A Day of Hope

Today is a day of hope, as many who are watching the inauguration just as I, are feeling. For today we are watching as a man whom can only be described as a hero becomes our next president. It strikes me that we have been waiting for several years now for a reason to have hope and the events of the day and the last few months give us hope. It seems that there has been nothing but bad news for the last few years and then a man steps in who encourages change, even demands change, steps to the podium and asks us to believe.

I watched as my grammar school was integrated, I watched as the first black teachers came to my school, I watched as two Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated and wondered what it meant. Today I watch as another square in the quilt of history is sewn and I do know what this means.

I remember a conversation with a friend earlier in the summer when we were discussing the presidential candidates and who we were going to support. The question was asked, “Can a black man be elected president?”

I replied, “I don’t know.”

But from that moment on a change came on me, a willingness to hope, that regardless of a man’s color, regardless of his religion, a person could be elected on his ideals. That day I became a believer. With that belief came hope.

It is my hope today that we remember it is up to us, the ones that put this man into office to continue to work, to continue to hope and to believe. It is a time for us to continue in action. The man we have elected has more responsibility than I can imagine. But we have a responsibility also, to continue to work; for a united America, for a world of peace, for a world that loves and believes.