January 20

Some thoughts about this seminal day in American history:

The peaceful transition of power.  It is so commonplace to us, since long before we were here to think about, that we sometimes forget to marvel that it has never been the norm in the world.

I've watched or listened live to seven inaugurals now.  This is the first one that brought tears to my eyes.  It wasn't even as much what he said - inspiring thoughts delivered with less fervor than we may have expected - as two ideas that kept coming back to me.  

First is that thrill that after several presidents who did not do so, we have a president who aspires to inspire us.  

Second, and far more importantly, is that the world I was born into is dramatically and permanently different.  The president, after all, is more than an office-holder, he is the face of "America" as a national institution.  Now an entire cohort of children in this country will see the face of the country, the symbol of leadership, is a black man.  For someone who grew up in the massive-resistence South, there is no greater change in our culture.  Racism is not cured, but the message of hate is going to have a harder time getting through the regular picture of the leader of the free world is a man of color.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at the other end of the Washington Mall and declared that he had a dream, I don't think he pictured a man judged by the content of his character not the color of his standing on the Capitol steps within his own children's lifetime.  That was part of why it was a dream.

And one other thing.  Name the next progressive Western democracy which will have a black man or woman as its leader.  Right now, it is as distant as it was for MLK in America.

Tomorrow the heavy lifting starts.  But today, every single person should believe in the promise that has always been America.