Today, we remember the contributions of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the American people, and especially to the African-American people. His dream has inspired generations, and may have been realized, at least in part, in the 2008 Presidential election.
Today, we eagerly look forward to the Presidency of Barack Obama. Mr. Obama is the first African-American to occupy the White House in real life (there has been at least one black president in the movies). He is our 44th President. He’s being inaugurated tomorrow using the Bible that was used to swear in Abraham Lincoln. That Bible hasn’t been used since 1861 to swear in a US President. Mr. Lincoln, of course, signed the Emancipation Proclamation and oversaw the bloodbath of the Civil War, which freed the black slaves.
The line of oppression that began when the first slaves were dragged to the shores of the United States and was fought over so bitterly in the early 1860s and was brought so vividly before the American people by Dr. King has come to what I hope is a Gordian knot with the inauguration of our first black President.
I wish all the best to Mr. Obama. I voted for you, Mr. President; I look forward to changing America with you.