Yes...

Up until today, the inauguration of our new President hasn't really sunk in. On that fateful November morning when we found out that Barack Obama would be the President, I found myself grateful that America had put aside petty differences such as skin color, and elected an intelligent and dynamic black man to the Presidency. I found myself grateful that the missteps and embarrassments of the past eight years would be put behind us, and be replaced by...something better, I hope. I found myself encouraged that somehow the electorate had realized the error of its ways in supporting Bush so vehemently through the early days of an ill-advised war, and had turned its back on the kind of thinking that got us there in the first place. I found myself vindicated in my liberal beliefs, that the government can be an agent for positive change if it is thoughtfully administered.

It has only been today, MLK Day 2009, that I have begun to feel the emotion of this momentous day. The interviews with John Lewis and Andrew Young, and everyday citizens of the United States who are black have allowed me to step outside my academic detachment. The joy and the pride are palpable, and as a middle class, middle aged white guy, I feel like I've been invited to the party. I obviously can't experience the same joy and ecstasy of the black American who has been told for four-hundred years that he is inferior and suddenly is empowered.

To me, the feeling is of freedom: this past election cycle completely destroyed our limiting mindset that said minorities and women were second class citizens. Of the major players this past fall, only half of the people involved were white males. And then, figure in how Obama got where he did: he defeated a powerful, respected woman who was the presumptive Democratic candidate as late as February of 2008.

The election of 2008 has opened doors. If we did the math on what percentage of Americans are white males, we'd find that 75% of Americans are white, and 49.1% are male (2000 Census figures). Quick and dirty math tells me that about 37% of Americans are white males. That means about 63% of the population had previously been left out of the Presidential discussion prior to this year. Think about how our choices and options of having great people in high positions have increased. This is exciting and liberating, and can only mean good things for our country.

And if you look at the response of people around the world to this election, you see people everywhere questioning their own governments, wondering why the same thing can't happen there. It can. As a result of what America has done this year, we can change the world.

Yes, we can.