It is going to be difficult to not get caught up in the moment of the coming week.
Polls, politicians and pundits have cluttered the news landscape with statistics and opinions. George W. Bush will end his presidency as the least popular on record. The economic outlook is bleak for 2009. The bank bailout has not stopped the bleeding on Wall Street. Retail stores are marching to bankruptcy and out of business. Unemployment continues to climb. State budgets are bracing for devastating cuts. You do not have to look far in your circle of friends and family to find someone who has been affected by our ongoing recession.
Bright lights and microphones will fill our televisions.
And, then, a moment of tranquility.
On Monday, January 19 the country will recall the memory of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., 80 years after his birth and more than 40 years after his death in Memphis, Tennessee. We have heard echoes of Dr. King on the campaign trail this past year and with good reason. Some will say that it would be opportunistic for any politician to associate themselves with a man synonymous with equality and social justice. I disagree.
Without the movement championed by Dr. King, I believe that there is little doubt that the social injustice of the 1960s would have persisted for decades to come. Would we live in a country that on Tuesday will inaugurate its first black President?
"Why are they so excited?" was a question someone asked me on Election Day in November. The inquirer was slightly put-off by the enthusiasm that people of all walks of life had for Barack Obama. The question focused particularly on the black community, where the jubilation spilled out onto street corners in neighborhoods all across the country. I struggled a bit to answer, because my level of excitement for what would be the eventual outcome of that election was much more political, and far less personal. I actually looked at the pictures coming in from colleges in Georgia that night and thought back to that question, "Why are they so excited?"
Overcome.
They were overcome with joy. They were overcome with excitement. A community identified, but not defined, by race had overcome four decades of cynicism that believed that a Dream died with a man in April of 1968. The unexpected rise of another man in 2008 to the highest office in our land stood in such stark contrast to what too many had perceived to be a mountain too high to climb. When King said, "we as a people shall overcome," he did not have to specify that black or white people will see the injustices of the world and work to correct them. We, all of us, are those people of which he spoke. And that is why we are so excited.
The challenges we face have forced us to set our aspirations high but our expectations in line with what can be accomplished in only a few short years. Tuesday, January 20 will mark the end of a time when the old administration can be reasonably saddled with what happens in the coming days, weeks and months ahead. They are effectively off the clock, and Barack Obama and his team will be held accountable for where we go from here. Indeed, a new generation of leadership is entering the White House.
Obama's background as a community organizer in Chicago helped him win an election. It will be that same strategy that can help him find the kind of grassroots support it will take to rebuild the domestic confidence and global goodwill that we believe to be essential in this new century.
Tune in not for what your news channel of choice has to say about this time in our history. It needs no introduction, and what will unfold will be a defining moment in history regardless if their microphones are turned on or not. We lift up a prayer that this President will lead honorably, be a champion for the weak, the poor and the downtrodden, be a beacon of hope. No matter your faith or creed, it is these wishes that I believe we can all support. And that is a reason to be excited.