us after today is over.

Yet, as I reflect, I wish to share the emotions that well up within me today. I got an excited call from my grown children this morning. They were on the Washington Mall at 9 a.m. with millions of others awaiting the peaceful transfer of power, plus the speech that would follow. They were there to be a part of history being made, and to share it with millions of other people. With their call I began to reflect on what it might mean.

But, what's swirling inside me? The feelings most quickly expressed are relief and joy. Relief that we finally have a new path to follow as a country. We are finally moving in a new direction. Whew! Joy for the young of our country, like my children, who will see their government operate as it was meant to. They can be a part of this process, especially with the technological advances that have quickly become the norm.

President Obama stated, "America is ready to lead again." Our government will lead by example. We will move beyond,"the recriminations and worn-out dogmas" that have controlled us for too long and rebuild our status in the world. Indeed, he offered a hand to the Muslim world, which has grown to question America, if not truly despise us. Obama is willing to reach out and mend the damage we have caused with our shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality.

Most deeply within me, my anger and pain from my childhood have had a chance to rise to the surface. And they fly out with the resounding cry of "YES!" What remains is joy, joy for an African-American becoming the leader of our nation.

You see, I have what at times is a personal flaw in that I sometimes empathize too easily. I readily cry at movies. I also literally cringe when someone is about to be stabbed on a T.V. show. My back curls before the victim on the tube is struck. I'm not sure where I got it from, but I feel the pain of others. And that pain has remained with me for all these years, ever since the civil rights movement of the sixties.

I remember the ugliness of racism in my home town. The racial slurs so easily strewn about like grass seed. The exclusion of blacks from my neighborhood and school. The crosses burned on the lawns and the nooses hung from tree limbs. The seething pain and anger have stewed within me all these years

Today can not eliminate it all. Not completely. But it's a start. As President Obama said this morning, "What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them..." Obama has not only given us permission, but more so the expectation, that we will move beyond the hurt of the past.

So, I am not crying right now. The same tears of joy I shed on November 4th have streamed down my cheeks throughout the day. Relief and joy are mixed together into a new, unnamed emotion. I see President Obama and that feeling wells up inside of me. I don't know what to call it, but I simply smile and see better things ahead for America.

President Barack Hussein Obama.

It feels so good to say it out loud.