A great night

Yesterday was indeed a remarkable day. I said to someone yesterday that I felt like it was “Hello America, today is the first day of the rest of your life.” We still have so many miles to go, and yes, we heard it over and over again, but I really felt truly proud to be an American again yesterday. And I feel like we have one of our own in the White House, someone who understands our problems and has a plan for how to deal with them. I haven’t felt that way about the inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a long, long time.

And I was so proud of my kids who were so interested in it, interested in what he had to say and what it means. Although to a certain extent I think that maybe they still don’t COMPLETELY understand the significance of Obama being the first African American president. Maybe that’s a good thing. I had this discussion with my oldest son, Mike, last night. He said he gets it, but doesn’t know why Obama’s race should be a big deal. “You’re supposed to vote for the person you think is best, right Dad?” Yes Mike, but unfortunately, you still have a lot of people that don’t think of things that way. We got into a long discussion about Dr. King, Rosa Parks and the marches in Selma and other places. We talked about Brown vs. Board of Education and the whole misguided idea of “separate but equal.”Medgar Evers wife was on TV and he asked about that. We talked about the fact that poverty and oppression still exist in America, and the fact that they still do should be distasteful to us all. That it’s ALL of our problem, even if we don’t feel its effects directly. That we have great problems and we ALL need to step forward to help fix them. HE got that from Obama’s speech, I didn’t need to explain it to him.

I don’t think I’ve ever had that long of a discussion about race and civil rights and American history with him before. Obama’s election is doing that I’m sure in households across the country. That’s a great thing.

There was one more moment. He talked about his friends Aerrius, Aaron and Trey and how, while he understands that they’re black, he just doesn’t ever think about that. “They’re just my friends.” I said that’s what Dr. King meant when a he talked about a world where children are judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of him.

It was a great night. Sorry. It was a great reminder to me that, maybe in spite of myself, I’ve made a contribution to the world already. I raised a smart, compassionate and aware kid. And we’re going to need those kids in the future, a lot of them.

So, last night reaffirmed a lot of things, not the least of which was a little faith that I might have lost in myself over time. And I am leaving a legacy to the world. Maybe one of those 4 kids of mine will change the world in the future. Maybe they’ll fix it.

And Obama’s inauguration helped remind me of it. But that moment with my son was one I know I'll treasure the rest of my life.