January 20, 2009, I was a witness to the fulfillment of Martin Luther King’s dream that people will judge others by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
More than twice the population of Maine stood before, behind and around the Capitol Building with more people spilling out of Metro gates like the march of the penguins and walking the streets of DC in hopes of finding a giant Jumbotron where they could watch the swearing-in ceremony.
People standing in lines to enter the Mall chanted “Yes We Did” and “Obama Obama.” The mood was celebratory, anticipatory with the air filled with energy and a sense that all of us were somehow connected. Connected as Americans with a newfound purpose.
People from Romania, Trinidad, Sweden and every state in America all acknowledged the same feeling of unity as if a wall separating us had come down. We were listening to each other as a people sharing our challenges, without an ideology that separated – for indeed the time of ideology is gone replaced with a hope that united.
The call of our new president who said that this was our country, our government, our time, ready to “begin again the work of remaking America” was heard. Only through “hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism” choosing to take responsibility as citizens and participants in our future.
It was a clarion call of 49 years ago when another young handsome man challenged the youth of America saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” That generation put us on the moon, gave us the Peace Corps, legislated an end to Jim Crow and died at Kent State as they marched to end a war in Vietnam. What will this generation do?