Today I nearly cried. As someone who doesn’t remember the last time he had an actual cry, an almost cry is pretty significant. 150 years ago, a black man in the United States was denied his humanity.  50 years ago, he denied his citizenship . Today, he has become our Chief Citizen. The promises and struggles of the past are bearing fruit in the present. This is not a moment whose significance is to be underestimated.

I heard President Obama’s speech on my lunch hour. While this isn’t particularly substantive and it probably reveals a certain snobbery of  my character, I am happy to have an eloquent president whom I enjoy hearing. President Bush took folksy and home-spun too far. In his effort to sound ordinary he sounded ignorant, something unbecoming of a President. This is a small change I gladly welcome.

As far as substance, I believe the President has laid out a grand vision for the future of America, a vision rooted in its foundation. He wishes to draw a line in the sand of history, and I, for one, hopes he succeeds. I am as cynical as any toward government (and business and religion, too, for that matter), but I would gladly embrace a rason for optimism. “Love hopes all things.” I want and need help loving more.

Surely President Obama is not so naive to think the change he heralds will be complete on his watch. Rather, I believe he sees his task as one of setting a new course and of countering the inertia of previous decades. For our President I pray courage and wisdom.