History in the making

While at work yesterday in our first, and with any luck, our last snowfall of the year, history was in the making. I had no need to worry I might miss it because I knew I would see it in its entirety most of the evening. I suppose everyone has a reason for considering the inauguration of our first African American president historical. President Obama has a daunting task and I hope he is successful in solving the monumental problems he agreed to take on. As I watched and listened to our new President and studied the crowd as the cameras panned, I find it interesting that we, as a nation, find it so amazing that a black man is actually President. While we should be celebrating his abilities, intelligence, and youthful exuberance, we, instead seemed to be celebrating his accomplishments in spite of his skin color. Now don‘t miss understand my position. I think we have made tremendous headway since Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Maybe not as much progress as some would like but headway nonetheless. That he is of African decent should simply be coincidental. He is not the first or only Black man who is intelligent enough to be President but he is the first who brought his case to the American people and was able to convince the majority of his credibility. Let there be no mistake. He will make good decisions and bad decisions just as all humans do. He will have successes and failures just as all Presidents have. He will not be as popular with some people four years from now and he will be more popular with others just as all Presidents have become. I hope he helps us work our way out of the financial crisis we find ourselves in and he manages to bring some measure of peace to areas we are not at peace with presently. I guess my greatest hope is he will be truly historical and the next election will find individuals running as Americans without the labels of “African“, “white“, “man” or “woman“. It is historical, even if sad, that we finally seem to have elected a President on what we think they might be able to accomplish without letting race or gender hinder our responsibility as voters.